Eurocities Network

Eurocities, in partnership with KEA, ERRIN, Europa Nostra and the Architects Council of Europe, has been selected by the European Commission to implement Cultural heritage in action, a peer-learning scheme financed by the European Union on cultural heritage to support exchanges between large numbers of cities, regions and stakeholders, thus building a broad learning community.
The project is one of the actions of the European Framework for Action on Cultural Heritage of the European Commission (setting a common direction for heritage-related activities in EU policies and programmes), adopted in December 2018 as a legacy document of the European Year of Cultural Heritage. Since 2020, Cultural Heritage in Action empowers cities and regions to strengthen their cultural heritage policies and initiatives as well as develop innovative solutions to preserve cultural heritage assets. Across the European Union, cultural heritage is an important asset for culture, economy, tourism and territorial competitiveness. It shapes identities of cities and regions, positively affects well-being and quality of life and contributes to social cohesion. Investing in cultural heritage is strategic for cities and regions. Some have been more successful than others in making bold investments about cultural heritage, and in ensuring long term benefits.

During the Eurocities Culture Forum 2021, a year when health was on everyone’s minds, this link between culture and well-being was the number-one question for cities. During this event was explored the complex relation between culture and wellbeing, the effects that the cultural experiences can have on the health and quality of life. This is a relation that each city handles differently, whether through social prescriptions for art events in London, through the ‘culture vitamins’ programme in Aarhus that aims to use cultural events to motivate people to find employment, or Barcelona’s work tackling gender inequality through culture.