COMMON LAB MANUAL
​SOCIAL INNOVATION THROUGH ART

​Text: Sotirios Bahtstezis

There is more and more interest in the "creative society" and the role of creativity in relation to social innovation and its own role in economic and social development (Tremblay & Pilati 2013). The case of Common Lab (CoL) illustrates the role of capacity building, creativity and innovation in relation with the arts and cultural-creative sectors. CoL comprises of two intertwined projects: State of the Arts, a hybrid conference and exhibition, and Tale of X Cities (named after the 1859 historical novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens), a series of workshops on the creative use of media, culminating in an online festival and on-site events in twelve cities across Northern Greece.

We refer here to the definition of social innovation presented in Maccallum et al. (2009), that is social innovation as a social relation, as collective agency, as empowerment. For CoL, social innovation is about improving social relations and tackling social problems as well as meeting social needs through the tools offered by art in the context of cultural and creative industries. A key driver of interest for creative industries and development is the recognition that the value of creative production lies in ideas and individual creativity. In this regard, urban areas that have rich cultural traditions and pools of creative talent lay the foundation for the further development of creative business.
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One of the main goals of the project is to help individuals unfold their creativity, and propose creative/cultural initiatives as the means of a meaningful engagement with aspects of communal, cultural life. In such a view of social innovation, ‘concerned’ people are at the interactive centre of the project and are given the means to reveal their needs and set priorities for action (Maccallum et al. 2009; Moulaert et al. 2010). Through a series of workshops focusing on digital creative media and easy-to-learn tools, individuals contribute to the cultural sector of their cities, while also flourishing as active citizens. The second main goal of the project is to empower cultural workers, policy makers and other stakeholders and offer them organisational skills which will contribute to a culture-driven urban revitalisation. Top-down approaches to planning lead often to unpopular decisions which don’t take into consideration the needs, aspirations, and requirements for growth of publics, which they want to attract. CoL offers the means for establishing links between cultural makers and publics, thus contributing to a novel understanding, conception and implementation of audience development policies in the cultural sector.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
About Common Lab
​Background
Timeline

ACTIVITIES RATIONALE 
​Tale of X Cities & media competences for community building
State of the Arts & the digital public spheres

KEY THEORETICAL CONCEPTS
​Social innovation through art
​Art for social change
​Post-industrial design
Cultural and creative industries
Bibliography

CASE STUDY: TALE OF X CITIES
​About the case study
​Tale of X Cities key results & findings
​Lessons learned & recommendations 
Model project flow
​Media productions as evaluation tool
​Digital events and communication formats