This new approach to interaction, in which, within a cultural project, the creative phase is separated from the implementation phase, allows, via the different sectors involved, the promotion and realisation of spaces where dialogue, sharing, cultural growth, and development can all take place. Our workshop assessed in detail other known examples of Trans Sector Projects and found those experiences to be widely representative in terms of the issues that cultural associations, public institutions, or individuals must face in the realisation phase of the projects themselves.

â–ºBRIEF SUMMARY

The Trans Zone
A multicultural and multidisciplinary project goes through various stages of knowledge and research. Whoever manages (an ensemble of cultural entities, companies, individuals, entrepreneurs, or artists) it must have a clear executive meaning given by the answers to a few precise questions: Why? How to? What?
Therefore, what is one trying to do with a Trans Sector Project (TSP)? What does one intend to accomplish within a TSP? What is the meaning of what is being accomplished? These are only some of the questions that must be asked. Knowing, furthermore, how to conduct this process of research and knowledge, and with which means, is extremely important, not to mention the importance of the content that one intends to confer to the project itself.
A few immediate and relevant answers were given by Christian Mayeur, an expert in business administration and an artist. The same conviction is the foundation of a Trans Sector Project, which may be regarded as a kind of company (or pool of companies), that provides services to a community, with the objective, among others, to enter the job market.

Five principles of action to manage a Trans Sector Project
Christian Mayeur states that a good plan for a Trans Sector Project (as for businesses) must take advantage of the “five Es†, which are useful to its formulation and which makes its management agile:
EDUCATION – a project must always teach something
ENTERTAINMENT – a project must always be enjoyable
ESTHETICS – a project must have an aesthetic value
ESPRIT – a project must be able to express clearly what it intends to achieve
ESCAPE – a project must provide an escape route from routine

From this list, which has become a ‘guiding light’, descend many elements that are necessary for the creation of a Trans Sector Project, which lead us within a Trans Zone, a zone in between, a zone that collects various constitutive subjects that define a project, subjects that are both practical and theoretical in nature.
These elements, which are common to the Trans Zone, were identified during the preliminary discussion by all workshop participants; the same people, incidentally, highlighted additional questions, to which the rest of the participants gave immediate answers. Certainty and conviction went hand-in-hand with doubt and perplexity. During the debate emerged the primary importance of having strong motivations that drive the creation of a trans-sector artistic–cultural project; the goal is to motivate artists and territorial actors to develop collaboration in the best possible way.
Another element identified at the workshop as important for the success of a project of individuals is that the team that manages an artistic–cultural project have a multi-disciplinary background ; this feature stimulates the creation and development of ideas and enables the fruitful addition to the team of partners and of political as well as social actors. The workshop also identified an inexhaustible and fundamental resource in children, society’s professional and civil future; for them, art can be used as an operational and methodical instrument to ensure that a project is successful.
Another more innovative element identified during the workshop has to do with the basic concept of combining business with art for the purpose of mutual exchange and inspiration, with the goal of finding, developing, and realising an idea that is interesting for all participants of the project. Finally, the only one element left is conveying to the ultimate recipients and beneficiaries of the projects the idea that everyone is working toward a common goal.

Tatiana Lo Iacono
Text written on the basis of discussions in Bordeaux on 28/10/2011 during the workshop on “Trans sector projectâ€

Coordination Trans Europe Halles and ARTfactories/Autre(s)pARTs

Long summary soon available