WHAT:
Cultural third places can be defined as ‘as hybrid and open spaces of knowledge and culture sharing, where the user (a visitor, reader, student, spectator…), finds his or her place at the heart of the learning, production and dissemination processes of cultures and knowledge. The cultural third places are embedded throughout their territory and position themselves between lofty cultural institutions and on-the-ground residents. Cultural third places promote a culture of experimentation, staging and coproduction of knowledges and cultures.’ (The Conversation, 2018). Across Europe, museums, industrial wastelands and cultural centers are being redesigned and transformed into cultural third places.

Œuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte, in partnership with Esch2022, has supported the emergence of three such cultural third places Bâtiment4 in Esch-sur-Alzette, VEWA in Dudelange and FerroForum in Schifflange.

The Impact Lab was commissioned to write independent final reports for each of these third cultural places.

HOW:
We have carried out numberous interviews with the key actors, analysed provided source documents and carried out extensive desktop research to develop the reports. The reports were delivered in French.

The reports cover the objectives, team, building transformation and heritage revitalisation, partners involved, target audience and citizen participation, collaboration, key events, communication, as well as first notions of impact. Impact categories include socio-cultural impact, youth impact, artistic impact, heritage impact, urban development impact, research and innovation and tourism and economic impacts. Lessons learned, conclusions and recommendations, as well as future outlook complemented the reports.

RESULT:

The reports serve as impact feedback mechanism for Œuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte and Esch2022, but also as communication and storytelling tools for the third places themselves. Also, because of the detailed and independent character of these reports, they can be used for securing further political support, attracting investors and sponsors, competing for various awards as well as applying for public funding grants.

#heritage #industrial heritage #impact