Piotr Michalowski

Summary

With a background in cultural studies, cultural diplomacy, project management, musicology and diploma in music performance, Piotr is a researcher, consultant and expert in culture, heritage and social participation, with a special focus on urban-rural cooperation. He is a Board member of European Network of Cultural Centres ENCC Brussels since 2015 (co-chairmen in between 2021-24), a Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe programme expert (since 2022), an expert of the UNESCO International Fund for Cultural Diversity IFCD (since 2024). This is completed by different assessor roles, within the DG EACEA of European Commission (e.g. COOP, CERV Town Twinning programme), Rapporteur and External Expert Evaluator of the EIT Culture & Creativity, Goethe Institute Brussels (Culture Moves Europe programme 2023-25 & 2025-28, and the Creative FLIP 2025 programme). Appointed in June 2025 as the URBACT IV External Assessment Panel member of the Transfer Network 2025 programme. He is also a validated URBACT Ad Hoc expert in design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities, within the thematic expertise of Culture, Participative governance, Social innovation, and Strategic urban planning.

Experience as an expert, advisor and a project manager: 
He is working in the international environment already from 1998, when he started the first international cooperation project. Given the up-to-date expertise, gained within over 120 implemented projects, he has been actively supporting the participatory approaches, fostering meaningful connections and have been sharing experiences and practices, which underscore the importance of inclusivity and representation. Moreover, he focuses on local creative ecosystems, creative hubs, community engaged research programmes, Citizen Science, micro-granting (cascading grants). He shares expertise in Horizon Europe projects, deriving from participatory governance of cultural heritage, the New European Bauhaus NEB principles, supporting the coherent development of neighborhoods. As a strategic development advisor, he was responsible for needs diagnosis, evaluation, ideation and mapping - both in urban and non-urban communities. He is a cultural researcher publishing numerous texts, and list of the latest issues is available at the ORCID platform.

Piotr has an overall working experience of 23 years for the NGO sector, 15 years for public sector and experienced in working inside the creative sector for 10 years – by running sole proprietorship Micro Art Center Piotr Michalowski (CCI) providing solutions for PR, international event management, art productions, providing cultural and strategic advisories for institutions, public sector, NGO’s and companies. Owner of the Micro Art Center, a sole proprietorship dedicated to cultural consultancy, leadership, expertise in culture, excellence in science and artistic productions. Company has been supporting international event & project management, art productions for theatre and music, strategic advisory for institutions, public sector, NGO’s and business sector. He has been working on the intersection of civic participation, Arts and democratization - for over 22 years. As an expert on creative economy he was preparing reports, pre-feasibility studies for e.g. creative hubs or creative economy center in Athens (2022) or for Road Map for establishing creative hubs in the Western Balkans region for the Regional Cooperation Council in Sarajevo (2022-23). Since 2016 he is coordinating the ENCC Working Group on non-urban culture, which is a dialogue platform including cross-sectoral participants. Since January 2025 he is also a moderator of the European Rural Pact Community Group on Culture and Creativity in Rural Areas.

He is also a Creative Programme Lead at the MuseoSpace Foundation in Leiden, the Netherlands, which stands for Social Innovation and Culture-Driven Innovation. The Culture-Driven Innovation framework enhances the development of responsible innovations across all institutional levels, and realizes the potential of museums (and cultural bodies) as transformative spaces, both in the technological as well as in the cultural aspects. Moreover, he is a Member of professional bodies: Global Committee Member – EdHeroes Committee on Cultural Heritage in Education (since November 2024), member of the Committee on culture of the world organization of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), Advisory Board member of the project called SPARSE plus – Supporting and Promoting Arts in Rural Settlements of Europe plus (a Creative Europe project, 2024-26). Awarded by the “Transgressive Innovator Prize” in 2024 by Le Salon de la Sagesse (London). 

Experience in working for municipalities:
His working experience in the Municipality of Wrocław (Poland, European Capital for Culture 2016), as main specialist in Wrocław Center for Social Development (2018-19) brought expertise in education & training, urban renewal of disadvantaged neighborhoods, local educative initiatives, human capital development, awareness campaigns). As a Coordinator for culture (2019-21) at the Cultural Division of the City of Wroclaw enabled him to expand on cultural policy and management, and provided an important framework for utilizing the experiences gather also in the rural contexts. He was initiating public consultancy schemes in order to bring social input to cultural policy and management organized around implementing SDGs, social economy, community-led local development, integrated urban development programmes and revitalization of cultural heritage sites, supporting arts, entrepreneurship, public consultations, city branding, public relations. Activities were targeted to reinforce of the flat governance structures, which are enabling to the higher extent – the active participation and sense of ownership among the community members. The strategic, cohesive, sustainable, fair and just urban development - has been his main focus, also by following the legacy of the ECoC Wroclaw 2016 policies, on empowering neighborhood councils, on distribution of power and by providing social consultancy schemes on various topics - that included support for artists during COVID pandemic, which was recorded by the UCLG Observatory of Good Practices. To that end, the participatory processes legacy of ECoC Wrocław 2016, were exemplified and described in the Good Practice called “Wroclaw 2016, leading to participatory, sustainable and culture friendly city" – a publication resulting by the special mention made by the UCLG Culture Committee of Agenda 21 for Culture Mexico Award 2021. The urban-rural linkages supported my balanced focus on territorial development and decentralization policies within the municipality.

He was also developing activities deriving from the Community Engaged Research methodologies, which allows to develop meaningful and productive research partnerships that are capable of strengthening relationships between universities, nations, and organizations. Those methodologies (and Arts-based methods) have been widely used in his work, as tested ways to involve citizens in a genuine way within participatory activities, both in urban and rural settings. His gained experienced in several (urban and rural) communities is supporting the deeper understanding of the social innovation, which is also a bond between the urban and non-urban context. As Head of the Cultural House in the Community of Oleśnica, he has explored rural-urban linkage, cultural policy and management, supported lifelong learning programmes (for elderly and youth), and was responsible on the capacity building projects. Therefore, he has been inviting various experts to co-design various projects with them. He authored various publications in that specific focus of urban-rural connection, e.g. Arts in Rural Areas (2020) together with IETM network, or Vital Villages book (2017) with the University of Hildesheim.

The outmost projects in the portfolio (coined and applied in cooperation with municipalities and public institutions):

• 1st example is a completion of the project in Wroclaw (PL), called "Pannier Bastion - Heritage Monument in Wrocław (Poland) as a Creative Economy and Community Center" / Promesa No 01/2021/994/”Polski Ład” Programme 2022
  The project was applied to EEA grants in 2020 (Culture strand), while finally it was financed by the /”Polski Ład” Programme 2022. The project enable fundraising of ca. 4 million EUR for the revitalization of a valuable cultural heritage in the heart of the city – the Pannier Bastion. Overall cost with the city contribution: over 7 million EUR.
  Success factors:  
  -The project involved strategic planning in cross-sectoral team including architects, urbanists, landscape architects, archeologists, project managers etc. 
  -The quality of preparations was also ensured by cooperation with local business consultants, 
  -Involvement of the sociological mapping, supply-demand analysis, future use simulations, 
  -Conceptualization of the activities supporting future civic participation and engagement into various events and sustainable projects,
  -Building through participatory practices of the large group of local stakeholders (including inhabitants), who were supporting the at the later stage, the content development of the Bastion’s programme.

• 2nd example is a 12-million EUR project entitled "Protection and increase of tourist attractiveness of underground excavations of the Coal Mining Museum in Zabrze (PL)", supported by the European Funds for Infrastructure, Climate, Environment 2021-2027 Priority FENX.07 Culture, Measure FENX.07.01 Infrastructure of culture and cultural tourism for the project. The programme is managed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. 
  Success factors:
  In between 2025-29, those funds will enable to prepare new underground walkways, routes and waterways, will enhance the underground mining experience for tourists, and will expand on the cultural and educational offer of the Museum. What is worth mentioning, the strategic international cultural cooperation with various partners is covered by the project, that is why the Coal Mining Museum in Zabrze will greatly expand on its transnational ties and will deepen the exchanges of practices & know-how on sustainable tourism solution, advanced digitalization strategies, participatory, inclusion and diversity policies, including New European Bauhaus and the Triple Transformation.  

Experience in strategic management and cultural diplomacy:
The cohesive approach to strategic development, was leading him towards the synergies with international peers in coining policy documents. He has prepared in a participatory models: some Manifestos (Culture for Smart & Shared Territories), policy papers (e.g. Beyond the urban, coined together with CAE, TEH, and IETM), ENCC Strategy for development (2021-25). Another example is the participation in the formation of the “Porto Santo Charter”, created within the Portuguese Presidency in the EU Council, with its 2025th Young Persons Addendum, to which he also contributed. He was actively contributing to conceptualization of e.g. “The New European Agenda for Culture” (2018), and he has been involved in three Voices of Culture structured dialogues with EC (2015, 2020, 2021) - since the first session in 2015 on the "Participatory governance of cultural heritage". He was also a speaker at multiple local, international and global conference, e.g. at Voluntary Arts Summits by the Daegu Cultural Foundation, South Korea (2015), at the 3º Congreso Latinoamericano de Cultura Viva Comunitaria and IberCultura” by “Cultura Viva!”, Quito, Ecuador (2017), “Satellite Wales” 2018 conference of IETM in LLandudno, “Culture Crops” 2019 in Kreuzlingen-Konstanz of CAE, VI CHAM Lisbon (2023), ACMC Vienna (2024) or VIII Ruralities Forum organized by Cultura y Ciudadania of the Ministry of Culture of Spain, as a pathway towards MONDIACULT 2025.

Experience as a researcher:
The specific know-how derives also from the Horizon Europe-funded projects, where he is a researcher, like “IN SITU. Place-based innovation of cultural and creative industries in non-urban areas” project (2022-26). The project is focused on mapping, making use of a mixed method approach (qualitative and quantitative techniques) using an array of participatory approaches (e.g. participatory cultural mapping, participatory SWOT analysis, futures studies methods, collaborative knowledge building and exchange approaches, arts-based methods). To this end, the ENCC has included into the IN SITU the experience gained within ENCC UpGrants cascading funding scheme, operating since 2021. Those seed-grants are also contributing to the general know-how sharing on how the seed grants may support micro-scale pilots in the local context, support the development of creative ecosystems. He has been also part of the selection committee for the UPgrants since 2021. The treasure box of almost all submitted projects can be found here. He is also a researcher within the “HeritACT” (2023-26) Horizon Europe project, which is supporting social participation and resilience through cultural heritage. HeritACT considers cultural transformations driving sustainability and is exploring new cooperation paths among relevant stakeholders, interested in designing a new European way of life in line with the New European Bauhaus. The project is focusing on measuring how the access to cultural heritage experiences contributes to social cohesion and inclusion, by strengthening the sense of belonging and improving well-being.

Since 2021 he is closely cooperating on the research basis with the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, and since July 2025 he is a Research Associate of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Institute of European Studies, acting at the intersection of cultural studies, anthropology, and cultural heritage, with particular lens on local creative ecosystems supporting local leaders in their own communities. Since 2023 he is providing courses for students, especially on the Management of European projects in the field of culture and on Cooperation of local governments in the sector of culture and national heritage. Through this University, he has also established a close cooperation with UNA EUROPA Alliance - on a participatory governance of cultural heritage with Sorbonne Paris-1 University. In 2023 he has conclude Polish-French project on new models and roles of heritage and accommodating cultural & artistic practices in heritage sites, especially in former abbeys and sanatoriums and with a focus on of private entities, private donors who (apart from state-funded facilities and projects) try to organize cultural activities in the cultural heritage sites. This project is implemented in partnership with the ACCR France (Association des Centres culturels de rencontre). 

Experience as a workshop leader:
“Cultural heritage and periphery. Analyzing the role of cultural heritage in the (urban) peripheries from the perspective migrations and global mobilities (PeriMob)        
Project leader: UNA EUROPA Alliance 
Workshops held at the Jagiellonian University – Krakow, Poland in the frame of UNA EUROPA Alliance Una-Her Chair & Transnational Research Teams (TRT) on Cultural Heritage Academic Year 2022-2023, paper: Kinga Anna Gajda, Piotr Michałowski, topic: Heritage Activation Through Engaging Experiences Towards Sustainable Development.

- “Cultural heritage and local population involvement in (urban) peripheries”        
Project leader: UNA EUROPA Alliance 
Workshops held at the University of Edinburgh in the frame of UNA EUROPA Una-Her Chair & Transnational Research Teams (TRT) on Cultural Heritage Academic Year 2022-2023, paper: Kinga Anna Gajda, Piotr Michałowski, The role of bottom-up work with the local society in (re)newing the museum towards establishing creative and cultural ecosystem, connected to local heritage in/of the peripheries – the case of the Museum of Chorzów.

As a research project co-coordinator:
Democratizing Cultural Participation: An International Analysis of Innovative Practices Supporting Youth Engagement and Intergenerational Collaboration in Cultural Heritage (2025)   
Project leader: Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Institute of European Studies
The main aim was to establish an international, interdisciplinary network of researchers and practitioners dedicated to promoting youth and intergenerational engagement in cultural heritage, while advocating for the democratization of cultural participation. The project facilitates collaboration across Finland, Poland, Greece, and the Netherlands, examining and comparing inclusive, non-hierarchical practices in cultural heritage initiatives, each with its own methodology, cultural context, and community involvement.

Latest publications:
▪ Michałowski Piotr, Gajda Kinga Anna, Heritage as a Catalyst for Societal Transformation: Towards Viable Local Creative Ecosystems in Poland and France [in]: Culture Crossroads, Journal of the Institute of Arts and Cultural Studies, Latvian Academy of Culture Vol.26/2024, (published on 14/02/2025)  DOI: https://doi.org/10.55877/cc.vol26.504   
▪ Michałowski Piotr, Gajda Kinga Anna, Local community involvement in the protection of the rural/peripheral heritage in the urban context, [in]: García-Hernández, M., & Gravari-Barbas, M. (Eds.). (2025). Cultural Heritage on the Urban Peripheries: Towards New Research Paradigms (1st ed.). Routledge. https://www.doi.org/10.4324/9781003477884-13   
▪ Michałowski, Piotr. "Spaces of cultural action: Focusing on working in and with communities, in public spaces, urban districts or rural areas, or across borders." The Handbook of Cultural Work. Ed. Christos Carras London,: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2024. 41–48. Bloomsbury Collections. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350359499.ch-4&gt    
▪ Michałowski Piotr, Times of Change: The (Non- )Commemoration of Heritage Within the Context of Poland after 1945 and the Former German Cities – Case Studies of Wrocław and Contemporary Museums in Germany Dedicated to the Memory of Migrations, edited by Gajda, Kinga Anna, (Berlin, Germany: Peter Lang Verlag, 2024), https://www.peterlang.com/document/1493798

More is available at the ORCID platform.

Briefly about the obtained education:
MA in cultural studies (University of Wrocław 2007), MSci in cultural management (Lower Silesian University for Public Services 2010), MSci in cultural diplomacy (Jagiellonian University 2021), certified expert of international project management & local strategic development for cultural institutions (European Diploma 2011 of Association Marcel Hicter & National Centre for Culture in Poland), musician by profession (Wroclaw School of Jazz 2011). He has completed the BA programme in musicology (University of Wrocław 2008). Certified moderator of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation (2013), certified trainer of the Design Thinking methodology (2021) and a trainer of the Polish National Center for Culture since 2011. He has also completed creativity courses at Stanford University, CA (2014).

You are all very much invited to connect, to establish a dialogue, and to cooperate!