Two local events in Barcelona to explore challenges and learnings from the MESOC City Pilots experiment

Over the last months, the University of Barcelona has carried out extensive research within the framework of MESOC City Pilots, by collecting and analysing relevant cultural initiatives aimed at social transformation in Barcelona through a bottom-up approach. Through collecting questionnaires and conducting in-depth interviews with the directors of local cultural projects, the University of Barcelona has analysed 13 initiatives so far, which demonstrated a strong interest in getting further involved in the challenging process of identifying the elements that enable social change.

Starting from this perceived need, the University of Barcelona decided to take advantage of the momentum provided by the MESOC project to nurture the relationships created with the different local cultural actors, by organising two local events to further explore the challenges of measuring social impacts in the field of culture.

The first event will be held on the 11th of May at the Fabra i Coats Arts Factory, within the framework of the FAACCC Festival of Community Arts, organised by Basket Beat association. This first initiative, with title “How to achieve social impact through cultural projects: learnings and challenges”, will gather the directors of the Barcelona cultural projects that took part in the City Pilots experiment with the aim to identify the enabling factors of social transformation. The debate will explore in different round tables relevant themes such as key resources, the creation of synergies with other entities and projects, the role of contextual factors and the empowerment of marginalised collectives. 

The second event will be organised in June and will see the participation of different local actors, from the public administration to private foundations supporting cultural initiatives with social impact and the professionals leading cultural projects. On this occasion, the discussion will try to merge the different needs of assessment regarding the social impacts of cultural initiatives in order to explore the typologies of indicators that best suit this purpose.