Dr. Mariann Szabó, thematic leader gave a presentation in Ourense at the final dissemination event of the Interreg Europe project “Keep On”. The final event of the Interreg Europe project “Keep On” entitled “Effective policies for durable and self-sustainable projects in the cultural heritage sector” was held from 8 to 9 February 2023 in the Spanish city of Ourense, Galicia. The aim of the final event was to present the results and the policy impacts of the institutional action plans formulated on the basis of the experience of European international cooperation. The project involved partners from Spain (INORDE – Institute for Economic Development of Ourense Province), Portugal (ADRAT – Development Association of Alto Tâmega’s Region), Italy (Langhe Monferrato and Roero Development Agency), The Netherlands (Municipality of ‘s-Hertogenbosch), Poland (Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship – Marshal Office of Świętokrzyskie Region) and Greece (Municipality of Paggaio) with a Croatian advisory partner (Institute for Development and International Relations, IRMO). During the implementation of the project, the partners identified good practices that serve as examples in cultural heritage management, whether it is the efficient development of monuments for better energy usage or the provision of new functions, novel crowdsourcing solutions, community cooperation. The action plans used a variety of solutions to improve policy instruments related to cultural heritage management: modifying the focus of operational programmes and fine-tuning local development plans were among the results as well as the implementation new projects.
The researcher of our institute, thematic leader of the project, Dr. Mariann Szabó was asked to present the results of the “Local Flavours” project implemented in the Interreg Europe programme on behalf of the Institute of Advanced Studies. During the implementation of the Local Flavours (aimed at developing authentic tourism based on cultural heritage) and Keep On projects, the partners cooperated with each other: a joint thematic workshop was held, the Croatian advisory partner participated in the thematic panel of the 2021 Kraft International Conference, and Dr. Mariann Szabó with her doctoral student published an article – ‘Redevelopment of Brownfields for Cultural Use from ERDF Fund—The Case of Hungary between 2014 and 2020’ (available here: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/15/4/181) – in the thematic special issue of Economic Sustainability of Culture and Cultural Tourism, edited by the Croatian advisory partner. In the presentation, Dr. Mariann Szabó described the partnership, the patterns in the policy instruments and the impact of COVID-19 on the implementation of the project. In her presentation, she also recalled the three most cited good practices in the action plans, of which the Dutch good practice (Participatory approach Spoorzone) was presented by Huibert Crijns, a representative of the municipality of ‘s-Hertogenbosch – the municipality was involved in both projects. Besides the Spoorzone case, the Day by Day Summer Program in Kőszeg and its surroundings (HU) and The Area Brand of the Thematic Didactic Parks of the Alta Marca Trevigiana (IT) have been introduced. The Good Practices identified can be accessed here: https://projects2014-2020.interregeurope.eu/localflavours/good-practices/.
Dr. Mariann Szabó and Dr. Viktória Józsa published an article about the Interreg Europe Local Flavours project in 2021 entitled “Cultural Heritage Valorisation for Regional Development” (available here: http://unipub.lib.uni-corvinus.hu/6832/), and currently they are working on a new, comprehensive study about the project.
