The projects, selected from 86 applications, cover interventions as varied as theatre, music, dance, visual arts and video, with some multidisciplinary proposals. Among the topics covered are the intersection between the arts, climate and sustainability, the involvement of direct participants such as, among others, cancer patients and their carers, textile industry workers, and the strengthening of projects in the areas of integration of migrant communities (and their descendants) in different parts of the country.

Of the 15 projects selected for the pilot phase, 12 are being developed outside the Lisbon and Oporto Metropolitan Areas, covering new territories within the scope of the PARTIS & Art for Change initiative, namely: Abrantes, Aveiro, Beja, Entroncamento, Ílhavo, Lagoa, Miranda do Douro, Ponta Delgada and Povoação. As for the organisations promoting them, 14 are newcomers to this initiative, such as the associations ‘Anda & Fala’, ‘Hirundo – Associação Para O Pensamento Crítico, Cultura e Desenvolvimento’, ‘Chamadarte’, ‘Palombar – Conservação da Natureza e do Património Rural’, ‘Associação de Moradores do PER 11’, ‘Paisagem Periférica’, “Associação Rio Neiva”, “DCTR”, “4ISCT – Inovação Social”, “Soma Collective”, “Associação Cultural Casa Invisível”, “Fundação O Cerro”, “Faz Cultura”, “Grupo de Teatro do Oprimido de Lisboa”, and “Beira Serra”.

The selected projects will receive support of around €30,000 for the development of the pilot year (2025), at the end of which 10 projects will be selected to continue their activity for a further 24 months, for a total investment of up to €1.5 million in subsidies and training actions, to be shared equally between the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation.

Through this initiative, over nine years (2020-2028), the two foundations will invest more than 4.5 million euros in participatory art projects where professional and non-professional artists come together in shared processes of learning, reflection and the construction of artistic proposals, developing individual skills and strengthening communities’ sense of identity and belonging. The aim is to affirm the intervention territory of this type of project, foster a community of practice, produce knowledge and documentation in order to contribute to better public policies on a local and national scale.