Riccardo Maria Balzarotti (p), Luca Maria Francesco Fabris

The essay starts from the results of a research accomplished as a *** at the *** of the ***, regarding the chances of revitalization of the Community Cinemas owned by Italian Catholic Church through the implementation of new technologies and the reshuffle of the internal space and functions. This valuable network consists in almost 800 projection rooms, mainly located in fragile territories (rural or suburban areas, periphery of the big metropolitan areas). These cultural and gathering centers suffered in the past the appearance of big players in the metropolitan areas, the huge multiplex. They lost, together with the main function of projection room, also the role of community space used for a various typology of cultural, social and educational activities. They were, in fact, the prototype of a diffuse multipurpose cultural space.
Today, considering the social and infrastructural transformation of cities due to the advancing crisis of the big suburban space for retail and entertainment, overwhelmed by the digital alternatives, a new typology of smarter space for the collective fruitions is possible. Multipurpose, widespread, smaller, closer to the people and their social needs.
A new typology of user’s need is growing, giving relevance back to these small and diffused cultural epicenters, showing also the possibility of an impact of these community cores on a larger scale, since they are part of a well-organized network.
In this context, the Community Cinemas have the perfect concept, but they need a radical change in their physical manifestation. Four case studies has been developed with a specific focus on the use of new digital technology and new architectural devices to improve the space flexibility, in order to serve a multitude of possible local cultural initiatives.
The idea of having a capillary diffusion of social and cultural space, revitalizing the Community Cinemas network has three main strengths: the spaces are already there, they are already part of the community and they already have the vocation to host local cultural manifestations.
In the end, even if the Catholic Church owns them, they are not exclusively related to religious matters, often involving local schools, local administration and different local institutions in the planning and execution of their cultural activities.

John Davis (p)

This paper addresses policies for smart growth, illustrating how rural communities can overcome geographical and economic challenges through innovative placemaking initiatives that leverage the arts, collaborative relationships, and creativity. Both research and practice demonstrate that innovation in small communities—particularly through consultation and collaboration—not only benefits a local area but regional, state and national policy as well.
The principles of creative placemaking used in this paper are widely embraced by rural researchers and practitioners. ₁ Two rural case studies illustrate the impact of cooperative, collaborative placemaking strategies on regional and national policy. Both stress the importance of using “cultural capital,” the “stock of practices that reflect values and identities rooted in place, class, and/or ethnicity. Investments in cultural capital create or sustain the values, traditions, beliefs and/or languages that become the currency to leverage other types of capital.”₂
The first case comes from New York Mills, Minnesota, cited as a national model for rural arts and economic development work. ₃ The second case, encompassing cultural tourism, focuses on Lanesboro, Minnesota. ₄ Both towns undertook ambitious arts-based projects for economic development, gaining the support of the local citizenry. Capitalizing on the cultural wealth of their communities, both towns engaged local, regional and national interests to accomplish their goals and progressed from local innovation to national influence in creative placemaking policies and practices.

₁ James Lewicki is a national expert in place-based and project-based learning as well as the development of interdisciplinary, multi-age learning communities. He is the author of Cooperative Ecology and Place: Development of a Pedagogy of Place Curriculum (1998).
₂“Rural Arts and Culture,” in Rural Cultural Wealth Lab, www.rupri.org/wp-content/uploads/RUPRI-NEA-Lab-Coceptual-Design=September-22-2017-pdf, 3. Retrieved 1/10/20.
₃ Researchers in the National Endowment for the Arts used New York Mills to help create the Our Town Program, a creative placemaking grants program. “Successful Our Town projects ultimately lay the groundwork for systemic changes that sustain the integration of arts, culture, and design into local strategies for strengthening communities. These projects require a partnership between a local government entity and nonprofit organizations . . . and should engage in partnership with other sectors (such as agriculture and food, economic development, education and youth, environment and energy, health, housing, public safety, transportation, and workforce development.” https://www.arts.gov/grants-orgniaztions/our-town/grant-program-description. Retrieved 1/11/20.
₄Regional grant support included the McKnight, Bush, Jerome Foundations and the Minnesota Historical Society in addition to national grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and ArtPlace America.

Elisa Panzera (p)

European cultural heritage is nowadays considered as an essential and valuable resource for the territories in which it is located. Several positive spillovers are associated with the local presence of different forms and expressions of cultural heritage. One of the strongest and most recurring associations is the one between cultural heritage and identity. Being cultural heritage at once inherited from the past and a legacy for future generations, it is considered as a source of sense of belonging to a place and territorial identity. The association between cultural heritage and identity is commonly presented as socio-cultural in nature expressing its implications on - and being influenced by - society or culture in its broader sense. However, economic implications might result as well from this nexus. In fact, territorial identity and territorial identification give rise to varied feelings such as trust or togetherness but also disaffection or resentment. These elements, in turn, influence the way in which economic dynamics work leading to consequences on local economic growth. The main idea behind the present work is that the powerful interrelation between cultural heritage and identity does have an influence on local economic growth. In other words, cultural heritage plays an active role in the economic sphere through an indirect socio-cultural channel namely identity formation or identity reinforcement. After the proposal of an original taxonomy of different ways of expressions of territorial identity, an empirical analysis will be performed on European regions to quantitatively test the existence of a link between the presence of tangible forms of cultural heritage and economic growth through the identity channel. Different functioning of this mechanism according to different ways of expressions of territorial identity will be investigated.