Context
In many European countries, art and culture are subsidized by the government; however, due to the crisis and budget cuts, the amount of funds for direct subsidies is decreasing; some cultural heritage organisations and museums do not have enough funds to sustain themselves. Putting entrepreneurial skills into practice- for example network building, fundraising, creating new ways to involve the public - is becoming increasingly important as a way to stay healthy. However, this cannot go against other core tasks like conservation; this should go hand in hand. Hence the concept of "cultural entrepreneurship".
Objectives
There is a distinct need of obtaining more cultural entrepreneurship skills in the sector and putting them into practice. Although training courses aimed at the heritage and museum sectors exist in most EU member states, their availability, take-up and accreditation is not widely spread. This project aims at giving cultural heritage organizations and museums possibilities to acquire competences and tools in the field of cultural entrepreneurship.
The specific objectives are:
- to define the cultural entrepreneurship concept, contributing to the mutual understanding and recognition;
- to research the topic of cultural entrepreneurship in the member states and in the European context, and build a long-lasting strategic partnership of key education and sector organizations around a common research agenda,
- to contribute to the 'cultural entrepreneur' curriculum by agreeing on the specific elements / skills necessary and effective ways to obtain these skills; using innovative techniques within current established fields;
- to develop a cultural entrepreneurship VET training course pilot specifically aimed at staff of smaller museums and cultural heritage organizations, experiment with it in the field;
- to exploit the training course and the project results, within the partner organizations, but also Europe-wide by means of the creation of a cultural entrepreneurship online platform and community that will live on after the project.
