sunday 10 / 12 / 2023 | 1313 members
To OPEN the city gates to street arts means to bring out the value of open air spaces assigned to social life, to enforce the cohesion inside communities, to improve the local tourist activity, to create new routes for exchange and integration between European countries.
The creation of a international debate, the comparisons between
normative and laws, different urban patterns and policies for development
and support of street arts, will drive to a new consciousness and
will produce new stimulus in administrators and art operators. This
route could not be undertaken on a simple regional or local level.
Our country, now, is Europe!
TOWARDS AN EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OPEN STREET

During the showcase OPEN STREET it has emerged as whole Europe is keen to continue the experience of cooperation aven after the activity program funded by European Community (ending next June): to date, the network includes nearly 700 members from nearly 30 European countries, shared among artists, companies, festival directors, operators, public administrations, who have all the same need to share and compare productions, ideas and ways of working. Such a colorful and multilingual cooperation, in recent years has given rise to important “intellectuals relationships” between artists and operators, relationships we can find prominently expressed in artistic productions. European cooperation is essential for circulation of ideas and proposals that result to be fundamental for the unity and cultural identity of Europe; hence next months will be dedicated to the consolidation of network with the participation of all people finding their ideas to be lined with this thought and work, both among those who have recently approached to Open Street and the project founders.
These last ones are maturing the idea to launch the birth of an International Association that transforms the informal relationships tied up during activities of network, in structural and lasting relationships, with precise engagements for common objectives. The auspice is that the constitutive meeting of this new subject can be developed before the end of the program sustained by the UE.
The good result of the showcase, listening who has participated, allows to intend that the job for the birth of this association will surely be binding but also interesting and really tempting for the so many differences that will meet to a same table to discuss and to plan the development of the street art.
OPEN STREET...OPEN SQUARES...

To distinguish the activity of professional show,(companies and artists attending to festivals), from the activity of artists performing free hat show, is subject of a lot of divergences in the European ambit: in many countries, the greatest part of operators and professional companies, does not consider hat activity as real artistic activity, but barely a kind of evolved begging, denying every possible cohabitation among the two disciplines. This, indeed, is considered useful by many European artists:some of them, in fact, attending the 2° edition of the European OPEN STREET showcase in Fermo, were willing to know not only about the Italian ambit of festival and events, but also about the Italian situation of free hat performing. Artists willing to organize a tour in Italy would find the two activities absolutely complementary: the cachets events take mainly place in the weekends, and artists wishes to stay in Italy for several weeks would have the problem to earn some incomes also in working days between one event and another. In these cases the hat can be undoubtely useful...Hence the need, mainly of solo artists and small companies, to be informed at best. We, as Italian seat OPEN STREET European FORUM, have gladly explained the Italian situation, which is not easy to understand. Similarly, many artists told us about the situation in their country and we must say that, broadly speaking, the problem is the same at all latitudes: local authorities are trying to solve the matter with measures that are never the best, and always considering the street show as a security problem to be solved rather than an artistic and social heritage for whole community. Under this point of view, basically all administrations see it the same way all over Europe.To face these problems at European level and try to definy, also in this ambit, what should be considered as common best practices, could be an aim to be pursued by a transnational network as Open Street.
At this stage the network is engaged in gathering as much documentation as possible to have an exhaustive framework of how the free street show and hat passing artists are accepted by local authorities, audience, operators and other artists of variuos European cultures.
Open Street network requests to all artists, companies, organizers and sector operators in Europe to send materials related to the free hat passing show: national and regional laws, regulations of cities and villages, personal experiences, newspaper articles, online news, web links , videos, not forgetting fines, trials, arrests and appropriate convictions to the stake!
You can send your stuffs to: staff@fnas.org, indicating the name of city involved into email title.
Many thanks in advance for kind cooperation!
13th-16th OCTOBER 2011, SHOWCASE IN FERMO AND MONTEGRANARO
Great participation of artists, companies and professionals from all over Europe

The last showcase in the ambit of the Open Street Project, held on October in Fermo and Montegranaro, was a great success thanks to broad participation of artists, companies, managers, festivals operators, public administrators, who came from 19 European countries. In the four days of event it was underlined that the personal encounter and subsequent dialogue between art producers and programmers is a key part in the world of street art, because the different cultural proposals almost always reflect the cultures of origin. It must be remembered that the cultural purpose the network, is not secondary to the economic one, because the exchange of professional practices ensures a flow of ideas and proposals that are highly significant for European unity and identity, but also for the artistic production tout court. Through the showcase came out a brand diverse, exciting and vibrant frame of street art in Europe, where it may happen that the same stories were told with techniques and suggestions very different from each other, and sometimes the performances showed a specific cultural connotation, demonstrating that European identity has as its very starting point the respective cultures . Under an organizational point of view, the choice to have less "show demo" companies than last year (30 instead 80), has allowed everyone to be seen (and to operators to see), as well as giving everyone the opportunity to meet directly and this has created a greater relationship: in confirmation of this, some agreement have already gone to be signed for next summer. In the blog area of this website, you can see many comments from participants, thus confirming as the frame of showcase has been positively designed and implemented. By next June, upon closure of activities, the project will also edit a publication that will make stock of the situation of European street art. Part of this work, dedicated to situation of street show in different countries participating to network, will be managed by the University of Macerata (supported by FNAS) through four interns (3 of them are graduated); during the showcase they have met some of the artistic directors, artists and companies from all over Europe in order to start their research, by using a questionnaire previously prepared. The heart of conversations, to which further specific research will follow in further months, was the individual different cultural strategies under creative, professional, promotional and legislative points of view.
LA STRADA (OPEN) FESTIVAL IN BREMEN
In Bremen the shows of "Open Street Festival" german section.
The next appointment of Project Open Street agenda is the "La Strada" Festival, the 17th edition of Strassenzirkusfestival programmed in Bremen (DE) from 18th to 21st August 2011. The programme of La Strada (Open) Festival foresees a number of shows selected in occasion of the Open International Showcase.
>>> GENERAL PROGRAMME
II OPEN MEETING IN MONTEGRANARO (June 2011)
On the occasion of the Open Street Festival in Montegranaro, programmed in the ambit of Veregrastreet Festival, on June 25th the Open Street Forum held an international meeting , focused on theme
"The Urban Show in the Open City".
The meeting was attended by numerous Italian and foreign operators: the mayor of Montegranaro, Mr. Gastone Gismondi, and Giuseppe Nuciari, representatives of project leader; Rosalba Ortenzi, counselor of Marche Region; Mario Andrenacci, president of ANCI (National Association of Municipalities) Marche; Guglielmo Massucci, Assessor for Tourism, province of Fermo; Graziano Di Battista, councilor for culture of Montegranaro; Gigi Russo, President of F.N.A.S.; Alessio Michelotti, director of F.N.A.S.; Gabriele Koch, art director of La Strada Festival - Bremen (DE); Ewa Salamon, City Council of Gdansk (PL); Bourdereau Laurent, Conseil Général de l'Essonne (FR); Marta Almirall – event coordinator for City of Barcelona (ES); Al Seed, Art director of Conflux Festival - Glasgow (UK); Jean Felix Tirtiaux, Art director of Namur en Mai - Namur (BE); Alessandro Serena Ass.Circo e Dintorni (IT); Boris Vecchio, Art Director of Circumnavigando Festival - Genova (IT); Wanda Circus counselor of F.N.A.S.; Fabrizio Gavosto, Art Director of Mirabilia Festival - Fossano (IT); Sergio Aguirre and Manola Nifosi, Art Directors of Lugliobambino Festival - Campi Bisenzio (IT); Rada Nimmrichter and Florian Puschmann, University of Bremen, Roberto Leopardi, Silvia Criscuoli and Marta De Bastiani, for Open Street Coordination / F.N.A.S.
After the welcome greetings of
Mr.Gastone Gismondi, Mayor of Montegranaro, Open Street project leader,
Mr. Giuseppe Nuciari, artistic director of local Veregrastreet Festival, expressed in broad terms the issues to be discussed during meeting, in particular to understand as the presence of street arts can influence the life of the city from the perspective of social relationships, increasing tourism and a new way for citizens to interact with the city as a whole.
Mrs. Rosalba Ortenzi, Counselor of the Marche Region, has focused attention on her proposal for a new regional legislation for the street show, which would lead to greater consideration of street art by local authorities.
The President of Fnas, Luigi Russo, showed that projects such as Open Street may give a better understanding of existing distances and similarities between different European realities, and how important it is to underline the cultural diversity of European countries also through the common heritage of street show.
Then followed the intervention of
Gabriele Koch, artistic director of La Strada Festival in Bremen, who stressed that, despite important street events of great appeal and visibility, in Germany it is still struggling to explain to institutions supporting culture that even street festivals can be considered cultural events.
Laurent Bourdereau, director for culture of the compartment of Chamarande Méréville, sees Europe as a network where pooling efforts to invent new patterns for a world based on experimentation with social relationships rather than on creating art works.
The City coordinator of cultural events in Barcelona, Mrs. Marta Almirall,
made the big city open air party with which it deals, La Mercč, festival celebrating the saint patron saint of the city, and that in fact returns the city to the social life of its inhabitants.
The next intervention was that of
responsible for the promotion of cultural events in Gdansk, Ewa Salamon, who emphasized how her city is committed to ensure that events are always available for all citizens of all social classes, involving the whole city from the center to the most remote and poorest suburbs, stating that the street show perfectly matches the principle of "freedom of culture and culture of freedom" that always guides the choices of artistic and cultural city.
The director of the FNAS, Alessio Michelotti, explained how the project STREET OPEN should be a tool to use to compare different experiences; to start analysis of the relationship between institutions and street art in different European countries, to share problems and conflicts, to increase better promotion to enhance the ADS; to assume greater influence, to enhance the role of popular performing arts in European culture considered as a fundamental element of European cultural identity.
Alesandro Serena, of Association Circo e Dintorni, as well as teacher of circus history at the University of Milan, presented an interesting analysis of the figure of the wanderer (from the medieval troubadours acrobat, to the “Zanis” of XVI Century, and to the birth of the commedia in appropriate places) and the resulting relationship with the evolution of urban spaces, from the medieval cities.
Interventions of
Mario Andrenacci intervention, president of ANCI Marche (National Association of Italian Municipalities), Guglielmo Massucco, Head of Tourism of the Province of Fermo and Graziano di Battista, councilor for culture of Montegranaro, took its cue from what happens in Veregrastreet, the most important street event in the region, to argue that policy needs to support street art, because the economic events have proved to be excellent investments.
The meeting concluded with the appointment given by Gabriele Koch in Bremen, in August, where there will be a moment of confrontation between operators across Europe in occasion of city Festival “La Strada”.