Over the past ten year we have seen a global development of communities of creative people convening in spaces to invent, to collaborate, to make and to create. These communities form what we now call creative hubs and they represent the creative sector in the dawn of the 21st century.
Creative hubs are platforms or workplaces for artists, musicians, designers, filmmakers, app developers or start-up entrepreneurs. They are uniquely diverse in structure, sector and services, and range from collective and co-operative, to labs and incubators; and can be static, mobile or online.
European Creative Hubs Network is a 2-year project. British Council is leading the work, in partnership with six European creative hubs – Bios in Greece, Addict in Portugal, betahaus in Germany, Kulturni Kod/Nova Iskra in Serbia, Creative Edinburgh in UK and Factoria Cultural in Spain – and the European Business and Innovation Centres Network. The project is co-funded by the European Commission, through the Cross-sectoral strand of the Creative Europe programme, and is part of the European Commission strategy on Culture in External Relations. Our aim is to help creative hubs connect and collaborate across Europe. We will build a network through a series of people to people encounters and a bespoke training programme adapted to the needs of creative hubs. We want to champion the sector, to share stories about creative hubs, about what they are and how they operate. It is our ambition to demonstrate that creative hubs contribute to the growth and the resilience of the creative sector, and to the economy as a whole.