REEPLAI: a new European project to promote good reading habits
REEPLAI- REaders of Europe Play, Learn and Interact
Inspiring Reading Habits, Fostering Community Engagement, and Celebrating Cultural Diversity
MORGEX, TURIN, LVIV, ÓBIDOS- 20th of November 2023
On the occasion of World Children’s Day, we are pleased to officially launch the new project REEPLAI, an international initiative co-funded by Creative Europe, set to change the reading habits of families with children and teenagers in partner countries Italy, Portugal and Ukraine. With a strong emphasis on promoting reading as a catalyst for self-growth, interaction, dialogue, and community activation, REEPLAI originates from the desire of working towards a new era of cultural engagement and literary appreciation.
The central mission of REEPLAI is to breathe new life into the art of reading, leveraging innovative cultural practices and the promotion of literature. In particular, REEPLAI will lead to the opening of two Reading Parks to be inaugurated in Lviv and Obidos, both cities that are part of the UNESCO Creative Cities of Literature network. These parks will be created in the next years based on the model represented by the Morgex Reading Park, the first and only one of its kind, and will be equipped with engaging game installations specially designed by Fondazione Sapegno for the Park.
REEPLAI aims to:
– Enrich the reading experience through the exchange of good practices and the creation of international networks;
– Offer the opportunity to explore the world of literature as a means of personal development and community enrichment;
– Promote reading as a means of celebrating cultural and linguistic diversity, stimulating curiosity and a thirst for knowledge;
– to promote inclusion, mutual understanding and the sharing of knowledge within different communities.
For this reason, several actions will involve families with children and adolescents in the municipalities of Lviv, Morgex and Óbidos, with particular attention to Ukrainian families living temporarily in Óbidos and in Valle d’Aosta.
Underpinning this ambitious project are five key work packages (WPs) carefully designed to ensure its success. The project will begin with a content design phase, during which installations and activities will be conceived and crafted, drawing inspiration from the literary treasures of children’s literature of Italy, Portugal and Ukraine. This phase will set the stage for the development of exciting game installations, prototypes, and literary quests. REEPLAI will also conduct engagement and capacity-building activities to forge partnerships and enable educators, teachers, and cultural mediators to become acquainted with the project’s vision and activities.
Promoting reading as a means to celebrate cultural diversity, REEPLAI will also target families, with a special focus on Ukrainian families temporarily residing in Obidos and Aosta Valley. This approach aims to foster inclusion, mutual understanding, and knowledge sharing within diverse communities.
Based on the model represented by “Parco della Lettura” of Morgex,unique and exclusive in its concept, REEPLAI will result in the establishment of two Reading Parks (Parchi della Lettura), complete with engaging game installations originally created by Fondazione Sapegno. The games’ installations will be enriched by reading-related activities, including literary quests based on adaptations of five literary works from each partner country’s literature.
With REEPLAI, the partners aim at enriching the future of young generations, where reading is a source of inspiration and connection for families, educators, and communities. This international initiative is set to renew the way we approach literature and ignite the passion for reading that will last for years.
For media inquiries and more information, please contact:
comunicazione@fondazionesantagata.it
ABOUT REEPLAI:
REEPLAI is a pioneering initiative aimed at enhancing the reading habits of families with children and teenagers, promoting reading as a means for self-growth, interaction, dialogue, and community activation. It operates in partner countries Ukraine, Portugal, and Italy, with a focus on innovative cultural practices and the promotion of literature. REEPLAI envisions a world where literature is a powerful force for personal and communal transformation.
REEPLAI is co-funded by the European Union, under the programme Creative Europe, Grant agreement No. 101128588. The project is led by Fondazione Sapegno, in partnership with Fondazione Santagata for the Economics of Culture, Municipality of Óbidos, the Ukrainian Association of Culturologists – Lviv, Lviv Municipal Library, and in association with the Municipality of Morgex.
ABOUT CREATIVE EUROPE
Creative Europe invests in actions that reinforce cultural diversity and respond to the needs and challenges of the cultural and creative sectors witha a total budget 2021-2027 of € 2.44 billion.
The main objectives of the programme are to safeguard, develop and promote European cultural and linguistic diversity and heritage; increase the competitiveness and economic potential of the cultural and creative sectors, in particular the audiovisual sector.
The novelties of the programme will contribute to the recovery of these sectors, reinforcing their efforts to become more inclusive, more digital and environmentally more sustainable. The Creative Europe programme is divided in 3 strands: Media, Culture and Cross-sectoral.
ABOUT FONDAZIONE SAPEGNO CENTRO DI STUDI STORICO-LETTERARI NATALINO-SAPEGNO (Lead partner)
The Centro studi storico-letterari Natalino Sapegno Foundation was created in 1991 by the Autonomous Region of Valle d’Aosta and the family of the famous Valdostan literary critic Natalino Sapegno (1901-1990) with the statutory objectives to encourage young people’s access to the humanistic disciplines and to create the conditions for an ongoing relationship between historical-literary research and schooling, to promote studies and research in the field of Italian and French literature, and, more generally, to encourage the exchange and dissemination of information in the Italian and European cultural sphere.
ABOUT FONDAZIONE SANTAGATA
Fondazione Santagata is a research and training institute operating in Turin, made of experts, academics, researchers working in the field of the Economics of Culture, supporting the internationalisation of knowledge and the training cultural operators in order to enhance their capacities for social and economic impact. It collaborates with leading national and international organisations and the most important Italian banking foundations. Since October 2023 it has been declared “Foundation in official relations with UNESCO.”
ABOUT MUNICIPALITY OF ÓBIDOS
The Municipality of Óbidos is a public organisation whose mission is to be the driving force behind the development of a territory fertile in talents and opportunities, with a unique historical and cultural heritage, promoting quality of life and social cohesion, respecting the environment and the built heritage, with a modern, creative, innovative and attractive economy. In 2015, UNESCO designated Óbidos as a Literary City, thus integrating the Creative Cities Network. Old and abandoned spaces found from that moment a new function, which resulted in the opening of a considerable number of thematic bookstores. Thanks to the UNESCO designation, the municipality has bet on the commitment to look at books and literature as one of the main forces of economic development.
ABOUT NON-PROFIT PUBLIC ORGANIZATION “UKRAINIAN ASSOCIATION OF CULTUROLOGISTS”- LVIV
The Ukrainian Association of Culturologists – Lviv is a research organisation born in 2011 that includes cultural researchers from the Department of Theory and History of Culture of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and other activists who share the principles and goals. The members of the organisation were co-authors of Lviv’s application for the title of “UNESCO City of Literature”, and are also active participants in the work of the “Lviv – UNESCO City of Literature” office, which was created to implement literary programs in the city. The members of the organisation actively cooperate with the International PEN Club, the Ukrainian PEN Club, the Ukrainian Library Association, the Ukrainian Book Institute – which are active players in the literary community of Ukraine.
ABOUT LVIV MUNICIPAL LIBRARY
The Lviv Municipal Library is the only city-wide network of public libraries for children, youth and adults in Ukraine, which ensures the implementation of the strategy of developing family reading, informal learning, as well as rehabilitation adaptation in the conditions of military operations. The Lviv Municipal Library is a communal budgetary non-profit institution in the field of culture and is subordinate to the Department of Culture of the Development Department of the Lviv City Council. The purpose of the Municipal Library’s activities is to realise the rights of citizens to library services, to ensure general access to information and cultural values that are collected, stored in libraries and provided for temporary use by citizens.
ABOUT THE MUNICIPALITY OF MORGEX (Associated Partner)
The Municipality of Morgex is an Italian municipality in the autonomous region of Valle d’Aosta with about two thousand inhabitants. It is located in the Upper Aosta Valley, almost on the border with France, with which it shares territory, culture, tourism and much more. The Municipality of Morgex plays a leading role together with the Fondazione Sapegno, as it has enabled the realisation of the Reading Park and related initiatives linked to the world of literature (e.g. the bookcrossing stations), as well as greatly contributing to the communication and dissemination of good reading practices and the engagement activities of both the neighbourhoods and the Reading Park, of whom it has the ownership.