European Creative Hubs Network was a two year project led by the British Council in partnership with 6 European creative hubs – Bios in Greece, Addict in Portugal, betahaus in Germany, Nova Iskra in Serbia, Creative Edinburgh in UK and Factoria Cultural in Spain – and the European Business and Innovation Network. The project was co-funded by the European Commission.
We supported the participation of six creative hub professionals from Turkey to the European Creative Hubs Forums in Belgrade, Athens, Sheffield and Brussels to contribute to encourage networking and collaboration between hubs across Europe.
‘European Creative Hubs Network proved the power of connectedness. Bringing an inspirational network of creative hub professionals together not just provided inspiration to broaden our outlook, but also exchange of knowledge and experience resulted in new partnerships and programmes. We are now looking forward to building on the success of ECHN together with the new ECHN leadership team.’ Atılım Şahin, Community and Prototyping Lab Lead, ATÖLYE.
‘British Council not just supported Originn’s participation to European Creative Hubs Network, but also offered enriching opportunities to help us strengthen our international connections. Through the forums, we exchanged knowledge and experience and met with inspirational creative hub professionals. For such a new concept for Izmir and even Turkey, meeting so many new people and finding out about new hub models broaden our vision for Originn. As a result of the peer to peer programme, we have observed new income and business models, which we have already applied at Originn.’ Esra Gönen, Co-Founder, ORIGINN.