What we did
On Tuesday 8 July in Jesi (AN) we presented Cara Città, the new cultural-based, urban regeneration project curated by Sineglossa, with the Municipality of Jesi, Arci Jesi-Fabriano, Kar Movimenti Creativi, Ratatà Festival, Circolo Ferretti, Casa delle Donne, with the support of Acca Academy and the support of Fondazione Cariverona. Over 75 people gathered among the Prato, Minonna and Smia neighborhoods in Jesi to discover cultural players active in the neighborhood (such as Circolo Ferretti, Acca Academy, francescafrancescastudio), cross “secret” passages of the urban fabric and, above all, visit the venue in Via Carlo Urbani 19, a municipal space that has been unused so far and which – thanks to the project – will be available to the population for cultural-based social activities. On the occasion of the project presentation event, we launched a collective exercise in urban imagination, asking the audience present to answer, via post-it notes on billboards, these questions:
- What would you like to find in this space?
- What could you bring?
- What name do you imagine for this place?
What came up from the post-its
We collected all the answers and analyzed them using the textual analysis method developed in the Nonturismo projects: a process that combines qualitative listening with thematic organization. The semantic analysis revealed a predominance of neutral or positive emotions: curiosity, trust, openness. None of the contributions expressed negative feelings such as anger or frustration. A clear signal: the space is perceived as a concrete, welcoming and transformative opportunity.
The desires emerged were grouped into six main themes:
Culture and creativity
This was the most mentioned theme: from artistic workshops (theatre, dance, ceramics, drawing) to small shared cinemas, spanning music, poetic photography, writing, and light/sound design. The space is imagined as a catalyst for cultural expression and production, accessible to all ages.
Community and relationships
Many post-its expressed the desire to be together: building networks, meeting, exchanging ideas. Some proposed a schedule by time slots (morning for women, afternoon for children and teenagers), while others imagined intergenerational exchange spaces or an extended communal living model.
Diversity and identity
The theme of inclusion emerged in the request for “liberatories, not laboratories,” in the attention to languages, cultural differences, and even hair as an “element that gathers biological identity.” This space could become a refuge for strangeness and multiplicity.
Listening, care, and well-being
Some proposals spoke of creative listening desks, philosophical cafés, art therapy workshops, places to remember family stories (“My father used to bath in the river!”), or welcoming care professionals.
Education and knowledge sharing
Some people imagined reading groups for children in different languages, some others proposed manual workshops where “young people learn from elders,” and some dreamed of a neighborhood school, designed together with the kids themselves
Ideas for the name
Finally, among the suggestions for naming the space, we received evocative proposals (OLTRE, MAGMA, SUMAI, Nameless) as well as some loving, ironic ones (as “Mono Sala”, since there’s a multiplex cinema just behind the place!). One of the strongest suggestions remains “Il Castello” (“The Castle”), somewhere between a childhood symbol and a mental architecture.
How the project moves forward
This map of desires will guide us in the coming months, growing along the way with what will come up in the free workshops starting on September 12: analog photography, creative writing, and poetry. The outcome of these workshops will be a collectively created Neighborhood Album, which will be presented at the next edition of the RATATÀ Festival, taking place in Jesi from December 5 to 7, 2025.
Cara Città is continuing next year with a social and cultural program that will bring the space to life, whose co-design process has only just begun.
