How to explain the work-in-progress of a project consisting of so many angles, with so many objectives and with so many people involved?
As a European Horizon project this can get as complex as you can imagine, but we have created this “Internal Flow” section as a way to open our internal work and learning processes far beyond the people and teams directly involved in the tasks.
We’re doing this because the EMCCINNO community goes well beyond the consortium laying out the initial foundations. To put it bluntly, it extends to all the people who profoundly believe that it is culture and the arts –either because they practice them as artists and creators or because they live them as member of a cultural initiative or event–that allow us to reach our transformative potential. That enable us to be better
people and citizens. That make space for us to enjoy ourselves without the urge to produce or consume. Ultimately, that improve the experience of being human on our planet.
This rootedness in a specific place (our planet) makes it impossible to overlook the urgency we are experiencing. Each of us will live this differently but it is certain that only together will we be able to drive any meaningful change.
This change begins with the small, the local, which is why EMCCINNO is rooted in five experiences of arts and culture across five countries in Europe, accompanying them in their efforts to imagine and contribute to creating regenerative futures.
This change begins in the act of listening. This is why EMCCINNO focuses on cooperative methods and learning exchanges that range from webinars, onsite visits, glossaries, a community of practice, a reading club, connections with other projects, panels at international conferences…
This change begins with the commitment to critical thinking and joy. This is why EMCCINNO combines action research and experiential learning to question what we know and then dare to propose testable alternatives. This change begins with a horizon that is worth living for all creatures based on justice
and the common good.
We’re already six months into the project and many things have happened: our five transformation sites are fine tuning a well-designed set of seeds that will be planted, watered and tended over the next three years. They are doing so under the caring presence of researchers and communication experts so the effort is worthwhile for themselves and the rest of agents in the Cultural and Creative Sector. We have conducted a benchmarking exercise to understand the sector’s needs as well as the tools that exist to address them. We have launched this space and are present on different social media with the goal of featuring the life of the EMCCINNO mycelium. Our community of practice has taken its first steps via an open and horizontal group on LinkedIn that will together decide how to make the most of it when moving forward.
All of us who engage with culture and the arts, whether professionally or not; alone or in a community; sporadically or regularly; in private or in public; we are all the cultural agents of our times. And this comes with a unique sense of enjoyment but also responsibility. How do we care for the people, organizations and communities that make these creations possible? How do we unlearn things that have proven to go
against the wellbeing of humans and other living beings on the planet? How can we re-imagine ourselves as part of that planet?
Stay tuned and we’re counting on you to dive into these questions together!
