Event

Creatures Policy makers engagement event at EU Policy Lab in Brussels

An afternoon meeting was held on December 7th 2022 at the JRC EU policy lab in Brussels with over 35 policy makers, researchers and designers from the Commission system, and others taking part with interest in both sustainability and the culture sector.

EU Policy Lab meeting in Brussels, picture credit: Joost Vervoort

Participants included people from different Directorates-General around culture and sustainability; people from the New European Bauhaus project, various people from the Joint Research Centre; and people running EU-level networks of creative practices and arts organizations. The session was hosted by Maciej Krzysztofowicz from the EU Policy Lab – a  physical space designed to foster creativity and engagement to develop interactions, processes and tools contributing to bring innovation in the European policy-making. πŸ«±β€πŸ«²πŸ§°πŸ”§ 

The CreaTures team provided an overview of key CreaTures project and framework elements. They also presented a new tool: nine dimensions to reflect on evaluation and learning in relation to creative practice and sustainable futures. Through interactive breakout groups the nine dimensions tool was validated in terms of its relevance and helpfulness to those taking part.

Visual facilitation through sketch notes by Claudio Nichele

Overall, the feedback was very positive and the process provided valuable insights about the use of these dimensions for funding and policy making. A second breakout session focused on a higher level overview of how creative practice, and its evaluation, can be part of systems level change. A broad ranging discussion identified the need for the role of creative practice as part of governance mechanisms, by creating conditions through local realities and horizontal place based approaches, both in terms of disrupting and inspiring action. Much attention was given to the importance of trust and relationship building as part of the process rather than one-off interventions. Participants reflecting on the session thought it was highly inspiring and many are looking forward to using the 9 Dimensions tool and wider CreaTures Framework. ✨