Abandoned cultural heritage sites – including underused buildings, complexes, heritage spaces and more – hold great potential for the public and private sectors, as well as local communities. If done thoughtfully, reviving and transforming these sites can be an opportunity to increase community cohesion and social integration, foster bottom-up economic activity, and create local employment. This, however, requires financing.

What financing tools and strategies are available for the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage? What roles are there for public-private-people partnerships, crowdfunding, organic transformations, or impact investment?

An upcoming online dialogue will examine the realities, potential and challenges associated with each of these funding models, by discussing real projects' experiences with them. It will offer practical insights and tips for fundraising, as well as updates on EU funding scemes to support the recovery of the creative and cultural sector, from the perspectives of leaders working in adaptive heritage reuse across European contexts.

The dialogue will include a virtual 'World Cafe' session to empower participants to join the discussion. To ensure a lively dialogue, this online event – taking place on 20 May at 13:30 CEST – will be limited to 50 registered attendees. Please complete this Registration Form in order to express your interest in joining.

The event is being organised in the context of the OpenHeritage project, in which ICLEI Europe is a partner. For more information on the project and its 'OpenHeritage Dialogues' event series, click here.

To express your interest in joining the 20 May event, click here.