Networks and cities' news

RECUP MASTERCLASS - Grants and Beyond: Rethinking how we fund culture and creativity in cities

The RECUP Masterclass“Grants and Beyond: Rethinking How We Fund Culture and Creativity in Cities” explored how cities can move beyond traditional grant-based systems and develop more sustainable approaches to financing culture.

From Cultural policies to Reflective Cities: how RECUP is shaping a new policy paradigm

By Elisa Filippi, 

Lead Expert REinventing Culture in Urban Places ITN URBACT Network

This is how we found ourselves entangled, connected to one another in a collective performance, moving and interpreting a live artwork together.

It happened on a cold November day under Dublin’s bright blue sky. And no, we were not in a theatre. We were in the meeting rooms of Sandyford Business District (IE), one of Ireland’s important centres for innovation and industry.

We were not a group of actors either. We were experts and city representatives from six European cities, gathered as part of the URBACT REinventing Culture in Urban Places Network (RECUP).

What brought us together was a simple question: can culture become an enabling force for cities seeking to address loneliness and social fragmentation?

This is precisely what the RECUP network set out to explore, building on the good practice developed in Újbuda – XI District of Budapest (HU) through the Urban Innovative Actions project CUP4Creativity. That project tested a shift in cultural policy: from culture as something people consume, to culture as something people co-create.

Rethinking City Life Through Culture: Lessons from RECUP

What if culture wasn’t just something we attend—but something we actively build together? That question sits at the heart of the RECUP (REinventing Culture in Urban Places) network, a European initiative exploring how culture can help cities tackle one of their most pressing challenges: loneliness.

Across Europe, from Budapest to Dublin, six cities have been experimenting with this idea—turning cultural activities into tools for connection, participation, and belonging. And what they’ve discovered is quietly transformative.

III Quarterly Network Journal - When Culture Becomes a Cure for Urban Loneliness

Cities across Europe are increasingly turning to culture as a tool for strengthening social connections and improving well-being. This edition of the RECUP Network Journal explores how arts, creativity, and cultural participation can help address loneliness and social isolation, while supporting more inclusive and resilient urban communities. 

From Loneliness to Connection: How Bielsko Biała Turned Culture into a Shared Urban Experience

In Bielsko-Biała, culture is no longer treated as a calendar of events. It has become a living process that happens between people, in everyday places, and through shared experiences. This shift shaped the city’s Testing Actions developed within the URBACT IV REinventing Culture in Urban Places project’s network. 

Bielsko-Biała began not with assumptions, but with listening. Through its URBACT Local Group, the city gathered cultural institutions, artists, NGOs, community stakeholders and reprsentatives of municipal departments, to examine one of today’s most urgent urban challenges: loneliness.

Loneliness was understood not only as a personal feeling, but as a structural issue affecting many European cities. The ULG group identified several causes: weakened social ties, lack of belonging to place and community, difficulty initiating contact with others, growing individualism, digital overstimulation leading to isolation, reduced sense of safety in public space, and limited influence over shared urban environments.

This diagnosis led to the creation of the “Tree of Loneliness” – a participatory tool mapping the roots and consequences of social isolation. More importantly, it created a clear direction for action. The city chose to test whether culture, when designed as a participatory and place-based experience, could rebuild relationships between people, neighbourhoods and nature.

Highlights from the 4th RECUP Core Network Meeting in Bielsko Biała

Earlier this March, representatives from the RECUP network gathered in the vibrant Polish city of Bielsko‑Biała for the 4th Core Network Meeting. Over two days (4–5 March 2026), partners immersed themselves in workshops, peer‑learning sessions, study visits, inspiring cultural experiences, and reflective discussions on loneliness, art, and community well‑being.

Hosted by the Municipality of Bielsko‑Biała—recently named Polish Capital of Culture 2026—the meeting offered an excellent backdrop to explore how culture can reshape urban spaces and strengthen social connection.