Following the announcement of “WALC – a new future of walking arts – the largest cultural investment putting walking arts on the map” we are delighted to have as Café guests representatives from each of the consortium partners who put together the successful EU funding application for the Walking Arts and Local Communities project.

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.

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.

Names and faces familiar to many walking artists, we hope to introduce them to people who have not yet considered walking art, they include Yannis Ziogas, Geert Vermeire, Clara Gari, Anna Luyten, Sylvie Marchand, Miguel Bandeira Duarte and Kostas Diamantis Balaskas.

We look forward to hearing their hopes and aspirations of how the WALC project may evolve. Come along and find out how you can benefit through involvement in the project.

The Walking Arts and Local Communities consortium 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, Universitade do Minho, Portugal), Cultural Association Cochlea (Asociación Cultural Cochlea, CACN, Spain), Association Temps Reel (Gigacircus, France), Action Synergy SA (AS, Greece), School of Gaasbeek (De School van Gaasbeek, SvG, Belgium).

Thanks to the EU Creative Europe Cooperation grant this Café is a free event – when booking your ticket, take a moment to bring your walk · listen · create profile is up to date, or add a bio to create one if you haven’t already. To keep up to date with the Walking Arts and Local Communities over its four year duration, make sure you are subscribing to the weekly walk · listen · create newsletter.

A video recording of the event will be made available in due course.