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.