ARTIVISM – Bridging Art and Migrant Voices for a Peaceful Future
EU Programme: Erasmus+ Cooperation partnerships in youth (KA220-YOU)
Reference: 2025-1-SE02-KA220-YOU-000354834
Start date: 01/11/2025
End date: 30/11/2027
Art is a powerful driver of social transformation, combining respect for human dignity with freedom of expression, both essential to human rights and democratic citizenship. Through its disruptive and participatory nature, artivism brings fresh energy to educational and social contexts, revitalising artistic and civic spaces and positioning art as a concrete vehicle for social change.
In this framework, the ARTIVISM project is conceived as a pilot initiative that demonstrates how art can generate measurable social impact. It enhances well-being by offering a strong emotional outlet that supports expression, resilience, and healing, particularly for people experiencing exclusion or displacement. It fosters inclusion through collaborative, arts-based practices that bridge diverse communities and strengthen mutual understanding. It also promotes art as a tool for self-expression and connection, helping participants explore their identities while respecting cultural diversity and shared values.
The relevance of this approach is increasingly recognised at European level, as shown by initiatives such as The Changemakers exhibition at the European Parliament (from March 2025), highlighting how young artists merge activism and creativity to address pressing social issues. By engaging artists and cultural organisations, the project reinforces EU values, counters racism and intolerance, and demonstrates the unifying power of art in defending human rights.
- Empowering young migrants, refugees, and displaced youth through artistic and social entrepreneurship training, enabling them to act as agents of change. The project will provide targeted learning on artivism, equipping participants with skills to design cultural initiatives, manage local art-based projects, and use creative expression to promote inclusion, counter hate speech, and advocate for human rights.
- Promoting cross-border collaboration and intercultural dialogue through collective artistic initiatives. By engaging young people, youth workers, artists, and local communities in local and transnational art events, the project will strengthen community ties, amplify marginalised voices, and foster mutual understanding and shared values across borders.
- Raising awareness and empathy among wider youth audiences through a digital art platform. The project will develop The Artivism Gallery, an interactive online space showcasing young migrant artists and their work, offering educational resources and participatory content to stimulate critical thinking and promote understanding around migration, discrimination, and social inclusion.
- Collaborative webinars and expert-led sessions conducted among partners to foster knowledge sharing and skill enhancement on using art to communicate complex migration narratives & storytelling for advocacy, and the intersection of art and social change.
- Mapping relevant organisations in all partner cities working in the field of migration, youth & arts (such as local NGOs, refugee shelters, migrant support groups, cultural, youth and artists associations at EU and local level) with a compilation of information on their activities, focus areas, and potential for collaboration.
- Interviews with young artists, including with migrant backgrounds, who use their art for social change, to capture their personal experiences, artistic approaches to migration issues, and sources of inspiration. Each artist will present a significant piece of their work, emphasizing its role in introducing youth to art.
- Design & development of the Artivism gallery platform with sections dedicated to showcasing the featured artists, art-based initiatives undertaken along the project, webinars resources, reports, toolkits, news, updates and project results
- Focus group sessions in all partner countries conducted with young migrants and refugees to explore various forms of artistic expression, sharing their personal experiences, cultural influences, and creative preferences.
- Transnational training course in Palermo, Italy, with the participating artists with the purpose of equipping participants with the knowledge, competencies, and tools to effectively organise local art-based projects and manage cultural events. The activities will focus on event management, project management, and artistic techniques to promote peace, combat racism and discrimination and foster cultural understanding and empathy through artistic expression.
- Design and development of a digital Toolkit on Art event management and Artistic techniques for social change
- Art&Peace desks led by young artists to monitor and support the implementation of the art-based local events in all cities involved, providing support to the young people to act as leaders of change in their local communities.
- Planning of youth-led artistic events, a target call for participation and info-days in every community to engage young people, youth organizations, and cultural and artistic associations in the implementation of each art-based event.
- A visual map and an accompanying database will be developed and uploaded to the platform, providing an easily accessible and comprehensive overview of organizations and stakeholders working in the fields of migration, youth, and the arts, and committed to collaborate in the future initiatives.
- Collected stories of young migrant artists to document their experiences through interviews, accompanied by visual resources, subtitled in all partner languages.
- The Artivism gallery digital platform, a comprehensive, interactive, multilingual, and user-friendly platform that hosts all the outcomes produced, available in English and the languages of the partner organisations, as well as key languages of the target groups to ensure accessibility for diverse audiences, including local and migrant communities.
- Transnational training course in Palermo, Italy, with the participating artists to build competences on how to effectively organise local art-based projects and manage cultural events in their cities.
- Learning Toolkit on Art event management and Artistic techniques for social change to provide youth workers and other end-users with practical guidance on organising and managing local art-based projects for social change.
- Artwork creations: A set of collaboratively artworks in all cities involved representing the needs and perspectives of the target groups to be showcased at the art-based events as well in the Artivism platform.
- Art-based local events focused on artivism for social change implemented in all local contexts.
Results
- For young people:
The project will strengthen skills, confidence, and active citizenship among young migrants, refugees, and local youth. Training activities, the Learning Toolkit, and transnational exchange will build concrete competences in art-based project design, cultural event management, and social entrepreneurship. Storytelling, collaborative artworks, and participation in the Artivism Gallery will increase visibility, self-expression, and recognition of young people as agents of social change. - For local communities:
Local communities will benefit from stronger cooperation between organisations active in migration, youth, and the arts, supported by the visual map and stakeholder database. Art-based local events and public exhibitions will foster intercultural dialogue, reduce stereotypes, and create shared spaces for encounter and reflection. The digital platform will connect local initiatives to transnational networks, supporting continuity and replication. - For society as a whole:
At societal level, the project will raise awareness on migration, discrimination, and social inclusion through accessible, multilingual digital content and public art. By amplifying migrant voices and promoting artivism practices, it will contribute to greater empathy, social cohesion, and respect for human rights, while demonstrating the role of culture as a driver of democratic participation and inclusive change.
Co-experts
Young artists with migrant backgrounds.
Keywords
Artivism, YouthEmpowerment, SocialInclusion, Intercultural Dialogue, Migrant Voices, Art For Social Change, Community Building, Human Rights, Cultural Diversity, Active Citizenship.
Website
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Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. The European Union cannot be held responsible for them.