« Les Hortillonnages”: training of socially vulnerable people in gardening careers.
La Maison de la Culture d’Amiens is a public institution for cultural cooperation (Etablissement Public de Coopération Culturelle or EPCC) founded in 2005 with the aim of encouraging distribution, production and creation of live events, films, the visual arts and record production. Since 2010, it has led to the four-month Art, villes & paysage (Art, town and country) festival in Les Hortillonnages floating gardens in Amiens. Les Hortillonnages d’Amiens comprises several hundred floating gardens covering 65 km of canals in the city of Amiens.
Against the troubled background in the Region of Picardy, La Maison de la Culture d’Amiens is committed to providing social support for the Art, villes & paysage festival. Since 2011, it has managed an employability project workshop (Atelier Chantier d’Insertion or ACI), where it trains 12 socially vulnerable people per year in constructing art installations, and in the creation and maintenance of gardens. All trainees preparing for employment also receive social and career support with managing social issues.
The Accor Foundation* supported this program in 2013 by enabling 12 people to be supported in their training and insertion.
* In 2013, the Accor Foundation became Solidarity Accor.