Music, theatre, art and cultural initiatives in the suburbs and high schools of the Florentine neighborhoods and municipalities of the Metropolitan City. The “Cultural Participation” project is back, with which Fondazione CR Firenze encourages the creation of cultural activities to promote social well-being and inclusion, and enhance places of culture and public spaces in the non-central neighborhoods of Florence (and the Metropolitan City area). , Arezzo and Grosseto.
The total resources made available for participatory initiatives are 500 thousand euros, of which 200 thousand for the first time are expressly dedicated to inclusive and cultural education paths in secondary schools in Florence and the metropolitan city.
“Promoting cultural interventions in the suburbs, as we have been able to verify in recent years – comments the General Director of Fondazione CR Firenze Gabriele Gori – is essential to remove those psychological barriers and those sensations of distance and inadequacy which, together with economic and physical obstacles, exclude many people with cultural experiences. Encouraging cultural participation has multiple meanings: it serves to facilitate the inclusion of diversity, the fight against isolation, the improvement of the quality of relationships, but also to activate creative processes, to enhance the community and common goods, starting from the new generations who must be able to increasingly play a leading role within the community”.
Thanks to “Cultural Participation” between 2019 and 2023, 116 projects were supported, carried out in almost 150 peripheral places between the provinces of Florence, Arezzo and Grosseto, which have become the center of urban cultural animation: outdoor public spaces, such as gardens and green areas, streets, squares, social aggregation centers but also “formal” cultural centers such as theatres, libraries and museums in the area. The total investment for the realization of the projects was approximately 2 million 500 thousand euros (including resources invested by the participating subjects). The cultural programs involved a total of 1,300 professionals and activated 2,100 free initiatives followed by around 70 thousand people, of which almost 10 thousand young people and 6,000 children aged 4 to 12. However, there were 2,300 vulnerable people involved in the activities (people in socio-economic difficulties, immigrants, elderly people, disabled people).
The two new calls (suburbs and schools) are aimed at associations and non-profit entities that deal with theatre, music, dance, circus arts, visual arts, valorisation of cultural heritage, promotion, diffusion and enhancement of the history of literature , history and civic education, history of art and music.
Projects aimed at local communities will be evaluated based on their ability to give new functions to public spaces and places of culture, to involve citizens, throughout the entire life cycle of the project, and different audiences, from children to adolescents, from migrants to the elderly. Projects intended for schools must involve students, including through the creation of a children’s council, and pay particular attention to the accessibility and usability of laboratory activities. To participate, it is mandatory to have an educational institution as a partner and to identify reference teachers.
The activities and initiatives aimed at communities must be carried out in the peripheral neighborhoods of the Municipality of Florence (District 1 is excluded) and in some Metropolitan City municipalities (Scandicci, Fiesole, Calenzano, Lastra a Signa, Signa, Bagno a Ripoli, Campi Bisenzio, Pontassieve) but also in the municipalities of Arezzo and Grosseto, with the exclusion of those initiatives that take place in the historic centres. The educational courses will be aimed at schools in the districts of the Municipality of Florence (excluding District 1) and in some neighboring Municipalities of the Metropolitan Area, in particular: Bagno a Ripoli, Pontassieve, Sesto Fiorentino, Calenzano, Campi Bisenzio, Lastra a Signa, Signa, Scandicci.
You have until September 2nd to submit your application to participate. The selected proposals will benefit from a non-repayable contribution of up to a maximum of 30,000 euros.
For more information visit the website https://fondazionecrfirenze.it
Source: CR Florence Foundation
