What Creative Landscapes is?
creativelandscapes.eu
Creative Landscapes (CL) is a European Erasmus+ project that reimagines rural territories as spaces where art, education, and ecology converge to shape sustainable futures.
The project unfolds through an artist residency program, a training initiative for cultural workers, and a series of participatory activities involving local communities.
CL approaches rural areas as living ecosystems, places where knowledge, traditions, and creative potential intertwine. It explores how artistic and educational practices can activate these territories, transforming community spaces into dynamic hubs for artistic and cultural learning, and fostering collaboration at the local level.
The project develops across two distinctive contexts: Sasso Marconi, in the Bologna Apennines (Italy), and Švenčionėliai, a small forest town in northeastern Lithuania. Though geographically distant, both share a profound connection to the land and a desire to link cultural renewal with environmental awareness.
In Sasso Marconi, activities take place at Borgo di Colle Ameno, a restored seventeenth-century village that has become a gathering place for artists, educators, and residents. Surrounded by the rolling Apennine hills, this setting hosts residencies, workshops, and public programs where creativity becomes a catalyst for social bonds and ecological consciousness. Here, the project experiments with innovative learning processes that nourish environmental education and sustainable practices through artistic and cultural engagement.
In Švenčionėliai, Miško Uostas has transformed a former railway site into a vibrant space for artistic production and community learning. Nestled in the forests of the Dzūkija region, it provides a platform for decentralized and inclusive cultural education, ensuring accessibility in underserved rural contexts and encouraging the blending of traditional knowledge with contemporary creative approaches.
Aligned with the priorities of Erasmus+, Creative Landscapes promotes sustainable, inclusive, and innovative forms of learning that connect culture, ecology, and community across Europe’s rural territories.
Who are we?
Creative Landscapes is the result of a collaboration between two independent cultural organizations: Miško Uostas (Lithuania) and Parsec (Italy). These were both founded by artists and cultural practitioners who believe that creativity can inspire learning, strengthen social connections, and promote environmental awareness.
Miško Uostas, based in Švenčionėliai, has been revitalizing the town’s industrial heritage and surrounding natural landscapes since 2016. By transforming an abandoned railway area into a cultural hub, Miško Uostas has hosted residencies, exhibitions, and community workshops that reconnect people with their environment and local histories. Trainspotting Art Residency has become a reference model for rural cultural regeneration and inclusive participation.
Parsec, located in Bologna, works at the intersection of contemporary art, education, and ecology. Parsec organizes residencies, exhibitions, and public programs that explore how creative practice can address environmental and social transformation. Among its main initiatives are the Terrapolis Festival, dedicated to art and ecology, and Green Screen, a moving-image program focused on sustainability and cultural change.
Despite their different locations, Miško Uostas and Parsec share a common vision: art as a collective and pedagogical process rather than a solitary act. Both value long-term engagement, non-formal education, and direct collaboration with local communities, building bridges between local experience and global challenges. Their partnership, born within the Reset! Network, has evolved into a transnational ecosystem that brings together artistic research, ecological practice, and community learning. Through this collaboration, they cultivate a shared methodology that understands creativity as a form of care, cooperation, and responsibility toward the places we inhabit.
Together, they design residencies, training programs, and public events that connect people across countries and disciplines.
How to participate?
Participation is at the heart of Creative Landscapes!
The project grows through the people who take part in it: artists, educators, cultural workers, students, and residents of the local community who want to explore how creativity can nurture ecological awareness, collective learning, and sustainable living. Every participant, regardless of background or experience, contributes to shaping a shared process of cultural and environmental transformation.
You can join us in different ways: by applying for our Art & Ecology Residencies, taking part in training programs for cultural and educational professionals, engaging in community workshops and public programs, or contributing to collective events such as the Terrapolis Festival.
The Art & Ecology Residencies take place in two rural contexts, Borgo di Colle Ameno in Sasso Marconi (Italy) and the Miško Uostas cultural space in Švenčionėliai (Lithuania). Through open calls, CL invites artists from Italy and Lithuania working in different disciplines to spend time in residence, working closely with the natural and social environments of these territories. During the residencies, artists are encouraged to develop site-specific projects that respond to the ecological and cultural particularities of each place. They will collaborate with local communities and associations, creating workshops, installations, or performances that translate research into shared experiences. These residencies are spaces of mutual learning, where residents, visitors, and inhabitants come together to imagine alternative ways of inhabiting and caring for the land.
Whether you are an artist researching ecology issues or a community resident eager to engage with your local landscape, your contribution is essential: participation is not limited to formal programs but anyone can attend our events, follow the project online, or connect with us through workshops and community gatherings.
By joining Creative Landscapes, you become part of a transnational community that values cooperation, ecological responsibility, and creative freedom: together, we aim to build new models of learning and cultural engagement that respond to the environmental and social challenges of our time.