Valeria Marcolin
Valeria Marcolin is an Italian expert in cultural policy, international cooperation, and the cultural and creative industries (CCIs), with over 25 years of experience across Italy, France, Europe, and Africa. She currently serves as Co-Director of Culture et Développement (Paris) and as a member of the EU-UNESCO Expert Facility for the 2005 Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. Her trajectory — from coordinating the Italian Theatre Festival in Paris and the Union des Théâtres de l'Europe to leading civil society globally for the UNESCO 2005 Convention — connects the Italian cultural ecosystem and the international one. She has directed feasibility studies and multi-million-euro programmes for AFD, EU-INTPA, UNESCO, UCLG, and African ministries — from the rehabilitation of cultural centres to the design of national Cultural Agencies, up to the prefiguration of the Africa–Europe Cooperation Programme 2025–2028. For Italian projects, her expertise can be mobilised along five strategic axes: (1) design and capture of European and international funding for culture, heritage, and CCIs; (2) participatory governance of creative hubs and third places rooted in territories, tested in Bondy, Brazzaville, and Abidjan; (3) decentralised cooperation between Italian regions and municipalities and Euro-Mediterranean and African partners, leveraging her UCLG expertise; (4) strategic support to Italian academic and cultural institutions on internationalisation, already underway with the Brera Academy of Fine Arts for participatory digitisation of intangible heritage in emergency and conflict zones; (5) training and advisory services for ministries, cities, foundations, and universities on cultural policy, the 2005 UNESCO Convention, and culture as a lever for the Sustainable Development Goal
Within the Jerus-it-arts project, she supported the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in shaping the conceptual and methodological framework of "VIM – Valigia Immateriale" (Intangible Suitcase), an intangible heritage safeguarding methodology piloted on endangered musical traditions in the Palestinian territories. She co-organised two international panels during the project's closing seminar, aimed at exploring synergies with Italian, European, and international institutional partners to ensure medium- and long-term capitalisation of the results. Her contribution focused on international outreach and public relations, the strategic alignment of project outputs with cultural and development policies and programmes in Italy and abroad, and the identification of strategic project partners.
