The use of culture as an economic tool is becoming a central concern in contemporary European political thought. The urban dimension of cohesion policy is strengthened through the creation of new participative and inclusive cultural amenities. However, it does not address the question of the perception of Europe through pre-existing historical cultural institutions (heritage industry), permanently anchored to a regional territory, such as theaters, operas houses, orchestras, conservatories, museums, universities, etc. How do these immersive institutions impact the territorial cohesion, and mobilities in Europe ? How do these institutions react to the restructuring of the competitive field? Are they managing adaptive or hybrid strategies with new conceptions of culture? Or, conversely, do they gradually become an obsolete and difficult heritage to maintain, affecting the positive identification to the European project? The CURRICULA EUROPAE project aims to explore the impact of immersive cultural institutions (heritage industry), on the territorial applications of European regional and urban policies and on the perception of the added value of the EU by its citizens. This research project will conduct institutional case studies in ten cities from six different Member States, with contrasting historical and cultural profiles, during or after periods of strong questioning of existing cultural balances, such as the European Cultural Capitals elections. Through the combination of Big and Small Data approaches, ethnographic observations, retrospective understanding and bottom-up mapping of the territorial and cross-border European cultural mobilities, we will elaborate a tailor-made tool for measuring the potential ability of immersive cultural institutions to become part – or not – of the creative economy and smart specialization growing contexts. We will also provide insight on how to connect the communities in order to build a common European public space.