LeCake Train awarded by Paris City
The LeCAKE Train project was awarded the Paris Europe Label by Arnaud Ngatcha, Deputy Mayor of Paris with responsibility for international relations, Europe, and the French-speaking world, at a ceremony at the Hôtel de Ville on Saturday 13 May 2023. A round table presented the project and discussed the links between Europe, ecological issues, and artistic creation.
CAKE is a European project for sustainable cultural innovation. It stands for Common – Art – Knowledge – Europe: CAKE.
It is supported by Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships.
In 2023-2024, LeCake Train’s first objective is to mobilise seven European cultural organisations associated with a think tank in a process of ecological transition.
Recognising that this is a long-term process, the organisations want to equip themselves with a common base of knowledge, skills, and resources. In this way, they will be “equipped” to lead their transformation.
For their programme, the partners have defined 4 themes to be explored and transformed into teaching modules:
1. The first chapter concerns international benchmarks (Green Deal, New Bauhaus, UN17, IPCC) and will run from October 2022 to April 2023, serving as a reference tool for the following three chapters, from May 2023 to September 2024.
2. proposals from the Shift Project think tank and its programme for decarbonising culture, in a version adapted to small European cultural organisations
3. agile models as drivers of innovation (fablabs, living labs, hackathons, etc.)
4. artists’ proposals for creative tools capable of stimulating future European cultural and sustainable projects.
The project will take place in 6 cities across the European Union, with the support of associated partners. These partners have in common that they link artists to the general public and students/schoolchildren in their activities.
La Transplanisphère, the project coordinator, will be running both face-to-face and online activities in Paris.
Planned activities in Paris :
– design of teaching modules in collaboration with Sciences Po Paris,
interviews and meetings with Parisian experts..,
– workshops with Parisian educational establishments,
– meetings in Paris with European partners,
– events to promote the results of the project
Partners in Paris and Ile-de-France
A number of local Parisian partners will be involved in these activities.
SAS, the Paris Saclay art-science centre. This centre for research and exchange between artists and scientists, a project of the Métonymie company, has already collaborated with the Transplanisphère. As a partner in the project, it will be helping to design and evaluate the teaching modules, involving Parisian experts, sending participants to the workshops and organising promotional events in Paris to publicise the methods developed to the general public and teachers.
The Shift Project (Jean-Marc Jancovici) (Paris 9e). This think tank works to promote a carbon-free economy, and in particular created the “Decarbonising Culture” report, which highlights the environmental impact of culture and proposes a set of measures and solutions for a more responsible cultural sector in the future. As a partner in the project, it will be supporting the approach with the skills of experts in environmental matters. It will ‘translate’ its work relating to the cultural sector as a whole, so that its values can be assimilated by small structures operating in a variety of European contexts, and ensure that its tools have a generic value so that they can be used by others.
SciencesPo Paris (6th arrondissement). Since 2010, La Transplanisphère has been running collective projects with students in the Master 1 Public Affairs programme. The students come from all over Europe. Bruno Freyssinet, artistic director, also teaches in this master’s programme. As part of the Cake project, a group of students has been working with the Transplanisphere team since October 2022 to design and test the 4 sequences of the first educational chapter (international references). This will then serve as a model for the next 3 chapters. In 2023-24, a second team will work on chapter 3: agile models as drivers of innovation (fablabs, living labs, hackathons, etc.).
La Sorbonne Nouvelle University (12th arrondissement). A group of students (Masters in Intercultural Project Management) will help to test the first sequence of the first teaching module, which will then serve as a model for all the following modules. In 2023-24, a second group will test the following modules.
Relais Culture Europe (10th arrondissement). Since 2012, the company has been associated with the French desk for the EU’s Europe Creative programme for culture. Together with RCE, we organise communication campaigns and promotional events for projects aimed at institutional players and cultural players in Europe and Paris.
Unesco (7th). The company has been a member of the Club Unesco since 2019. It presents its work to the other members and to the teams of the embassies based in Paris. Here, LeCake will be reaching out to cultural diplomacy audiences who can then apply its methods to their networks in France.
European partners
5 European cities will be involved in the project, thanks to the 5 European artistic companies partnering the project.
Ohi Pezoume – Urban dig project, Athens (Greece). The company has already collaborated with this organisation on a public space creation project in Athens in 2015. It will be taking part in designing and evaluating the teaching modules, involving Greek experts, sending participants to the workshops, and organising a promotional event in Athens to publicise the methods developed to the general public, teachers and NGOs working with migrants.
Teatro Rigodon, Rocca Sinibalda-Rieti, Rome region (Italy). The company is already working with this organisation on a project looking at the relationship between migrants and Europeans through artistic creation (Trust Tour). It will be helping to design and evaluate the teaching modules, involving Italian experts, sending participants to the workshops, and organising a promotional event in Rieti to publicise the methods developed to the general public and teachers. This partnership links the project with a rural population in the vicinity of the Italian capital.
Ex Quorum, Evora (Portugal). The company has been working with this organisation since 2014, in particular on the Polart Circle project, which led to the creation of video MOOCs on the link between art and politics from 2016 to 2019 (polartcircle.com).
It will be helping to design and evaluate the teaching modules, involving Portuguese experts, sending participants to the workshops, and organising a promotional event in Evora to publicise the methods developed to the general public and teachers.
Pro Progressione, Budapest (Hungary). It will participate in the design and evaluation of the teaching modules, involve Hungarian experts, send participants to the workshops and organise a promotional event in Budapest to publicise the methods developed to the general public and teachers.
Consol Theather, Gelsenkirchen (Germany). It will take part in designing and evaluating the teaching modules, involve German experts, send participants to the workshops, and organise a promotional event in Gelsenkirchen to publicise the methods developed to the general public and teachers.
6 associated partners in these cities will also contribute to sharing, testing and evaluating the teaching modules:
Valyó, City and River Association, Budapest. HU
Fesz, Association of Independent Theatres of Hungary, Budapest. HU
Agenda 21 Office, Gelsenkirchen. DE
Kultursekretariat NRW. Network of cultural organisations, Gelsenkirchen. DE
City of Rieti. IT
Village of Rocca Sinibalda. IT