In September 2016, a team of experts in cultural policies for sustainable development from the global AGENDA 21 for Culture team visited the first Bread House in the world, in the town of Gabrovo, Bulgaria. The expert group included the current AGENDA 21 President, Catherine Cullen, and a few other international experts, among which Mr. Jordi Balta from Barcelona who had been cooperating with our network ever since its creation. At the Gabrovo Bread House, the diverse participants engaged in our Theater of Crumbs method and were thrilled by the way it unleashes creativity and helps bond people. Catherine Cullen also took with her our educational game “Bakers Without Borders” and shared how at international conferences she had already been presenting, and will continue in the future to present, the Bread Houses Network know-how as a good practice.

The international team chose the Bread House as a primary good practice of how the arts mixed breadmaking can create unique conditions for social inclusion through cultural engagement (read here the personal report of the AGENDA 21 President Catherine Cullen, visiting and featuring the first Bread House in Gabrovo, Bulgaria)

The city of Gabrovo has been selected together with other cities from around the world as pilot cities striving to promote cultural policies for sustainable local development. The Bread Houses Network is thus plannig cooperation projects with organizations in some of the AGENDA 21 pilot cities in Latin America, Europe, and elsewhere in this exciting field, where creativity becomes catalyst for social transformation.