The Kick-off meeting of the project SPARC, “Creativity Hubs for Sustainable DeveloPment through the VAloRization of Cultural Heritage Assets”, co-funded for 2.4 million euro by the Interreg V-A Greece-Italy Programme 2014-2020, was held on 11 and 12 July in Patras (City Hall).
Municipality of Patras is the lead beneficiary of this project in cooperation with two Greek partners, the Region of Western Greece and the Chamber of Achaia, and two Italian partners, the Public Apulian Theatre Consortium and the Puglia Region – Department Economy of Culture, Tourism and Territory. Associated partner is Public Benefit Corporation of the Municipality of Patras – Patras Carnival.
Sparc project, financed under Priority Axis 2 – Integrated Environmental Management, aims to valorise the cultural and natural heritage by increasing the level of attractiveness of the territories involved, through the development of a close collaboration and synergy among tourism sector, cultural and creative industries (CCI), local SMEs, and cultural and natural assets management, fostering innovation & growth.
Through Sparc project, three Creative Hubs (2 in Italy, and 1 in Greece) will be implemented, dedicated to the development of the creative and cultural sectors by enhancing the artistic, managerial, marketing and networking skills of the cultural and creative operators.
The strategic approach of Sparc targets two issues: A) to enhance the magnitude and the importance of the dynamic sector of Cultural & Creative Industry and B) to develop a concrete strategy of cross-fertilisation of the specific cultural assets with other economic sectors (such as, local typical handcraft and agro-food products, tourism, Management of C&N assets, etc.) in order to develop new tourism products and services of high added value that may promote the regions involved as top level Sustainable Tourism destination.