Walking Arts & Local Communities

ongoing

Contributing to the “Innovation” objective of the Creative Europe program and with as it main priority “Sustainability”, the Walking Arts & Local Communities (WALC) project establishes an international Center for Artistic Research and Practice of Walking Arts in Prespa, Greece, at the border with Albania and North Macedonia. WALC sets a new model for artists and organisations in community-based practices benefitting the rural and natural areas of all partners. WALC builds on the previous work of hundreds of artists and researchers in a shared network practicing and interested to explore Walking Arts as a collaborative medium, involving local inhabitants, engaging with local activists and nature workers, young artists and curators, open for an international public. Thanks to the European support, WALC will realize two international walking arts encounters in the natural reserve of Prespa and simultaneously organize events and residencies by the consortium partners, mainly in natural and rural areas of their countries (Greece, Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain), complemented by activities in other countries, after an open call. The whole process is backed by a digital and online platform and a digital archive/database for walking arts. Physical events go along with horizontal online events, such as training, meetups, talks, workshops and collaborative artistic processes, through an online platform gathering all the partners, and also the artists, audience and communities. With Europe's support, the successful implementation of WALC means to become a model of trans-European cooperation, allowing community-based practices, based on walking arts. and the emergence of new art venues, detached from established art market, through experimentation and new artistic networks, and as fertile grounds for new and emerging disciplines. There is also a need for community-based art processes that enhance one of the purposes of art: its relation to society.