Forum for Creative Europe

On Thursday 26 March the Forum for Creative Europe will take place in Prague. Organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic in collaboration with European Commission, the conference is one of the main events of the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009. With over 50 speakers, artists, policy makers and practitioners from Europe and outside the Forum will be an opportunity to make the case for creativity in a world in turmoil.
Lia Ghilardi will be among the speakers and in her presentation she will discuss how cities can be more creative in the way they deal with competitiveness by focusing on their unique DNA defined across urban, social, human and cultural capital.

To follow the Forum live please go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J526Q-Wczbc
www.forumforcreativeeurope.cz/en

Cultural Planning and Cultural DNA: A Sustainable Approach to Placemaking

A large gathering of members of the Union of Baltic Cities took place in Turku (Finland) on the 24th to the 27th of September 2008. The main subject of the event was the discussion of how to find the cultural DNA of places. Inspired by Lia Ghilardi, participants (mainly from the planning and urban development disciplines) spent two days documenting the distinctive character of Turku. The results of this work will be disseminated in a report which will be ready in December.
For information, please contact: Samuli Saarinen, Environmental and City Planning Department,
Master Plan Office,Turku
samuli.saarinen@turku.fi

Gävle Conference

The auditorium was full on the opening day of Konstcentrum’s seminars on cultural planning and art in public space. Artists and people working in cultural fields from all over Sweden mixed with interested local residents and international guests.
Lia Ghilardi, founder and director of Noema Research and Planning Ltd in London, talked about her method of mapping places from a cultural perspective. She began by cautioning against large architectural flagship projects which are often at risk of becoming " a second-life architecture for fantasy cities"...

Read more at: www.gavlekonstcentrum.se