Next week, from the 19th to the 23rd of October, within the context of the Frankfurt Book Fair, a new event, the Arts Plus (http://theartsplus.com/), will take place. This fair inside the fair aims at exploring possibilities and developing ideas around new business models for creative and cultural industries.

Leon Sault. 'Young Ladies Journal Monthly Panorama of Fashion' dated July 1875, Courtesy Victoria & Albert Museum CC BY NC

In this context, Europeana is hosting a series of workshops that will see the participation of twenty students from five design schools from across Europe, to think about innovative solutions and services for the exploitation of digital cultural data.

Europeana Fashion selected six participants amongst three leading fashion school belonging to its network: Polimoda, IUAV University of Venice and Politecnico di Milano. All the students selected have shown a strong interest in reflecting on the potential of digital content related to fashion and how to incorporate its use within their projects. This is an opportunity for students not only to work with professionals and learn about the current situation of digital data, but also to network with other creative minds and exchange knowledge and expertise.

The students will take part in different workshops, led by the Spanish commons organisation Platoniq and by the international consultancy company Media Deals, playing with the data hold in the Europeana collections and thinking creatively on how to use them for their projects. The various activities involve also developing business models and learning how to best present and promote the projects, as well as finalise them and pitch them to investors.

The most interesting projects coming out of these workshops will be promoted both on the Europeana channels and partners. They might also be eligible for crowdfunding, and can participate in the coming Europeana challenges.

Since the ongoing Europeana challenge is themed on fashion, we see this as a great opportunity for students and soon-to-be designers to engage with digital data for their creative and business purposes, pushing the boundaries of both their creativity and the potential of digital archives.

We are looking forward to seeing the output of the workshops and to be impressed by the projects that will come out – stay tuned to know more.