1 Resilience and the role of arts and culture-based activities in mature industrial districts Marco Bellandi* and Erica Santini** Acknowledgements This research was supported by the EU under H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions project “MAKERS: Smart Manufacturing for EU Growth and Prosperity”, grant agreement n.691192. Abstract In this paper, we build on the results of previous research on how industrial districts (IDs) well-endowed with innovation capabilities may fall down and sometimes react against lock-in conditions. A more or less constantly increasing challenge coming from external competitive systems eventually brings about crises in IDs stuck into the cognitive core and institutional frames which have featured their past growth. Renewed development paths demand a non-incremental adaptation both in the local configuration of nuclei of productive know-how and in its integration and effective organization. Conditions of cognitive or institutional lock-in may hinder or slow-down a successful reaction, corresponding to low resilience cases, but lock-ins may be avoided or overcome by the activation and integration of a multiplicity of secondary know-how nuclei. The present paper introduces some conceptualisations related to resilience and recovery in mature IDs, and aims at exploring the roles of the cultural backgrounds and the possible activation of arts and culture-based activities. Their growth may not only be a source of new local business and jobs, but also a key contribution to the upgrading of the district institutional frame within globalised production and social networks. This provisional result will be the subject of future empirical research. Keywords: Cultural Heritage, Mature Industrial District, Lock-in, Resilience, Cultural enhancement of local development. * Department of Economics and Management, University of Florence, Via delle Pandette 9, 50127, Firenze, Italy- Tel. +390554374583- marco.bellandi@unifi.it ** Fondazione per la Ricerca e l’Innovazione, Via delle Pandette 9, 50127, Firenze, Italy- Tel. +390554374583- erica.santini@unifi.it