The ‘Capacity Building for European Capitals of Culture’ project was initiated by the European Commission to support capacity building and peer-learning activities for European Capitals of Culture (ECOCs).

The objective of the group is to bring together ECOCs delivery teams and stakeholders (experts, cultural and creative industries, cultural institutions, organisations and associations, etc. ) with a view to facilitate cooperation and stimulate discussion about main challenges, problems and opportunities for ECOCs (former, current, future ECOCs).

Traces&Dreams has collaborated with Interarts Foundation and Entcact to produce 25 podcasts and summaries of the workshops.

Find the podcasts here
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capacity-building-for-european-capitals-of-culture/id1585342875

Here is one of the trailers:

Interview with Sylvain Pasqua

And some of our videos:

What are the digital challenges and opportunities for future ECOC’s cities?

How can we become better in audience development?

Academy Camp 1 – Audience development

In the current media landscape, in which young people are exposed to multiplying perspectives, the question of how knowledge is created, disseminated, and consumed is ever-more important. Young people need the ability to recognise bias and identify fair and trustworthy sources of news and information. Further, as the digital world becomes increasingly atomised, and much of social and civic life takes place online, many young people risk disconnection and isolation from the local, national, and international communities.

Fair News approaches these needs by seeking to empower high school students through an enhanced understanding of how media information works, based on a collaborative and learner-led approach. We aim to develop knowledge of how to navigate complexity and embrace ambiguity, developed from the principles of Theory of Knowledge and Media and Information Literacy.

Beyond learning in isolation, we will create broader connections between young people, to enhance their understanding of their reality, and to offer them spaces where they can experiment with and experience a knowledge community.

Traces&Dreams AB is the methodological partner focusing on developing the curricula regarding the theory of knowledge and social media literacy.

Traces&Dreams AB developed and coordinates the Future Narratives Project.

By harnessing the power of narrative, we can imagine and create a positive and sustainable future for ourselves, our communities and our world.

Future Narratives is a transnational project involving youth organisations and stakeholders across Europe, co-funded by Erasmus+. Our goal is to engage, connect, and empower young people, enabling their voices and their vision to reach out to policy-makers, public administrations, civil society and other young people all over Europe.

Based on the UNESCO concept of Futures Literacy, the capability to decide why and how to use our imagination to introduce the future into the present, we believe that the power of storytelling can enable us to reimagine our pasts, presents and futures.

Through our digital platform, you can follow our learning journey as we create and curate content on narrative, storytelling and future literacy. We will share knowledge, innovation and dialogue, for young people, youth organisations and all those interested in using narrative to reimagine our future together.

This is an Erasmus + small-scale project with 2 partners:
Fondazione Near Onlus e Traces&Dreams AB.

Fondazione Near Onlus started in 2012 il bullone, a monthly newspaper created by the B. Livers, young people with serious chronic diseases, by students and volunteers.

Il Bullone, however, is not a journal about the disease, but is a journal that authentically tells today from another point of view.

The newspaper promotes the social responsibility of individuals, organizations and companies. Next to the director is Sofia Segre, editorial coordinator: “This activity serves to exorcise fear and look to the future with confidence and optimism. A newspaper written by our kids who have seen life pass before their eyes and today they want to see it straight in the eye. But a search for essentiality”.

“The ideas on the topics to be covered and the people to be interviewed are chosen by the students during the editorial meeting or, as we call it, the report meeting. – comments the director Giancarlo Perego – Initially they focused on their doctors, then they began to range on professionals, entrepreneurs, visionaries capable and strong in their knowledge. They do high-level journalistic work, they tell stories by teaching us long-time professional journalists, too often locked up in our own castle, a great lesson: that of authenticity, not to beat around the bush, to get straight to the problem and to out write with respect total sensitivity of those who live or have lived experiences of illness.”

The project is about bringing the experiece of il bullone from Italy to Sweden and plan for an European edition of il bullone.

Many islands – One community is coordinated by Traces&Dreams AB, which cooperates with youth organizations in Estonia, Greece, Malta and Portugal that are based on an island.

It will involve 60-80 participants aged between 15-25, with the aim of using storytelling as a way to develop young people’s creative, social and digital skills in while promoting inclusion and sustainability at a range of levels – environmental, cultural, societal and European.

Activities include:
– training of youth workers, online and in Greece (9 months);
– development and implementation of a course for young people through local labs, an online pilot course and a transnational LTTA in Brussels (14 months);
– creation of a digital platform for education, for an ongoing community and for disseminating participants’ insights (24 months);
– dissemination of results (18 months). It is intended as a transferable and developable model at the European level.

MERITA – where chamber Music, cultural hERI tage and TAlent meet is an online and offline platform that increases the visibility and circulation of emerging European string quartets by innovating and improving the sustainability of the music industry increasing access and participation in cultural activities promoting European cultural heritage strengthening connections between local and European culture, and between online and offline engagement.

Winner of the Creative Europe – European Platforms 2021 and co-funded by the European Union, the project’s development lasts 3 years and is run by 17 cultural institutions from 12 European countries. It involves 38 string quartets for a total of 152 artists.

Through the digital platform, MERITA will showcase artists, present cultural sites and historic houses, educational materials, networking and content for the public, panel of online and on-site activities, i.e. trainings, artistic residencies, transnational and international circulation of young artists, studies and research.

The platform also allows new audiences to be brought closer to classical music and places of historical interest. It aims to become a reference point for (young) chamber musicians and practitioners, forming the basis for a new and lasting business model.

Traces&dreams AB is the partner in charge of the digital platform, and co-responsible for the communications strategy, the online training and the content creation.

Traces&Dreams AB developed and coordinates the Future Narratives Project.

By harnessing the power of narrative, we can imagine and create a positive and sustainable future for ourselves, our communities and our world.
Future Narratives is a transnational project involving youth organisations and stakeholders across Europe, co-funded by Erasmus+. Our goal is to engage, connect, and empower young people, enabling their voices and their vision to reach out to policy-makers, public administrations, civil society and other young people all over Europe.

Based on the UNESCO concept of Futures Literacy, the capability to decide why and how to use our imagination to introduce the future into the present, we believe that the power of storytelling can enable us to reimagine our pasts, presents and futures.

Through our digital platform, you can follow our learning journey as we create and curate content on narrative, storytelling and future literacy. We will share knowledge, innovation and dialogue, for young people, youth organisations and all those interested in using narrative to reimagine our future together.

In the current media landscape, in which young people are exposed to multiplying perspectives, the question of how knowledge is created, disseminated, and consumed is ever-more important. Young people need the ability to recognise bias and identify fair and trustworthy sources of news and information. Further, as the digital world becomes increasingly atomised, and much of social and civic life takes place online, many young people risk disconnection and isolation from the local, national, and international communities.

Fair News approaches these needs by seeking to empower high school students through an enhanced understanding of how media information works, based on a collaborative and learner-led approach. We aim to develop knowledge of how to navigate complexity and embrace ambiguity, developed from the principles of Theory of Knowledge and Media and Information Literacy.

Beyond learning in isolation, we will create broader connections between young people, to enhance their understanding of their reality, and to offer them spaces where they can experiment with and experience a knowledge community.

Traces&Dreams AB is the methodological partner focusing on developing the curricula regarding the theory of knowledge and social media literacy.