Kalix, August 14, 2012
KultEn - Culture entrepreneurship
A European Social Fund project 2012–2014
Background
The starting point for this project is the high youth unemployment and young people's (16–24 years) growing interest in the cultural and creative industries. If we cansuccessfully match young people with the needs in the cultural och creative industries, it would make a huge difference for these people, for the cultural businesses and for our societies.
Employment in the cultural sector, however, tends to decrease when society needs to give priority to basic services for citizens. Instead, the new jobs in culture are found in various businesses of which some are social and cooperative. Consequently, young people need to start businesses of their own.
Project duration2012 – 2014
Budget500000 euro.
The project
The purpose of this project is to create better conditions for young people to make a living from their creative and entrepreneurial talents.
The leading partner of the project,Kalix Folkhögskola, is a school with adult students mainly in media and TV- and film production. Other partners in this project are the Swedish municipalities Kalix, Haninge and Vänersborg. Each municipality has its own cultural profile and networkssuch as music, dance, film and various forms of art.
One of Sweden’s largest and foremost educational associations, Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan (SV), is also a main partner in this project.
The project has transnational contacts in Finland.
Together, the stakeholders form a strong base of knowledge and experience. Kalix, Haninge and Vänersborg are located in different parts of Sweden and our intention is to create a physical center of culture in each of these municipalities. In addition, we want to connect them virtually to promote good possibilities for working together.
We know that creating centers is crucial. For things to happen, we need places where people can meet, both virtually and physically. A foremost example of this is Juthbackaand Music Café After Eight– our contacts in Finland
A major part of the pedagogic work at each of our centers will be performed by young people who already run companies of their own in various cultural businesses. We willengage entrepreneurs who have already made the entire journey from an idea to business. They have firsthand experience from the right line of business. Furthermore, they are creative people that can add a lot to the project in terms of designing workshops, finding lecturers who have interesting things to tell, and more. They can also be seen as mentors for the participators in the project.
If we ask young, unemployed people with an interest for culture:
- Could you make a living from your cultural and entrepreneurial talents?
We strongly believe that a common answer will be:
- I don’t know, but I’d like to try.
The aim of this project is to provide them with the opportunity to do so. We want to provide them with inspiration, motivation, new tools to work with and chances to become part of new networks.
The next step …
Parts of this project are still in the making. One issue as we take the next step, is to find a partner in Scotland go get access to the valuable experiences that you have made.
We hope that this brief presentation of our idea will be awake your interest and that we you can find time to meet with us for further discussions.
Kind regards
Jouko Järvinen
Project leader
For further information
Project leader, Jouko Järvinen, Kalix Folkhögskola
+46 70 1901569 e-mail
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