The Wall is Yours – Youth Expression through Participatory Urban Art

ongoing

"This project addresses a clear need to promote youth expression, ownership, and cultural engagement within everyday educational environments. The project ""Mine, Yours, Our Wall” addresses a clear need to encourage participatory urban art among the youth through co-designed workshops, and transnational exchange of practices. Our project builds upon the previous work of L’ORMA, DES, SISH, who have been instrumental in reimagining schoolyards and public spaces as engaging spaces that reflect the identities and needs of students and the local communities. We aspire to empower the young people to transform the spaces they live and use—from passive backdrops to platforms for visibility and voice. Many cultural and creative sectors across the EU offer powerful tools for expression and inclusion. But access to these tools and resources remains unequal. Schools, especially in underserved areas, often lack the means to engage youth in participatory cultural experiences that enable ownership, dialogue, and community. This disconnect reflects a broader gap in European urban and educational governance: the absence of systemic models that place the rights of young people at the centre of spatial planning, design, and decision-making processes. When looking at the studies conducted by the European Commission on youth and cultural involvement, they show that young people's general participation in artistic and cultural pursuits is inconsistent and frequently decreases with age, particularly for those from lower-income or less fortunate families. This gap is frequently filled by passive or marketed digital content because many schools currently lack the infrastructure necessary to provide a variety of recreational options. Although promising initiatives exist — including local participatory projects and nature-based playground renovations — they are often fragmented, unsystematic, and heavily dependentThe Wall is Yours – Youth Expression through Participatory Urban Art"