The Creative Hubs policy: the example of Wap’s hub : the creative hub of the city of Tournai

The Creative Hubs were created following a call for projects launched by the Walloon Government as part of the "Creative Wallonia" programme (https://www.interregeurope.eu/policylearning/good-practices/item/581/creative-wallonia-policy-instrument/ ) in October 2014. The aim of the Walloon hubs is to encourage the transition from our traditional economy to a creative economy by bringing together creative minds, CCIs, public institutions, cities, innovative companies, universities, innovation centres, local development actors... and by implementing the notions of open innovation, trans-disciplinary hybridisation, design thinking and collective intelligence in a local context. Creative hubs are located in urban centres.

The hub addresses all kinds of publics: its core method is the mobilisation of students, creators, artists and scientists and companies.
The actions take the form of calls for projects promoting the "mix" of audiences from different backgrounds, networking events and the provision of creative venues where different audiences can meet. This hub does not focus on one sector, the approach is multisectorial.
Wap’s hub has launched several actions in order to set-up cross-collaboration projects : A Fab Lab (210 users), creative meetings, Art-enterprise projects, which try to link artists and SME’s to co-create a project.etc. This action has already allowed the creation of 10 projects by a group of artist and entrepreneurs.