SYNOPSIS is Storytelling and Fundraising for Cultural Heritage professionals
Cultural heritage covers a variety of activities, and a system of values, traditions, knowledge, and lifestyles that characterize a society. Article 167 of the Treaty on the Function of European Union (TFEU) underlines the necessity to protect and enhance the culture of Member States, and the need to look after their common cultural heritage.
The has become one of the priorities of European policy-making, as set out by the Work Plan for Culture of 2015-2018 and “Innovation in cultural heritage research” (2018). Cultural heritage is also regarded as playing an important role to overall European GDP. According to the 2016 edition of Eurostat, cultural jobs in the EU contribute more than 6 million jobs, or 3% of total employment rate. France, Italy, Spain and Germany account for over half of the total number of EU cultural enterprises.
Cultural heritage is not only a significant creator of job opportunities in Europe, but also “a key component of the attractiveness of Europe”, as it affects the tourism sector, an important part of the EU GDP.
The heritage sector has to deal with new challenges and it is therefore necessary to develop new professionalism, able to promote and support cultural heritage as it improves not only the overall economic growth and employment, but also social cohesion and environmental sustainability.
Storytelling and fundraising skills assume a fundamental role in connecting the past to the future. Cultural Heritage storytelling is concerned with “communicating through stories”, creating narratives through which a cultural heritage enters into an emphatic relationship with people, managing to arouse public emotion. The purpose is to engage people to protect, exploit cultural heritage, and support it financially.
Storytelling will help professionals design new strategies of communication and also to adapt to new media that can be used in educating people as well as to promote culture and art. Therefore, SYNOPSIS will develop outputs to support professionals in being able to craft stories that portray cultural heritage values towards increasingly attentive and aware public.
Specific Objectives
1) Definition of a new professional role, the Cultural Heritage storyteller and fundraiser.
2) Development of creative and innovative training, able to support cultural heritage sites to promote and engage the public, and raise funds for their own development.
3) Improve the employability of young graduate humanists
4) Improve the competitiveness of EU cultural heritage organisations, managing cultural heritage sites by enhancing its heritage.
The main target groups are cultural heritage organisation managers and staff, VET providers and trainers, young graduates and policy makers and public institutions managing cultural heritage sites.