I_Improve is a cooperative European project. The partnership consists of 6 members from the River//Cities platform: Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Poland and Lithuania. The common framework is promoting audience engagement through culture, especially in waterfront areas. Its priorities are social inclusion, open and innovative practices in the digital area, and adult education. The changing European and global context is bringing new challenges to communities. If not addressed these challenges can result in the growth of radicalism and damage social cohesion. Fostering audience engagement in the arts and culture, however, promotes - intercultural dialogue - social cohesion - democratic engagement The Arts broaden perspectives and encourage mutual understanding. In other words, the Arts have the ability to engage with citizens, both established and newly arrived, through cultural and creative interventions. Therefore, there is a clear demand for new and innovative practices and formats, hence requiring different competences from the staff of cultural organisations (e.g. detecting community needs and turning these into opportunities, specialised skills for peer groups, digital skills, the need to share knowledge, …) Through I_Improve ; - Staff members of cultural organisations get the opportunity to discover their individual strengths/potential and gain insight into ways of contributing to the success of their organisation. They acquire a new perspective on various ongoing projects and on connecting with audiences involved. - Directors of cultural organisations learn to detect needs, and find a means to connect with policymakers - Authorities and organisations gain access to sustainable urban waterfront projects, including detailed information and processes The strategy for achieving this utilises an informal educational approach to learning (i.e. modern workplace learning). To instigate this situation I-Improve introduces an external actor into the working environment of the partner organisation. These external actors, called ‘Changemakers’, demonstrate innovative means of addressing socially diverse audiences and offer unique insights into the positive social effects of the organisation’s creative output. The role of this ChM is paramount for this specific project, and he/she has a proven track record of turning ideas into actions, and a clear insight into a range of participatory processes (e.g. engagement of/ communication with varying social demographics, conflict management, co-creation, …). Digital technology is an integral part of the project. Through the update of a digital platform on creative and participatory waterfront interventions (IO1), and a digital learning environment (transmedia resource, IO2), I-improve promotes new attitudes towards the utilisation of ICT for professionals in the cultural sector. Cultural organisations need to join forces when facing current social challenges. Being able to share and learn from peers in the same working field throughout Europe can strengthen the professionalism of its staff members. On a European and global level strong teamwork, connecting competences, and sharing responsibilities and workload are factors that contribute to citizen education and intercultural dialogue.
The project I_Improve was a strategic partnership for adult education which ran between 2018 and 2021 and focused on innovative practices for training in the cultural sector. The overarching goal of the project was to raise cultural organisations capacity to engage with audiences and more effectively work for social inclusion through the arts and culture, especially in waterfront areas. The project worked towards this goal through the development of an informal educational approach which could address capacity gaps in the workplace of the contemporary European cultural sector through, as opposed to as a supplement to, the organisation’s daily tasks. The partnership consisted of 6 members from the River//Cities platform: Intercult, Sweden; the City of Oostende, Belgium; Wiener SPÖ Bildung, Austria; Venti di Cultura, Italy; River//Cities, Poland and Laimikis.LT, Lithuania. The arts and culture has had a valuable role in promoting intercultural dialogue, democratic engagement and social cohesion within Europe. However, to stay relevant to a changing European social context, pressing environmental issues and technological advancement, there was an expressed and perceived need for change and innovation in both the internal processes of cultural organisations, and the creative products being produced by cultural sector actors. I_Improve was born out of this need to explore, develop, disseminate and test new approaches within the context of a partly institutionalised and risk-averse cultural sector. Furthermore, it also addressed a need for diversifying access to training in the workplace of the cultural sector where financial and human resources are very often at a premium. I_Improve developed a pedagogical approach based on a specific way of working with external creative actors in each partner organisation. This approach foregrounded the acquirement of the transversal competences which have been identified by EU Joint Research Center research as vital for innovation. In I_Improve, each organisation implemented an innovative, local level project in response to their own environment, in collaboration with an external person/group, called a changemaker. These collaborators were chosen based on competences needed for the organisations to themselves internalise. Over the course of the working collaboration, and with the support of a dedicated informal educator, the participating staff utilised the techniques of informal education — observation, dialogue, reflection and experimentation — to gain skills, knowledge and new attitudes from their changemaker and grow as an organisation. This process, the organisation’s internal developmental journey, and the local projects, the innovative products and methods, were transformed into 3 intellectual outputs: the update of a digital platform on creative and participatory waterfront interventions (IO1); a digital learning environment (IO2), which exploited different online platforms to host and spread content; a methodology for exploring, structuring and catalysing innovations in cultural organisations based on the examination of the I_Improve local projects (IO3). Furthermore, through IO1 and IO2, and the E activities, the staff of the partner organisations became educators for change: their experience of creating innovative, socially engaged interventions, and the learning that came with this, became the point from around which the educational experiences of other organisations were built. The staff members of the participating partners reported that the pedagogical approach described above was a source of learning, ranging from inspiration to an involvement which significantly increased staff’s competence development. In addition to transversal competences, digital skills and knowledge grew exponentially for all partners through I_Improve due to a requirement to contribute to the digital platforms of IO1 and IO2. The majority of the local projects developed under the I_Improve umbrella are now in the process of being scaled up thanks to the support of local decision makers, achieved through multiplier events and stakeholder engagement. It has been unanimously reported by the participating organisations that I_Improve has changed their attitude, identity and/or processes. Overall, I_Improve partners discovered and disseminated that experimental, complex, high-risk projects drive informal learning, and ultimately, organisational change. This signifies the cultivation of an entrepreneurial attitude that is envisioned to have a long-term impact in how these cultural sector actors plan and implement actions in their environment. This and other learnings have been directed towards other actors in the sector and public authorities through multiple online platforms. Here we have shared the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind cultural interventions on European waterfronts as well as promoted new approaches to organisational learning within the cultural sector.