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Creative Cities in the Atlantic Arc Conference 2015

A day of transnational dialogue, discussion and a series of interactive workshops took place last week as we hosted the Creative Cities in the Atlantic Arc Conference. The aim of the conference was to trigger the development of collaborative project ideas to be submitted to a range of EU funding programmes, on the theme of creative cities.
<p>A day of transnational dialogue, discussion and a series of interactive workshops took place last week, as the college hosted the Creative Cities in the Atlantic Arc Conference.<br /></p>
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<p>Organised by the college together with Plymouth Culture and CAAC (<a href="http://www.atlanticcities.eu/index.php?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Conference of Atlantic Arc Cities</a>), the aim of the conference was to trigger the development of collaborative project ideas to be submitted to a range of EU funding programmes, on the theme of creative cities.</p> <p>Keynote speaker at the event was <a href="http://regularmarvels.com/about/francois-matarasso/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">François Matarasso</a>, a freelance writer, researcher and consultant with a 35 year career in socially engaged arts practice.</p> <p>Over the years he has worked with organisations including public bodies, foundations and universities, but above all with arts organisations whose values he shares.<br /></p>
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<p>In 2010, Francois began working on a series of creative projects that explore new ways of understanding people’s culture.</p> <p>During his talk, Francois discussed his projects on culture, cross border conflict, social isolation and creative approaches to breaking down cultural and social barriers.</p> <p>The discussions throughout the day explored the creative industries' opportunity to support economic development and social innovation in alignment with a new round of European funding that represents opportunities for partnership projects and funding in this area.</p> <p>Over the years, innovation and the use of new technologies have become cornerstones for the transformation of our urban economies and the Atlantic Arc Cities (with Plymouth, playing much more of a central role in discussions) are developing the necessary skills and expertise to help citizens achieve more widespread and sustainable growth.<br /></p>
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<p>As research and innovation are flagships in the Europe 2020 strategy, networking between the stakeholders in the sector, initially at the Atlantic Arc level then in the longer term at a European level, has become a necessity to increase the potential of the cities in terms of creativity and this conference provided a much needed platform on which to start building partnerships and attract funding.</p> <p>With Plymouth establishing itself as more of a European hub for business and visitors – in which the creative sector will play an important part – the objective of the interactive conference was to learn from each other, share best practice and form closer links for mutual benefit, both culturally, as well as socio-economically, through collaborative projects.</p>
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<p>Photographs by BA (Hons) Photography graduate Sarah Packer</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/research/supported-projects/made-eu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Find out more about our EU partnerships with our Made@EU project</a><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/research/supported-projects/making-futures" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><br /></a></li><li><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/research/supported-projects/making-futures" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read about Making Futures at Beijing Design Week</a></li></ul>