REVIVE project was inspired by the NEB movement and co-funded through the Creative Europe programme. Project consortium of six partners from six European countries were committed to addressing the challenges of declining historical towns and transforming them using the power of Cultural and Creative Industries. The new REVIVE project was coordinated by the Association of Historic Towns of Slovenia.

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Our goals were to: 

 

• develop and test innovative sustainable and inclusive solutions for reviving old historical towns and sites based on intercultural and cross-sector experimentation inspired by cultural heritage,

• nurture young creative talents and build competences for innovation and participatory co-creation based on sustainable principles,

• promote cultural values, potentials and perspectives of declining historical towns as future sustainable and inclusive living places.

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Between November 2023 and October 2025, REVIVE integrated knowledge and experience from six countries and cultures in a cross-sectoral approach, to explore the challenges of using cultural heritage as an inspiration, including young creative minds in enriching communities and experimenting with new living models, designs and approaches in declining historic towns and sites. This was achieved through physical and virtual experimentation in four selected specific urban sites, each facing their own challenges common to many cities, towns and villages across Europe: 

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Tržič (Slovenia) -  visioning of an open derelict public space in heritage settings in Tržič, which stimulates and engages new generations and people from different cultural and social backgrounds into exchange and interaction (market, meeting point).

Iași (Romania) - the palace and its challenging underground space, containing the industrial heritage which is to become a space for cross-cultural exchanges, with creative presentations of individuals and communities from different nationalities who have over the centuries found home and prosperity in Iași.

Cellino Attanasio (Italy) - the project intervention was focused on a former unused theatre space in the historical centre, which was converted into a multi-functional and inter-generational public space available for creation, design and implementation of new artistic and cultural contents reviving the community.

Turku (Finland) - use of video mapping on the outer part of the longest building in Turku as a new approach to revival of industrial heritage (the previous function of the building became visible on its outside) – the intervention connected the past and present and engaged the local people to encourage reflection and raise awareness.
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REVIVE was exploring topics of sustainability in heritage through living public spaces, digital technologies, arts and crafts and intercultural dialogue. Young talents who participated in the live experiments in four countries were chosen on the basis of the open call, launched in January 2024. They prepared for the on site work during the online bootcamps, while the general public was invited to join the open capacity building online seminars on the above mentioned topics throughout the project. 

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As partners, our role was distributed through project communication and dissemination activities (WP4) and support in specific tasks related to visioning and experimentation (WP2). We were responsible for the design and facilitation of online meetings, bootcamps and capacity building events open for public on specific topics related to the revitalization of cultural heritage; leading the process of attracting and involving young creative talents and ensuring the visibility of all project activities by presenting the results to a wide audience.