CulturePolis, a Civil Society Organisation founded in 2006 in Corfu, Greece, offering tailor-made services for civil society and its stakeholders for the past 17 years, has undergone a brand refresh in 2023. Our new website and updated social media (Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn) gave us a push for sharing what we care about the most. In order to do better for our communities, we have also completed our internal digital transformation and moved to newly co-hosted offices in Athens and Corfu.
Following the 15th year anniversary in 2021, our team and Board have embarked on a journey to distill and capitalize on past successful work, learn from mistakes and failures, and focus on communities and impact.
Over the past months, our active participation in both EU co-funded projects as well as national and international initiatives around Europe and the Mediterranean basin, gave us the possibility to organize open meetings, workshops, hackathons, citizen research with interviews and questionnaires for artists, citizens, and decision makers, impact analyses, info days for stakeholders and the media, and design methodologies and other management tools like our data visualization platform.
We have also attended various events, exhibitions and policy talks in our efforts to stay informed and keep up to the current sociocultural trends and needs. Furthermore we have promoted collaborations at different levels, signed new MoUs and joined the EU Pact for Skills and committed to specific indicators reaching every year.
New team members have joined our organization, and others have left for new endeavors having greatly contributed to the success of CulturePolis, while trainees have left their creative mark in our daily lives, and we are thankful for each contribution.
Our activities have happened both online and in physical gatherings in various cities and countries around Europe besides Corfu and Athens in Greece, and namely in Ljubljana in Slovenia, in Madeira in Portugal, in Cork Ireland, in Mondovi and Macerata in Italy, in Graz in Austria, and in Limassol in Cyprus. We have enjoyed the face-to-face meetings very much in the post-covid period and have regained confidence in exchanges.
One of the main efforts we have worked on this past year is to understand and crystallize the needs of the different stakeholders we work with. We have developed ideas and drafted solutions for various problems, and we want to share them with our network for enrichment and plurality. The following themes are the ones we will work on in the new year:
- CULTURE: The promotion of intercultural dialogue as a driver for social cohesion and inclusion. In this context, our work will focus on the Greek and the Arab world powered by the “Centre of Greek and Arabic Literature and Culture – K.EL.A.L.P” – kelalp.org, launched in 2021.
- SUSTAINABILITY: The promotion of cultural tourism and its relations to heritage at local, regional, and international level.
- INNOVATION: Capacity building for the Cultural and Creative sector by supporting CCI professionals in their entrepreneurial, marketing, and digital upskilling.
We already acknowledge the first results of this important turn from newly established collaborations with important organizations and institutions around EU and neighboring countries, and we hope 2024 will offer interesting opportunities for achieving our goals.
Finally, following the traditions, we invite all friends and collaborators leaving in Corfu to join us for the annual New Year “Vasilopita – New Year Cake” celebration on 31 January 2024 at 18.00 at our Corfu offices, Donatou Dimoulitsa 19, Corfu 49100, Greece.
We would be honored to exchange and work for a better society for another year.
Happy New Year 2024!