Rethinking and Strengthening Associations through Art

We have the active participation of a group of 10 people linked to associations from various fields, from neighborhood and cultural to environmental and youth organizations.

May 28, 2025 – With the aim of promoting citizen participation and strengthening community bonds in our region, we launched an initiative at the beginning of the academic year to create a collective space for reflection and artistic creation to jointly rethink the future of associations.

Thus, under the title “Building the Narrative of Associations: A Participatory Community Art Process in l’Horta Sud“ we have been holding a series of meetings since September 2024 with the active participation of a group of 10 people linked to associations from various fields, including neighborhood, cultural, environmental, and youth sectors. These participants have committed to follow the entire process and share the learning with their organizations. Additionally, we plan to conduct interviews and documentation activities to collect the memory of the process and evaluate the results.

The project began with a first session before the DANA storm, but the catastrophe forced us to stop its development. Now, after overcoming that emergency moment, we have resumed it with greater strength and significance during the first semester of 2025. In fact, we have already reached the halfway point of the process, which will culminate this summer with an open action for the entire community.

Through the process, we are building a collective declaration of intent about the role of associations in the region. This will take various forms —such as a mural, a fanzine, a performance, a podcast, or a documentary—. However, the greatest value lies not in the final format, but in the shared journey and the transformation it generates in the people and collectives involved.

Methodology

This participatory project combines tools such as mapping, social memory, and community art, from an approach inspired by the theoretical frameworks of capabilities, restorative futures, and ecosocial transformations. These critical and creative methodologies aim to strengthen collective capacities, activate creativity as a driver of social transformation, and reinforce bonds between organizations and territories.

It is also part of a doctoral thesis, which brings methodological rigor and a solid research framework to the initiative, although this is not the central focus of the project. Its origin lies in an internal and external diagnosis that we conducted at the beginning of 2024, where shared challenges among projects and organizations were identified, as well as the need to open more creative and collaborative spaces to strengthen the associative fabric of the region. In this sense, for the Foundation, opening this space for reflection on the future of associations is a strategic commitment to rethink the roles, alliances, and organizational forms of the associative world.

Learnings for the Future

The process does not end with this summer’s final action. In the medium and long term, there is a desire to consolidate a stable core group for community processes: an open and dynamic creative space that serves as a meeting point, source of inspiration, and co-creation hub for the region’s organizations. A kind of collective laboratory from where associations can rethink themselves and build new paths based on collaboration.