Walking Arts & Local Communities (WALC) is an artistic cooperation project, co-funded by the European Union, Creative Europe, started in January 2024 for four years.
find out how you can benefit through getting involved. Join the Inaugural Walking Arts & Local Communities online Café event at 8pm CET on Tuesday 27 February – tickets are free, but booking is required: https://walklistencreate.org/walkingevent/walking-arts-and-local-communities/
With seven partners from five countries, WALC establishes an International Center for Artistic Research and Practice of Walking Arts, in Prespa, Greece, at the border with Albania and North Macedonia, and 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 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.
The partners are:
Visual March to Prespes, University of Western Macedonia (Leader, Πανεπιστήμιο Δυτικής Μακεδονίας, UOWM, Greece), walk · listen · create (WLC, Belgium), WalkLab2.PT at the University of Minho (UMINHO, Universidade do Minho, Portugal), Contemporary Art Center Nau Côclea. (Centre de Creació Contemporània Nau Côclea, Catalonia, Spain), Association Temps Reel (Gigacircus, France), Action Synergy SA (AS, Greece), School of Gaasbeek (De School van Gaasbeek, SvG, Belgium).
Thanks to the European support, WALC will realize two international walking arts encounters in the natural reserve of Prespa and simultaneously organize events and ten 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. WALC will conclude in 2027 with two exhibitions in museums in Greece and Belgium.
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.The 4-year process is backed by a digital and online platform and a digital archive/database for walking arts.
WALC is setting an innovative model of trans-European cooperation, for community-based practices, based on walking arts. and the emergence of new art venues, beyond the established art market, through experimentation and new artistic networks, and as a fertile ground for contemporary and emerging disciplines. It fulfils the need for community-based art practices that strengthen one of the main purposes of art; renewing its relation to society, more needed than ever in our world of today.
WALC is the biggest investment in walking art – EVER – find out how you can benefit through getting involved. Join the Inaugural Walking Arts & Local Communities online Café event at 8pm CET on Tuesday 27 February – tickets are free, but booking is required: https://walklistencreate.org/walkingevent/walking-arts-and-local-communities/