Partners

The CreaSus consortium reunites diverse expertise from top actors in the field, representing higher education, creativity, business, innovation, and policy. The project is coordinated by Fundación Banco Santander (Spain) and joined by Bari University (Italy), ENCATC – European Network on Cultural Management and Policy (Belgium), Mosaic (Greece), Zabala Innovation (Spain), WestBIC (Ireland). In addition, CreaSus Advisory Board comprises a diverse group of experts and leaders in sustainability, technology, and creative industries, poised to guide CreaSus in its mission to foster sustainable solutions.

Spain

Fundación Banco Santander

Fundación Banco Santander works in three lines of action: the promotion of culture as a tool for understanding the world, social action to facilitate the progress of vulnerable groups and education as a driver for a more inclusive, equitable and sustainable society. The Foundation offers a wide range of activities with a view to promote arts and culture in society including, among others: the management of the artworks from the Banco Santander Collection and the organization of an educational program around it, the promotion of the digital transformation of NGOs, sponsorships and collaborations with some of the biggest museums and lyrical theatres in Spain and the publishing of a prestigious literary collection. The Foundation has extensive experience in developing programmes to promote culture, social action and education.

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Belgium

ENCATC, European Network on Cultural Management and Policy

ENCATC represents, advocates, and promotes cultural management and cultural policy education, professionalises the cultural sector to make it sustainable, and creates a platform for discussion and exchange at European and international level. With more than 150 members from all around the world, the network represents all disciplines in the arts and culture, holding the status of official NGO partner of UNESCO and of observer to the Steering Committee for Culture of the Council of Europe. Accounting more than 30 years of dynamic and expanding action, the network provides a platform for serious exchange of knowledge, methodologies, experiences, comparative research and regular assessment of the sector’s training needs in the broad field of cultural management from a European point of view through a wide range of working groups, projects, activities and events. ENCATC cooperates closely with its institutional partners, UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the European Commission and the European Parliament.

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Greece

Mosaic

Mosaic is a Social Enterprise, and their primary objective is the promotion, empowerment, capacity building, audience development, and internationalisation of CCSIs in Greece, as well as the study and monitoring of the cultural and creative sector and its contribution to local development, economy, and social cohesion. Mosaic encourages cultural and social innovation and creative entrepreneurship by supporting and guiding creative business and start-ups, developing local regional and international synergies, and creating alternative ways of networking and cooperation between creative actors, businesses, and the public.

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Italy

University of Bari

The University of Bari was founded in 1925 and is attended today by about 45.000 students across the Bari, Brindisi, and Taranto campuses. UNIBA offers 60 bachelor courses, 67 master courses, and 25 Ph.D. courses. Among these, two master courses with specific profiles of relevance for this project are provided in “Governance, innovation and sustainability” and “Management and design of tourism and cultural systems”, by the Department of Economics, Management and Business Law. UNIBA has different highly interactive research centres, having connections among different Departments, and with other Universities and research organizations. The Department of Economics, Management and Business Law, responsible for the research activities of this project, developed competencies in the fields of cultural organisations, environmental management, life-cycle assessment (LCA) analysis, circular economy assessment, sustainability reporting, creative and cultural tourism, having connections among different departments, universities, and other research centres.

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Ireland

WestBIC

WestBIC provides tailored and high-level support to entrepreneurs to convert their innovative business ideas into a commercial reality, assisting them to start and scale-up their enterprises. This journey involves navigating through the stages of market and technical validation, business and financial modelling, gaining international traction and building out the team; ultimately preparing their businesses for investment. WestBIC is the Official EU Business and Innovation Centre for Ireland's west / northwest region. WestBIC has participated in numerous pan European collaborative projects – thereby facilitating good practice learning, innovation, investment, and growth opportunities for businesses, including those in the Creative and Cultural sectors.

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Spain

Zabala Innovation

Zabala Innovation is a consultancy firm with large experience in management of R&D Innovation activities and Social Innovation activities, specialised in providing project management services for projects funded under transnational collaborative programmes, including exploitation and innovation management in multi-beneficiaries grant agreements. Moreover, Zabala counts with a Social Innovation department that will be actively linked to the project. The Social Innovation department is comprised by a specialised team with large experience on activities related to support economic and social actors in the path of sustainable and responsible development, to contribute to the improvement of social results of the action of civil society organisations, to promote an ethical and transparent management in both the public and private sectors, to foster social awareness and stakeholder participation and engagement and to define and implement sustainability corporate strategies.

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CreaSus Advisory Board Members

Argyro Barata | Founder and Managing Director of Handpicked; Co-Founder of FEAST Greece; Expert Evaluator of EIT Culture & Creativity, Greece

Argyro designs interactive experiences for companies, organisations, and tourist destinations. She founded and manages Handpicked, a production company curating events in collaboration with experts in various fields. She supports and trains emerging creators in cultural entrepreneurship with sustainable practices and has coordinated programs like FEAST Greece to enhance collective impact. As a member of the Resilient Thessaloniki Group, she helped implement the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program. Argyro developed educational programs for American Tech Labs in Greek Municipal Libraries and curates content for projects using texts, discussions, videos, and podcasts. She is an expert at the European Institute of Innovation & Technology for Cultural & Creative Industries, President of Culture for Change, and a mentor on Women on Top, promoting women’s professional empowerment.

Niamh Costello | Chief Executive Officer of CREW, Ireland

Niamh is the Chief Executive Officer of CREW, The West of Ireland’s first Enterprise & Innovation Hub focused on the development of entrepreneurs in the Creative Industries, Creative Technology (CreaTech) sectors. CREW encompasses a wide spectrum, including film and TV production, virtual production, animation, gaming, content development, immersive technology, and digital design. Niamh is a founding director and board member of the Galway City Innovation District, better known as Portershed. Additionally, she holds a two-year term as a director of the Galway Chamber of Commerce and a three-year term as a director of Network Galway. Niamh also serves as the Vice Chair and Director of the Community Enterprise Association of Ireland, representing over 120 centres across Ireland. With an international career that began in hotel management, Niamh held senior roles in luxury hotel groups in Dublin, London, and Australia.

Francesca Imperiale | Associate Professor of Business Administration at the University of Salento, Italy

Francesca is an Associate Professor of Business Administration at the University of Salento (Italy), where she also stands as Vice Director of the ISUFI School. Since 2008 she has been teaching management of cultural organizations, with a focus on heritage asset management, accounting and risk management. On these topics, she participated in several research projects in partnerships with public institutions in Italy and in the Mediterranean area. In the period 2018-2021 she served as President of the ENCATC – European Network on Cultural Management and Policy.

Leticia Labaronne | Head of Center for Arts Management, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland

Following an international career in the performing arts, Leticia Labaronne joined the Center for Arts Management at the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences in 2009. Originally from Argentina, she holds a BA in International Studies (UK), a MSc in Public and Nonprofit Management (Switzerland) and a PhD on Cultural Management (Germany).

Since 2016, Leticia serves as Director of the Executive Master of Arts Management and in 2019 she was appointed Head of the Center of Arts Management at the ZHAW. The center employs seven researchers and works with over fifty scholars and practitioners on research projects and executive education. 2022 followed her appointment as tenured full Professor for Arts Management.

Leticia’s expertise extends to a wide range of topics related to the management of arts and cultural organizations, including new paths for financing and funding, performance measurement and evaluation. She is Co-principal investigator of a major four-year research-for-action project “Culture goes Sustainable: Empowering cultural institutions for the sustainability transition”

Currently, she serves, among other, as member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy and the International Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society as well as Vicepresident of the Advisory Board the ENCATC (period 2023-2025).

María Lorenzo | Project Coordinator at Gabeiras Foundation, Spain

María holds a degree in Art History and a Master’s in Cultural Management from the Carlos III University of Madrid, as well as a Master’s in Cultural Law from the National Distance Education University-Carlos III University. She has over 10 years of experience in the management, direction, and curation of cultural projects and research on cultural rights. She has contributed to various publications, expert committees, and specialised training sessions.

Paula Ráez | Culture and Sustainability Consultant at Gabeiras y Asociados Law Firm, Spain

Paula works to promote more sustainable cultural production models, rigorously quantifying the integration of cultural activities into the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. She has contributed to various publications: Equality Protocols for Audiences and Artists at Music Festivals, MIM Self-Assessment Equality Test, Music Festivals and the 2030 Agenda, Reflections on the Impacts of the Cultural and Creative Sectors. She has also taught and provided training for various public and academic institutions, and participated in numerous panels and conferences in the cultural sector.