Everybody on Board II

‘Under the spell of the Baan’ is a workgroup consisting of creative entrepreneurs and inhabitants of the Rotterdam Baankwartier district. In view of all the demolition and high-rise building plans here, the work group is involved in the quality of the area, reflecting on a new profiling for the area. Since both creative companies and care institutions have been established in the area for a long time, the work group wishes to investigate the possibilities for cooperation between health care and creative professionals. To this end, the workgroup has organised a creative session with care professionals and creative SMEs together with the Research Centre Innovations in Care. This has resulted in ideas with respect to collaboration and in the start of a further exploration of the possibilities of crossovers between creative and care professionals.

The city makers congress revolving around the city making of Rotterdam offers a platform to city makers to help build the relationship between city making and city design. Part of the summit of 30 October 2015 was a well-attended and successful tour to the Baankwartier organised by the Culture Scout Centre. The focus of the tour was the mixture of urban functions that all have a place in the area. Jeannette Nijkamp of Research Centre of Innovations in Care spoke about the possible contributions of creative professionals to care innovation in the Baankwartier.

Pluspunt, together with the expertise centre for senior citizens and participation, Culture Scouts Rotterdam (Culture Concrete), municipality of Rotterdam and the National Research Institute for Culture Education and Amateur Art (LKCA), organised an inspiration day about participation in culture by the elderly and the possibilities and added value of crossovers between art and culture and care and welfare in the neighbourhoods. Participants were relevant (policymaking) organisations of welfare & care and art & culture. Jeannette Nijkamp of the Research Centre of Innovations in Care spoke about the importance of more connections between culture, care and welfare and the opportunities, changes and innovations these offers to the care sector. 

Following the Research Centre’s wish to realise a more intensive cooperation between the RUAS research centres, care programmes and creative programmes, a meeting was organised in which the possibilities of crossovers between the health care and creative sectors and a more intensive cooperation between education, research centres and the professional field were discussed. The meeting was attended by research professors, teachers and lecturers-researchers of the Research Centre of Innovations in Care, Research Centre of Creating 010, Institute for Communication, Media and Information technology and Willem the Kooning Academy of RUAS.

A helping hand for crossovers between care and creatives is the result of this meeting.