Project

Wom@rts was a large-scale cooperation and non-profit project co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme that took place between 2018 and 2021. From an interdisciplinary and cross-sectorial perspective, Wom@rts pursuaded women’s equal share presence in the Arts, in terms of visibility, promotion and access to the market.

Wom@rts aimed to highlight and support the creativity of women from a cross-sectoral perspective, focussing on – and inter-linking when possible – with the following sectors of the Cultural and Creative Industries (ICCs):

• Literature/publishing/comics
• Fine & Visual arts and (incl. printmaking, lens based media, new digital tendencies)
• Performing arts (music & performances)
• Cinema

Transversally, its vision was to include particular focus on the marketing and entrepreneurial capacity of female creatives, in particular taking into account the opportunities derived from a better use of the New Technologies of Information and Communication (NTICs) and digitization.
Female creators and artists are clear contributors to the cultural diversity of Europe, and in line with Creative Europe general objectives, Wom@rts contributed to promotion of such values.
In that framework, project was also in line with some specific objectives of the programme, such as:

• To support the capacity of European cultural and creative sectors to operate transnationally (internationalisation, networking, new business models). Thanks to the capacity building activities, creation of an e-Platform as a new business and marketing tool to promote artists, and to a mid-term strategy, Wom@rts aimed at strengthening the sector’s capacity. In particular, and in line with the priorities of the Culture Sub-programme, Wom@rts aimed at supporting actions that enabled women artists to internationalize their careers and take a better advantage of digital technologies.
• To promote the transnational circulation of cultural and creative works and operators to reach new audiences in Europe and beyond, in particular through the mobility of “Masters”, female artists in residencies, roaming of the exhibition or participation to special events and festivals.
• To support transnational policy cooperation in order to foster policy development, innovation, audience building and new business models, in particular through the Strategy and Charter.

Overall objectives of Wom@rts were to promote the inclusion of and equal share for women in the day-to-day cultural activities, recognition and markets, but from an inclusive and balanced perspective towards men, in order to avoid further discrimination. In this sense, the objective for our target group is not to be recognised as “women creators” or “women managers”, but as “creators” or “managers”.