PROTOTYPE FOR SUSTAINABLE RESIDENCES IN THE PERIPHERIES - PROSPER

Project title:

About the project:

PROSPER aims to spark change and innovation by focusing on issues of re-examining the sustainability of artist residencies and recontextualizing peripheries as spaces of growth and development, as well as creating connections between organizations from the cultural and tourism sectors.
Peripheries are places of solidarity that the partners in PROSPER aim to explore by creating connections between ecologically vulnerable regions, through a series of transnational cultural collaborations.
The main priorities are to engage artists and local communities in two regions of great ecological significance; namely the island of Evia in Greece, which suffered devastating forest fires in 2021, and Lake Ohrid in the Republic of North Macedonia, which has suffered degradation due to human activity, threatening its endemic importance. Both regions have been affected by COVID, where workers in the fields of culture and tourism are looking for a path towards a sustainable and inclusive future.

Location:

Ohrid, Berlin, Evia, Belgrade, Skopje, Athens

Timeframe:

April 2023 – September 2025

Project partners:

Project leader:
LOOP ASTIKI MI KERDOSKOPIKI ETAIREIA (LOOP), Athens, Greece
Project partners:
EHO ANIMATO (EHO ANIMATO), Belgrade, Serbia
KULTUR NEUDENKEN UG (Oyoun), Berlin, Germany
ZDRUZENIE LOKALNA AGENCIJA ZA RAZVOJ STRUGA (STRUGA), Struga, North Macedonia

Main objectives:

#1 Contributing to the development of transnational cooperation models that will enable stronger links between European artists and organizations, diverse audiences that include local communities and sustainable cultural tourism sectors; as well as improving operational capacities for managing projects led by different organizations in development.

#2 Strengthening international cultural cooperation, methodologies for integrating environmental issues into artistic practice, stronger cooperation between art and tourism, new local audiences, visibility of European artists and stronger capacities for additional projects that enable sustainable and inclusive management.

Activities:

LAR is a partner through which artists connect with the tourism sector and the local community, primarily in and around Ohrid, in order to create a useful, sustainable prototype for residencies that will be beneficial to both artists and the local community.

One of the main activities of the project, the artist residency which should serve as a prototype for sustainable residencies, is being held in Ohrid in order to establish relations between the group of foreign artists selected by public call and the local art scene and tourism workers involved in sustainable tourism. For this purpose, during the 30-day stay of the artists, the following will be organized: 4 meetings with local artists in order to familiarize them with local creativity, 4 organized walks with local guides and experts in the field of culture, art and the ecosystem of Lake Ohrid, and one joint networking event with the local artistic community. The residency ends with a one-day festival in which joint participation/presentation of local artists and the participants of the residency is planned.

The main goal of the project is to create a sustainable prototype that is intended to be applicable to other organizations outside the project. In order to make it accessible to the public and relevant stakeholders, it is planned to e-publish and share it on the project's digital platforms, as well as directly share it as a model for further development and use.

Results:

Raising awareness about the environmental challenges in Lake Ohrid and the island of Evia at a local and international level.
Creation of a Prototype of Sustainable Residences designed and disseminated through an exhibition and e-publication.
Mobilizing the local community in areas where culture is less represented and its inclusion in activities.
Strengthening communication between cultural and tourism organizations.
Increasing the management capacities of partner organizations.

Expected outcomes: 2 residencies, 1 prototype, 2 one-day festivals, 2 co-creations, 1 exhibition, 1 audio walk, 2 publications, 12 workshops, 5 capacity building trainings and 10 presentations.