HubOut – HUBOUT

History

About us

The idea “Hubout” was born in 2013 as a result of considerations on the impact of youth policies on local development, matured during the continuous exchange between the Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo and a rather large network of local stakeholders. It was born as a Creative Laboratory but soon it transformed itself. The development of Hubout relies on a debate promoted at a national level, that combines social innovation actions with local development.

The concept

The idea was to start from the concept of HUB, considering it as a pivot and not as a centre. A hub for the creation of new relationships and networks, for the intersection of ideas and creativity, for the development of active and aware citizenship and social cohesion. The word OUT placed near this idea of HUB wants to promote the birth of hubs, outside a “centre”, because the focus is on relationships, in particular on those with the places we live in. Every Hub has the same function, it must encourage social innovation as a lever for the development of a sense of community and belonging. Urban regeneration is one of the mantras these days. We believe that it is important to combine the action of renewal of spaces and infrastructures with the ability of territories to re-activate and re-animate themselves, because only this way bonds between citizens can be strengthened, creating cohesion and active citizenship. Elements on which the action of Hubout leverages are those of knowledge and competences. Knowledge and learning by doing are contemporaneously objectives and incentives for the development of a community.

Hubout starts from youthful creativity. As a matter of fact, the first project gave life to ZAC – Zone Artistiche Condivise (ZAC) thanks to the commitment of over 30 young people in the Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo alone and over 20 in the Municipality of Fermo. It was the leading initiative, in which the relationship between citizens and their living environment, their city, mediated by the artistic production worked as a background to the project, starting from the participatory processes. Citizens’ interest in “public things”, common property as we would say today, has emerged thanks to the work of young artists and craftsmen, creatives and curators who have contributed to building and implementing concrete connection strategies, such as the wooden square in Largo Milano. An invasive but temporary installation, because the idea is that the interventions must be a tangible example of how a space, if there is care, passion and will of those who live in it, can become a resource for the community also while changing.

It is not important that a space survives that much over time, but it is fundamental that within a community there is the ability, the desire and the habit to renovate the public space and rebuild it to one’s own measure and considering personal needs. Exactly as we do when we change the furniture at home, because public areas “belong to us”. Working on and with a territory, promoting cohesion and a sense of community has been the goal of Hubout since the beginning. However, starting from artistic production, and from the idea of participatory public art, was the winning choice. It allowed to introduce territorial animation processes, also capitalizing the skills of social workers. The participatory process is central, but the final product is equally important and aesthetically beautiful because it is both an artisan and artistic product. The temporal dimension is important. Process and Product must be developed in a reasonably short period of time. Art frees creative resources of a territory from the constraint of the norm, of the routine, in the name of the intellectual property, of the single work that does not commit except for the time of its realization. For this reason it cannot be repeated continuously. Public art must provoke debate and discussion, promote critical sense and a sense of initiative that encourages people to meet. Listening to the needs of a territory lies at the basis of every community action. Through Hubout we wanted to interpret needs as expressions of desires. We understood and discovered that there was and there still is a desire for beauty, care, meeting, knowledge and sociability.

Social innovation for social development

Our desire to stimulate the growth of the territory and to learn by promoting innovative projects and services stems from the awareness of playing an important role in local development. In 2016 we created MakersLab: the first digital manufacturing laboratory in Lombardy opened in a public library and the second in Italy after Pistoia. A service that is still active thanks to the productive collaboration with the CSBNO. In order to spread knowledge, this latter has created other manufacturing workshops in libraries around Milan. Further information is available on the dedicated section on this website. In 2018 we inaugurated the SpazioCofò coworking space, at Villa di Breme Forno in Cinisello Balsamo. The first public coworking space in the province of Milan. Even this service is still available and it is managed by a youth association. Again, you can find more information about this on the dedicated section. But we have done even more. The SpazioCofò experience has become a good practice, central for the twinning with the city of Matera. The partnership project is funded through the “Sinergie” notice and aims at reproducing the same experience in Matera and go further, introducing a trial on the development of digital and entrepreneurial skills. The project started in March 2020 and it will have to achieve its purposes by July 2021.

Staff

Massimo Capano

Project Leader and HubOut Project Manager er

Giovanni Mojoli

CSBNO Coordinator and HubOut Makers Lab Contact Person

Giulio Fortunio

Head of “Il Pertini” Cultural Centre

Elisa Scardoni

Project Manager – Monitoring

Sara Mazzeo

Digital Angel – Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo

Natalia De Martin

Digital Angel – Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo

Sara Settembrini

Trainee at the Municipality of Cinisello Balsamo

Staff of the Municipality of Matera

Angelica Sannicandro, Rosilda Iannuzziello, Mariella Stella and Greta Piliego

Staff of the project HubOut-Sinergie, Municipality of Matera

Antonio Candela, Stefania Clemente and Raffaele Vitulli

Basilicata Creativa and Comincenter

Giulio Traietta

Generazione Lucana

Credits

HubOut project is promoted by:

Hubout MakersLab project is managed and implemented by:

Those who have contributed in the development of the project:

Partners:

Municipality of Fermo, Municipality di Matera, MuFoCo, University of Milano-Bicocca, Associazione Marse, Coop, Il Torpedone, Codici Ricerche, Acli Lombardia, Acli Service, APS Oltrespazio, School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano, Basilicata Creativa, Generazione Lucana, Provincia di Matera, CSBNO e Associazione Imprenditori Nord Milano.

Artists and creative people involved in the project:

WeMake, Orizzontale, Blauer Hase, Martino Gencki, EXYZT e Spazio Yatta Milano.

Young under 35:

Giulia Bellinzona, Arianna Errico, Sabrina Savoca, Jacopo De Gennaro, Elena Malara, Matteo Efrem Rossi, Gaia Deflorian, Elena Rossella Lana, Ilaria Salerio, Luca Santomauro, Francesca Maserati, Chiara Buzzi, Andrea Mantelli, Lucilla Cerioli, Giulia Ricciotti, Teresa De Martin, Andrea Sottocornola, Silvia Ritucci, Cristina Bulessi, Miriana Zanca, Chiara Turati, Carlotta Emma Bergamasco, Giulia Mancigotti, Martina Berlino, Karolina Wargin, Matteo Celeste e Alessia Sergio.