The Project
Sustainable Cultural Innovation
Through the Le Torri Club at the Torri dell’Acqua in Budrio, the Entroterre Foundation is establishing a sustainable cultural production and innovation hub. This center serves as a catalyst for cultural life in the surrounding metropolitan areas, actively promoting participation and co-creation. It is a space designed to test innovative models, nurture professional talent, and allow community needs to drive innovation within the cultural and creative sector.
The initiative, co-designed by the Entroterre Foundation, the Municipality of Budrio, and the local community, builds on the site’s existing reputation for innovative management. The project was notably recognized as one of the 20 winners of the “Laboratorio di Creatività Contemporanea VI” (formerly “Creative Living Lab”), promoted by the Ministry of Culture – Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity.
Our strategy is to redefine the approach to the entire cultural ecosystem by adopting an ethical and systemic outlook. We aim to fully integrate social promotion and sustainability goals with the essential entrepreneurial focus required for effective cultural management and organization.
An Ecosystem Model
The Le Torri Club functions as a regional hub with integrated roles, including community aggregation, creativity, training, and production. At its core lies the practice of participation and co-design, ensuring that local community needs directly drive innovation and the definition of cultural content.
This generates a virtuous cycle, encompassing format replicability across national and international networks; continuous training and professional development for young people and industry professionals; and practical experimentation with innovative management models and tools.
Project Architecture
The project structures the cultural production chain into the phases of creation, production, and fruition (consumption), based on three interconnected pillars.
Co-design Pathways
This involves the participatory planning of live performance seasons and artistic residencies, alongside the co-design of the International Ocarina Festival. These initiatives engage the community broadly to reaffirm an important part of Budrio’s cultural heritage and identity.
Creativity and Production
Live events are complemented by artistic residencies and contemporary music and record production. This artistic content blends different cultural languages and traditions, providing creative input for co-design efforts and serving as a basis for management experimentation.
Citizen involvement is further fostered through the creation and participatory production of a Community Opera.
Experimental Management Labs
This activity focuses on three strategic areas: first, training young people for professional orientation within the sector; second, establishing shared pathways with cultural organizations to optimize internal processes and functions; and finally, testing new management models to ensure the long-term sustainability of the cultural sector.
Laboratori innovativi
The training programs address the current challenges facing the sector, focusing on several key areas.
Primarily, we concentrate on impact-oriented cultural planning and programming, developing skills in public-private collaboration, coordinating collective initiatives, and measuring results at the regional level.
Special attention is paid to sustainable management across all dimensions (Environmental, Social, Cultural, Managerial, and Economic). This includes the application of advanced management models, Third Sector regulations, management control, and the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence.
Furthermore, the “Backstage” experiential program, developed in partnership with schools, introduces students to the performing arts professions through the organization of live seasons. Finally, the innovation of models and tools is constantly promoted, utilizing the Le Torri Club as a testing ground for new managerial approaches that integrate a vision and practice focused on sustainability and tangible impact.
Training activities are led by highly experienced professors and professionals in the cultural sector, including key figures from our Partner Organizations.
Network and Community
The programs at Le Torri Club promote interaction across various social and organizational segments, thereby creating a functional network for the harmonious development of society and individuals. Our commitment is primarily directed towards the Local Community. We achieve this by engaging vulnerable groups such as NEET young people and families of foreign origin, and by promoting youth self-entrepreneurship. A strategic focus is placed on exploring the relationship between cultural consumption, health, and social innovation. This effort directly aligns with WHO guidelines on the social prescribing of art and culture and involves close collaboration with local social and health services. Concurrently, the Club nurtures the Artistic Community by selecting national and international artists for residencies through public calls. This selection process is participatory, actively involving both the local community and cultural professionals This approach is made possible and strengthened by connections with a vast Community of Cultural Operators and Organizations at a national and international level.
Network Partners: Centro Coreografico Nazionale / Aterballetto, ATER Fondazione, MPDA APS/Creative Hub Bologna, Senzaspine APS, Associazione Clust-ER Create, Gruppo Fonoprint. The goal of this shared work with the Operator community is to test and replicate the developed models and tools across a multitude of regional contexts (theatres, creative hubs, managed spaces), thereby promoting organizational innovation in the sector.
Expected Impacts
The project aims to generate a significant impact in terms of cultural decentralization. By establishing new cultural hubs in peripheral areas, Le Torri positions itself as a model for a multi-functional center capable of attracting specilized professionals and boosting the attractiveness of smaller towns. A primary mid-term outcome is the expected increase in community development, fostering greater awareness of the link between individual and social well-being, health, and cultural participation. Finally, we anticipate strong effects in sector innovation: the Le Torri project is set to contribute to growth and renewal by introducing new, informed operators and entrepreneurial models rooted in sustainability and social promotion, thereby capitalizing on the opportunities offered by the Third Sector Reform.
