Kill the brain drain. underdogs for life.
Connecting interesting & unexpected art scenes throughout Europe.
What is a Creative Embassy? _01
A Creative Embassy is quite similar to a normal embassy, but instead of diplomacy, we exchange art scenes throughout Europe
Why we're doing this. _02
Like you, we live in a small city and we think it’s great. Finding the space and opportunities to experiment and discover our potential.
We create projects that contribute to the liveability of our surroundings. Aiming to make our homes as cozy, inspiring and relevant as possible.
Not unique in this. Smaller cities like ours are found throughout Europe. We like to call them the underdog cities.
In these cities, interesting art scenes often experience the same issues as we do.
Together, we fight the status quo of talented artists leaving their hometown for capitals like London, Zagreb or Amsterdam.
By joining forces and exchanging ideas, we’re encouraging a creative brain-gain instead.
How does it work? _03
Every Underdog City can have a Creative Embassy. The only thing you need is a grassroots cultural organization that functions as the ambassador (you, obviously). As a host of the Creative Embassy, you know what’s going on in your city and you’re always in touch with other embassies, looking for new connections and new collaborations.
something like this.
1. connect
Embassies are always in contact with each other to look for possible connections;
2. reach out
From the embassies, we’ll send an open call for artists to take up a residency;
3. join
The embassies choose one, or a couple of artists or organizations to join the exchange;
4. collaborate
The artist will be connected through the embassies to the artist and art scene on the other side and together, they’ll work on a collaborative project;
5. exhibite
The Embassy will be the stage of the final presentation of the collaborative work. This could be an exhibition, a performance, anything, really;
6. repeat
New connections are made, and we’ll exchange ideas again!
So, do you think you could be the ambassador of your city? Are you interested in collaborating? We would love to hear from you.
examples
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The Leeuwarden screen printing collective Window Licker traveled to Rijeka to work with Croatian screen printing artists on a form of screen printing on windows they devised, as a protest against vacancy in the city center.
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Dj and producer Viljana Babic came to Leeuwarden to produce several tracks together with Mathijs Smit, a Leeuwarden DJ/producer.
They played a back 2 back set during one of the evenings of the Stadsoase, a pop-up beer garden, initiated by Stage Asteriks.
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Tanja Blašković from Rijeka collaborated with Writer’s Block Murals to make a painting on one of the walls of the Klanderij parking lot in the city of Leeuwarden.
The Embassies
Do you want to work abroad and exchange valuable ideas and experiences?
Contact your local Creative Embassy. If you don’t have one, just reach out to us, or a cultural organization in your town and start one!
Do you work at a grassroots & independent cultural organization in a city that deals with brain drain and has no more than 300.000 inhabitants? You just might qualify to open a Creative Embassy yourself. Reach out to us and let’s start celebrating underdog cities!
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Hyped? Call us.
+31 654698340
