5 days + 5 events + 60 participants from 13 countries across the European continent = 1 knowledge hub for sustainable heritage

If cultural heritage was like Math, summing up the week between October 21st and 25th 2024 on St. John’s Fortress Campus in ?ibenik would be as simple as adding numbers: 5 working days filled with 5 different but connected one-day or two-day events, that have gathered more than 60 experts from as much as 13 countries across the European continent. All that amounted to the creation of atmosphere of one big heritage hub for networking, working, learning, exchange, acknowledging the achieved and planning for the successes yet to come in the heritage communities involved. Since heritage is not Math… we are in fact talking about synergizing. Synergy is defined as “interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects “.??

THE INTRODUCTIONS?

Monday 21st was all about welcomes, and the 2nd work meeting of FORTIC partners. The meeting was used to exchange the information about project progress after first 6 months of its implementation as well as planning for future joined project activities. Namely, FORTIC is the acronym of “From remains Of the war to the aRchiTecture of peace in cross-border area of Italy-Croatia“– which is the full name of 2,5 years long cross-border cooperation project funded within Interreg Italy-Croatia 2021-2027 programme. The partnership consortium encompasses: Grad Pula - Pola City of Pula - Pola as the Leading Partner and partners Juraj Dobrila University of Pula , PCI Fortress of Culture ?ibenik , Università Ca' Foscari Venezia , Comune di Cervia , Comune di Vieste and Grad Korcula . Last but not the least, the entire week of activities on St. John’s Fortress Campus is part of project activities of Fortress of Culture within FORTIC, and thus financially supported from the project budget.??

Tuesday 22nd was launched by a press conference of the main protagonists of the “FORTIC week in ?ibenik”: City of ?ibenik as the host city, City of Pula as FORTIC lead partner, EFFORTS – European Federation of Fortified Sites as a strategic partnership network and Fortress of Culture ?ibenik - the public cultural institution founded by City of ?ibenik; FORTIC project partner and EFFORTS member,? acting as main organizer and host that “glued together” all these partners in the realization of “FORTIC week”.?

THE BUILDING UP?

The day continued with learning in the Green Sustain Lab, a two-day workshop facilitated by an external expert in sustainability – Ms. Laura Orlic , founder of Artivist Company. During the first day 30 workshop participants were familiarized with “sustainability essentials and concepts” such as 3 dimensions of sustainability, UN SDGs, ESG framework, climate action, circular economy, leadership & joining forces for sustainable heritage management. It is worth to mention that the workshop participants were representatives of heritage sites who are participants of Night of Fortresses – a transnational annual cultural heritage promotional event that was first launched in 2022 as an output of FORTITUDE (a cross-border cooperation project financed from Interreg IPA CRO-BiH-MNE 2014-2020), and led by Fortress of Culture ?ibenik. The Night of Fortresses event has since had 3 editions that connected 50 heritage sites across 8 European countries; among which some participants are also FORTIC project partners and EFFORTS members.??

Wednesday 23rd, the second workshop day was reserved for planning concrete actions to make the the Night of Fortresses a platform network for sustainable event management. Namely, also within the FORTIC project, Night of Fortresses in 2025 and 2026 will be spread across Italian heritage sites and rebranded as a green-sustain event. For this reason, the second workshop day was dedicated to introducing workshop participants to existing sustainability frameworks for cultural institutions, sustainable event planning logistics and planning activities that will increase audience (visitors) engagement and emphasize the awareness on the role of heritage in sustainable development. The end result of the workshop were drafts of actions plans of each participating site (stay tuned for the 2025 edition of the event…??).??

Simultaneously, Wednesday on St. John’s Campus was also reserved for the official Board Meeting of EFFORTS association, as well as special EFFORTS “Members Space” meeting with presentations the newcomer sites joining the network and new initiatives and projects launched by the organization members. In the shortest possible “recap” of the Members Space we single out: the joining of new member from France, Normandy – Fort de Querqueville; the founding of a national branch association in Ukraine – EFFORTS:UA and the launching of ERASMUS+ project ?Resilient Fortress“ led by the Governing body of Suomelinna Sea Fortress from Finland.?

THE GRAND FINALE?

Thursday 24th and Friday 25th were reserved for the project FORTIC conference “slash” EFFORTS Annual Congress under the title “Sustainable business models for fortifications”. The working part of the event was devised as an un-conference format event. Meaning, the traditional conference format was shifted towards a more interactive approach. All participants were required to actively give inputs, share their experiences and ideas on the 4 main themes selected for processing. The 4 themes were: digital technologies in heritage valorisation, placemaking and inclusion in fortified sites, the role of heritage in education for culture and peace, and value and future of networks. Each theme was processed in 2 hour time slots. The processing included an introductory presentation prepared and given by pre-selected Topic Leaders; followed by group work of participants using different methodological approaches depending on the theme (creative thinking and team brainstorming tools, problem analysis/solving tools, devising testing actions tools and tools for instigating group discussions); and concluded by insightful and valuable sum-ups of work in groups. In the closing session of the event, the participants and Topic Leaders shared their most important insights and lessons learned during the event that can be applied to their future actions. In a general overview, the lessons learned are aligned with the messages of the keynote speech of the event: 1) sustainability of “fortified business” requires empowerment by learning and a shift towards a positive mindset among heritage organizations wanting to be the sustainability promoters and changemakers in their respective communities, 2) the path to sustainability requires joining forces in multi-level and cross-sectoral cooperation, exchange and partnerships.?

Apart from all the valuable lessons learned, and knowledge exchanged, this two-day event also had an evening component that needs to be mentioned – the “Dingle event” held on Thursday evening. Dingle is a combination of “dinner” and “mingle” that was organized for participants at House of Arts Arsen, a mixed art venue also managed by Fortress of Culture ?ibenik. The event had two important highlights. The first one is the traditional ceremony of the EFFORTS Award, given annually to a member organization whose work has significantly contributed to strengthening the network. Fortress of Culture ?ibenik has in the past been twice awarded (in 2018 and 2020), and as the host of EFFORTS Congress had the pleasure to create and present the EFFORTS Award 2024 – a “tower on the stone” sculpture made by a local artist from ?ibenik – awarded to the Governing Body of Suomelinna Sea Fortress from Finland.??

The second highlight of the evening was a pub-quiz on fortifications, prepared by the host to entertain and keep all participants thinking, wondering, guessing and smiling – which it did!?

CONCLUSIONS?

Looking at “why and how” all the activities that took place on St. John's Fortress Campus in the week from October 21st and 25th were relevant to Fortress of Culture as an institution which is highly active both in international cooperation and EU funded projects implementation, several main gains can be detected:?

• FORTIC is the first project funded from Interreg Italy-Croatia on which Fortress of Culture is a project partner; and Green Sustain Lab and project conference in ?ibenik were the first project events during which partners had the time and space to share and gather new knowledge needed for further project planning and implementation.?

• The event provided networking possibilities for existing and future Night of Fortresses organizing partners, bringing us at the same time the needed new knowledge on sustainability concepts and leading Night of Fortresses one step closer to becoming a sustainably managed and organized transnational heritage event.?

• Hosting EFFORTS Annual Congress in ?ibenik is the crown of the 6 years of dedicated work of Fortress of Culture in this European network of heritage sites. During the course of those 6 years, Fortress of Culture has successfully included EFFORTS in project implementation, launched new initiatives within the network, shared knowledge on EU projects and funding, launched projects with individual network members and took active part in the work of EFFORTS Board… Plans to host EFFORTS Annual Congress in ?ibenik in 2020 were disabled by the Covid-19 crisis; but 2024 finally enabled network members to experience ?ibenik and the city’s beautiful heritage.??

• Intertwining our national and international partners in one week of events held simultaneously at St. John’s Fortress Campus has enabled each and every organization and participant to make new connections. The participants came from the following countries: Italy, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Montenegro, Lithuania, Finland, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Belgium, The Netherlands, Hungary, Croatia.??

Thank you all for synergizing with us!