In May 2026, Quarteirão Criativo joined CRU Creative Hub on a peer-to-peer learning visit to Culture Hub Croatia – PROSTOR, in Split, as part of the European Creative Hubs Network (ECHN) P2P Learning Program, co-funded by the European Commission. As a full member of the ECHN network since 2023, Quarteirão Criativo’s participation in the exchange was both a natural fit and a direct expression of its commitment to European creative cooperation.
The exchange brought together two of Porto’s Bombarda district key players — CRU and Quarteirão Criativo — and their Croatian counterpart PROSTOR, a creative hub located in the modernist Kineski Zid building in the heart of Split. Over five working days, the visit explored shared challenges and practices around artistic mobility, hub governance, and the development of creative ecosystems at a local and European scale.
Quarteirão Criativo’s participation reflected its distinctive role in the Bombarda ecosystem. As a local development association rooted in over two decades of cultural activism, QC brings a territorial and community governance perspective that complements CRU’s hub model. Together, they represent two interconnected but distinct layers of how culture can shape a neighbourhood — and beyond.
This dual perspective was at the centre of the public session co-organised with PROSTOR on 6 May, titled “From a Building to a District: Creative Community as a Living Ecosystem”. In front of an audience of Split’s creative community, Miguel Ferreira presented CRU’s hybrid hub model, while Tânia Almeida Santos presented Quarteirão Criativo’s approach to local governance and territorial development — tracing the journey from a single building to a full urban district animated by a participatory cultural logic.
The visit also took us beyond PROSTOR’s walls, to Klub Kocka at the Dom Mladih (Youth Center Split) — a space with deep roots in civic activism — where we met Kristina Tešija, co-founder of KLFM (klfm.org), a community radio station operating from within the same building. The encounter brought into focus shared challenges around sustaining volunteer-based cultural projects over time: questions of intergenerational engagement, content quality, and long-term identity that resonate closely with QC’s own community-building experience in Bombarda.
The conversations throughout the week reinforced what Quarteirão Criativo has long known: sustainable creative ecosystems are not built by individual organisations working in isolation, but through layered structures of trust, collaboration, and shared purpose — between hubs, communities, and the cities they inhabit. PROSTOR’s model, deeply embedded in Split’s cultural and urban fabric, offered rich parallels and productive contrasts to QC’s own trajectory in Porto.
The visit is a stepping stone towards a longer-term collaboration, with both hubs exploring future joint projects within European funding frameworks, as well as a structured bilateral residency programme that would deepen the creative and institutional ties between Porto and Split.
Photos: Associação Quarteirão Criativo / CRU Creative Hub / PROSTOR
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Quarteirão Criativo is a local development association and full member of the European Creative Hubs Network (ECHN) since 2023, bringing together over 100 businesses and creative organisations in Porto’s Bombarda district. It promotes cultural, economic and urban development strategies rooted in participation and local identity.
This exchange was carried out under the ECHN P2P Learning Program, an initiative of the European Creative Hubs Network co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.