The project “Empowering Museum Professionals and Heritage Organizations Staff by cultural entrepreneurship training and research” has the objective to develop the entrepreneurial skills of Museum Professionals taking into consideration, at the same time, other core tasks like conservation. Hence the concept of “cultural entrepreneurship”.
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 by network building, fundraising, creating new ways to involve the public – is becoming increasingly important as a way to stay healthy.
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 the following:
– to define the cultural entrepreneurship concept, contributing to its 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 among 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.
The partnership comprises 5 organisations from The Netherlands, Italy and United Kingdom.
More info at training@ciape.it