Italia-Croatia

15/06/2026

One of the core actions of the TIMELESS ADRIATIC project is the Innovation challenge. The Challenge is set to engage at least 100 young creatives across the Italy–Croatia area, actively facilitating their involvement in a transformative reactivation process. Youth from Grottammare and Rovinj will be invited to envision the future of their heritage, proposing innovative ideas to reimagine the role of historic tower clocks through temporary installations, digital content, participatory performances, and smart technologies.

While the full scale of the Innovation Challenge will officially launch in the upcoming school year—involving high school students from both Grottammare and Rovinj—a special pilot version was successfully delivered this May; in Grottammare, young participants from the theatre courses managed by Caleidoscopio APS were the first to test the challenge's creative potential.

The challenge invites to develop innovative ideas for reactivating tower clocks as cultural and social landmarks, using multidisciplinary and site-specific approaches. That's why it was decided to propose the initiative to young people who are used to thinking creatively, mixing theatrical performances, graphic art, games and movement.

This pilot workshop allowed the participants to get a taste of how to create a cultural project, discovering the strategic steps required to valorize local identity, the artistic legacy of historic clock towers and the concept of time.

The workshop, spanning approximately three hours, was structured into three distinct phases designed to stimulate lateral thinking and collective creativity:

• Conceptual Brainstorming: A deep dive into the word "TIME". Participants explored time not just as a chronological sequence, but as a rhythm that defines our lives—from daily cycles to the broader stages of human existence.

• Creativity in action: Moving from thought to practice, the youth were divided into small groups to translate the concepts emerged during brainstorming into live theatrical scenes.

• The birth of ideas: After a comprehensive introduction to the TIMELESS ADRIATIC project and its core pillars, the actual "Challenge" was presented. Groups were asked to answer a question: “How would you make the historic clock tower of your town and the concept of time relevant and engaging for a peer?”.

Under the guidance of professional educators, each group developed a project draft for a dedicated initiative that responded to the question they had been asked. The session concluded with each group presenting their vision through their preferred artistic medium, sparking a vibrant collective discussion.

The results confirmed that theatrical practice is an exceptionally fertile tool for probing new ideas of valorization, stimulating the creativity and lateral thinking necessary to bridge the gap between the shared history and a sustainable, innovative future.