Youth Creativity: activities for promotion and support of

Background The arts are integral to the social, civic, and economic wellbeing and vitality of our nation. Arts participation in childhood and youth has been linked to positive academic and social and emotional outcomes later in life. There are also positive relationships between art-going and other social and civic activities, such as volunteering in communities Arts and culture have experienced significant economic setbacks from COVID-19. Across the spectrum of artistic and creative endeavors, restrictions on gatherings, changes in consumer behavior (voluntary or otherwise), and severe unemployment have taken a devastating toll on the sector. The full scope and scale of the impact can be hard to discern, in part because of the size and diversity of the industries and occupations that constitute arts and culture. Art and culture are part of every vibrant community and form attractive urban environments. Artistic creation and entrepreneurship contribute to creating innovative meeting places that are buzzing with ideas, projects and cultural events. However, the cultural employment situation is complex and there is an over-establishment in several occupational areas. The massive digitalization in recent months in the culture and creative sectors is clearly not temporary and could create new forms of experience and business models with market potential. There is an opportunity for a major innovation breakthrough in terms of the deployment of state-of-the-art technologies that allow “presence at a distance” (artificial intelligence, virtual and enriched reality, Internet of Things, etc.) to build a new “experience economy”. New forms of digitally mediated, decentralized creative production allow for engagement with larger and wider communities, not only at the receiving end but also in terms of content production. This trend could lead to more inclusive and innovative forms of collective production of creative content. ‘Cultural footprint” is young entrepreneurial development project for emerging artists, which aims to develop an enterprising mindset among young artists and encourage them to take responsibility for their own success and life achievements. It applies a four-step methodology that improves youngsters skills and help them realize their first enterprising ideas: the first step is inspire them, the second to teach them practical skills, the third to mentor them and the fourth to network them and show them new horizons and perspectives. The learning by doing process is accomplished in cooperation with business incubators and entrepreneurs, who show in practice how enterprise and product process work. The project idea is about young promoting entrepreneurship individual tutoring, digital skills upgrading and creativity thinking among youth cultural workers and emerging artists (in the role of learners) and business experts (in the role of trainers) who had faced the difficulties of the post COVID-19 period in terms of cooperation, workload and financial incomes. The crises of COVID-19 had created new circumstances of work, request new models of business set-up, call for digitalization of almost all the business services though platform and tools. Additionally, it makes more urgent the problems faced by the young and emerging artists in EU and considering the self-employment status, no governmental support and wide restriction measures of their work. In addition, many well-educated cultural workers are under-employed or permanently part-time unemployed and find it difficult to develop their skills and live on their art. What is more, the new situation with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made it even more difficult for the cultural stakeholders to find employment in their respective cultural areas. More specifically, the pandemic has created a new landscape and – as culture continues to play an important role in strengthening the social community and contributing to social inclusion – cultural creators need knowledge to be ab The content of this page is published for information purposes only. The project was funded by the European Union. However, the communication about the project that is published through this page expresses the views of the project beneficiaries only and it does not represent the views of the European Union or the European Commission. It shall not be deemed to constitute legal or official notice on behalf of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for this content nor the use thereof made by any third parties. Page 2 of 5 2021-2-SE02-KA220-YOU-000049113 Generated on: Jan 9, 2026 Objectives The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic particularly threatens the future of young and emerging artists, creators and cultural operators, who are severely impacted by the enforcement of social distancing measures and the consequent postponements, cancellations or closures of events, live performances, exhibitions, museums and cultural institutions. Such a situation, with obvious differences among Member States, regions and social groups, has an impact on the possibility for cultural sector youth workers to go digital and continue their activity, particularly in cultural and creative sectors where employment is precarious. It is also an additional hurdle for young and emerging artists, writers and newly launched cultural and creative enterprises, which face competition from well-established dominant cultural and creative content providers, with possible consequences for cultural diversity as the study on the 2008 economic crisis indicates. Young people employment rate have been rapidly decreased due to the COVID crisis. They have been struggling to find inspiration, work, cooperation and funds/grants to support their work. The lockdown and social distancing measures have also made evident the importance of arts and culture for people’s mental well-being – and possibly, through the increasingly documented psychosomatic effects of cultural access, also health. The youth and emerging artists have been facing one of the biggest crises for the last century as the pandemic have created a lot of restrictions to all kind of artistic works and created the need of essential re-structure and re-born the art using digitalization, digital cooperation, e-audience and e-business tools. The project entitled “Youth Creativity: activities for promotion and support of non-traditional business models and techniques in the creative and cultural sector” was planned and created as an answer to the emerging needs of youth artists and experts in CCS to receive expert support and to re-build or start their art-oriented businesses after the pandemic. The business reality will never be the same, the youth and emerging artists should carefully revise their skills, assess capacities, brands and organize their businesses in order to reduce the risks of second pandemic situation negative effects and to adapt to the new circumstances. The current project aims to create a methodology and training handbook on business set-up for young and emerging artists, from project management, financing, audience work and personal marketing (showreels), to technical knowledge to support of youth artists in the creation of small art businesses and/or cultural enterprises and the process of creativity thinking. This will be achieved by developing relevant training solutions and materials to strengthen the capacity of youth cultural workers to strive in the current economic environment. At the same time, the project is devoted to all those young people who wish to establish their own creativity micro enterprise as a response to the crisis or unemployment. Specific objectives of the project are: • Using innovative digital solutions to increase the business and IT competences of the youth experts in the cultural and creative sector and fill the missing gaps of entrepreneurial and digital skills. • Combining innovative digital tools and cultural content in order to help the young artist in their branding and structuring process using new models of business structuring. • Using of Innovative technologies for communication and training and setting up “digital residencies” for young and emerging artists • Activities that strengthen the cooperation and networking between business and artistic Organizations, CCS and entrepreneurship sector • Creating innovative training curriculum with elements of business development and creativity thinking Activities 1) The ‘Cultural Footprint’ training programme: The project will firstly investigate the essential post COVID-19 skills for young CCSs entrepreneurs, experts and artists in