In regions of both Latvia and Estonia, employment levels and individual forms of entrepreneurship remain lower, particularly in the creative sectors. To improve this situation, it is necessary to strengthen knowledge and skills capacity, as the lack of these creates challenges for developing one’s own business. One of the potential target groups for development is women aged 40+, who engage in various forms of creative activity either out of personal interest or based on national cultural heritage. For traditional craftspeople and contemporary folk applied arts practitioners or entrepreneurs in this age group, competitiveness in today’s market is increasingly influenced by digital skills, which are also required for participation in creative industry events, competitions, procurement procedures, grant calls, and for online visibility. The project “Creative Patterns” supports the development of digital skills and competitiveness for a group of up to 40 participants, helping them successfully pursue creative entrepreneurship in the EU border regions.
Development programme “Creative Patterns” for creative entrepreneurs to strengthen digital skills and competitiveness (focus on aged 40+ women), in cooperation with the EU Eastern Border Regions (Creative Patterns)
The “Creative Patterns” project includes a training programme for a selected group of participants, led by creative industry professionals and experts. The programme is designed to strengthen participants’ digital skills while exploring cultural heritage symbols, patterns, and the region’s cultural-historical visual identity, drawing inspiration from these elements for use in the participants’ creative businesses. The training will provide opportunities to acquire, expand, and reinforce knowledge and skills in current and relevant areas such as product and service development, the creation of marketing materials, and financial planning, alongside advanced training for the development of new products. In addition, the project will organize experience-sharing visits between regions, including participation in industry events, visits to museums and creative professionals, presentations of good practice examples, and opportunities to establish new contacts. The project will also support the organization of a regional creative industries event in cooperation between Ida-Viru and Vidzeme, encouraging dialogue among representatives of the creative sectors.
The development programme has been designed on the basis of the experience gained from the previously implemented project “Creative Bloom: Empowering female creative entrepreneurs” (01.05.2024. – 31.10.2025.) and the feedback of its participants, who acknowledged that the year spent in the training programme had been highly valuable for both their professional and personal growth. The project also demonstrated the potential of the creative sector in the Vidzeme region, as well as the strong interest and demand among women creative entrepreneurs to acquire new skills for developing their businesses.
Photo: LNKC archive
