Trust the Process is a podcast about socially engaged arts that invites you to trust the unconventional nature of artistic processes and, more importantly, the impact they can have over time. This project is part of the Ask, Pay, Trust the Artist campaign and is supported by the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts.

This episode is a bit different from the others, as it marks the beginning of a special series that unfolds throughout Culture Action Europe's Satellite BEYOND gatherings.

This interview was recorded during the first of these gatherings, which took place in Riga in mid-April 2026 under the title "Different Times, New Solutions". Nurturing these conversations was a shared intuition: that moments of disruption also carry possibilities for re-imagination, and that culture does not simply react to change, but actively generates it. In a context where democracy can feel increasingly fragile, threatened by the long shadow of conflict, grassroots artistic practices often emerge as acts of care, resistance, and collective agency. This is why socially engaged arts became a recurring thread throughout the conference discussions, with fellows from the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts directly involved in the programme.

Throughout the episode, you'll hear the voices of Luís Correia, representative of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and collaborator of the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts, who gives us some more detailed insight into the rationale and intentions behind the creation of the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts and its flagship programme: the fellowship.

Together with Luís, socially engaged arts practitioners and fellows Samra Said, co-director of Arts and Homelessness International, and Damien McGlynn, Director of Create Ireland, take you through a conversation on what it really means to move at 'the speed of trust’ in the process of co-creating with a community, digging into the limits of short-term project-based funding, and on what it takes to create the conditions in which socially engaged arts can truly thrive.

Enjoy listening.

Special guests:

Luís Correia, Samra Said & Damien McGlynn

Music credits:

Original music by Kerem Çelikoğlu

Episode produced and hosted by:

Sara Bandinu, Culture Action Europe

This podcast aims to spark an ongoing conversation around socially engaged arts — one we hope to nurture by collecting grounded stories of change-making. If you are a socially engaged practitioner and would like to share your experience, feel free to get in touch at [email protected] — I would love to hear from you!

This episode is a special edition of the Trust the Process podcast, recorded in Riga during the first BEYOND satellite event, which launched the inaugural series of Culture Action Europe's satellite gatherings.

To sustain and nurture the conversations that took place in Riga from 14 to 16 April, we conducted a series of interviews with speakers and participants whose contributions brought the event to life.

This episode departs from the terrain of socially engaged arts. On this occasion, you will hear an interview with Niels Righolt (Director of CKI – Center for Kunst og Interkultur), Rosa Meriläinen (Secretary General of KULTA ry), and Iwona Preis (Director of Intercult), all members of Culture Action Europe’s Nordic Hub, a regional cultural strategy network bringing together CAE members from Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

Moderated by Burak Sayin, Founder of Space-Time Works and former member of the Culture Action Europe Board, the conversation explores the origins of the Nordic Hub and looks at the network’s future strategies and activities aimed at strengthening cultural advocacy across the Nordic-Baltic region and supporting artists and cultural organisations in influencing the policies that shape their lives.

If you would like to learn more about this initiative, reach out to Burak Sayin at [email protected].

Enjoy the episode, and stay tuned for more conversations from the Riga series!

Trust the Process is a podcast about socially engaged arts that invites you to trust the unconventional nature of artistic processes and, more importantly, the impact they can have over time. This project is part of the Ask, Pay, Trust the Artist campaign and is supported by the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts.

The guest of this second episode is the Belgian theatre director Frédérique Lecomte, founder of Théâtre & Réconciliation, a professional theatre company that brings people together through participatory theatre, nurturing connection and reconciliation.

At the heart of the conversation is Les Liaisons Joyeuses, an extraordinary project that each year brings together more than sixty people from across Brussels: ordinary citizens with different backgrounds, languages, and life experiences, many of whom might never otherwise cross paths. No previous theatre experience is required: the guiding principle is that everyone has something to share and is welcome to do so.

Developed over more than twenty-five years of work with communities affected by conflict, displacement, and exclusion, Frédérique’s methodology is grounded in a simple but radical idea: theatre does not ask people to relive their suffering, but offers a space where they can meet, play, create, and be recognised by others. The process itself becomes a form of community-building, contributing to what, in the language of public policy, we might call social cohesion.

If you would like to explore her methodology further, we recommend reading Théâtre & Réconciliation: A Method for Theatre Practice in Conflict Zones, a collection of field notes, correspondence and testimonies documenting the evolution of her practice.

Special guest:

Frédérique Lecomte

Music credits:

Original music by Kerem Çelikoğlu

Episode produced and hosted by:

Sara Bandinu, Culture Action Europe

This podcast aims to spark an ongoing conversation around socially engaged arts — one we hope to nurture by collecting grounded stories of change-making. If you are a socially engaged practitioner and would like to share your experience, feel free to get in touch at [email protected] — I would love to hear from you!

Trust the Process is a podcast about socially engaged arts that invites you to trust the unconventional nature of artistic processes and, more importantly, the impact they can have over time. This project is part of the Ask, Pay, Trust the Artist campaign and is supported by the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts.

The guest of this first episode is the French artist Chloé Malcotti, director of Medusa, a film that explores the case of Rosignano Solvay, a small Italian coastal town where industrial capitalism has deeply affected both the natural ecosystem and the collective identity of its residents.

What happens when residents’ mindsets are challenged and sparked into imagining alternative scenarios that question the unfairness of a given situation? And where does change begin?

Chloé’s words will help you understand what makes Medusa an exemplary case of how socially engaged artistic practices can challenge social issues by emphasising process, dialogue, and collective action — fostering local ownership, social cohesion, and active citizenship through art.

Special guest:

Chloé Malcotti

Music credits:

Original music by Kerem Çelikoğlu

Episode produced and hosted by:

Sara Bandinu, Culture Action Europe

This podcast aims to spark an ongoing conversation around socially engaged arts — one we hope to nurture by collecting grounded stories of change-making. If you are a socially engaged practitioner and would like to share your experience, feel free to get in touch at [email protected] — I would love to hear from you!

Culture Action Europe’s podcast Frequencies and Michael Culture Association’s Eucropolis present a special episode, "Elefsinian Mystery | Handle with Care", which  focuses on  the 2023 Beyond the Obvious conference, "Handle with Care | Culture for Social Well-being", co-organized by  Culture Action Europe, 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture, and the CultureForHealth project. This international get-together invited practitioners, organisations and institutions, policy-makers, thinkers, researchers, activists and artivists from the cultural, social and health sectors working on topics related to care, well-being, health and culture.

This episode focuses on the significance of care as an ethical and political obligation for our societies and the role culture and cultural professionals can play in this. How can culture and participation in the cultural life of communities nourish the sense of social and individual well-being?

Special guests and contributions from:

• Maja Kuzmanović, co-founder of FoAM, a transdisciplinary network working across art, science, nature and everyday life
• Philsan Omar Osman, co-author of Dare to Care: Ecofeminism as a Source of Inspiration
• Angeliki Lampiri, Director of Cultural Training, 2023 Eleusis | European Capital of Culture
• Lars Ebert, Secretary General, Culture Action Europe
• Valeryia Urbanovich,  Club Silencio
• Carmen Valero, Red Noses International
• Georgia Georgiou, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, MuseIT project

Music Credits:
Funk Saviour - Ketsa, Can’t Stop We - Ketsa

Episode produced and hosted by:
Marco Fiore, Michael Culture Association
Maya Weisinger, Culture Action Europe

*Correction: In the intro of the podcast, it is stated that the 2023 Beyond the Obvious conference took place in May 2023.  The conference took place from 6 - 10 June, 2023.

Culture Action Europe’s podcast Frequencies and Michael Culture Association’s Eucropolis present a four-part collaboration exploring the current discourse and practice around cultural rights in our communities across Europe. The series focuses on the four focus areas of the 2022 conference Culturopolis, co-organized by the Culture Institute of Barcelona and Culture Action Europe, which brought together researchers, cultural workers, artists and policymakers to exchange ideas and work around cultural rights.

This episode focuses on digital environments. What is the relationship between cultural rights and digital rights? How can digitalising culture on the one hand create new possibilities for access and participation,  but on the other create new inequalities?

Special guests:
Fieke Jansen, Researcher at the Data Justice Lab
Núria Guiu, Dancer and choreographer - Cyberexorcismo
La Fera, Fàbrica Digital

Music Credits:
Intro: Funk Saviour - Ketsa
Intermediary: Memories in Color - Daniel Birch, Solace Sighting - Ketsa, Ramen - HoliznaCC0, Vast Possibilities - Daniel Birch, Path to a New World - Lobe Loco
Outro: Can’t Stop We - Ketsa

Episode produced and hosted by:
Marco Fiore, Michael Culture Association
Maya Weisinger, Culture Action Europe

Culture Action Europe’s podcast Frequencies and Michael Culture Association’s Eucropolis present a four-part collaboration exploring the current discourse and practice around cultural rights in our communities across Europe. The series focuses on the four focus areas of the 2022 conference Culturopolis, co-organized by the Culture Institute of Barcelona and Culture Action Europe, which brought together researchers, cultural workers, artists and policymakers to exchange ideas and work around cultural rights.

Today’s episode focuses on cultural work, with an important focus on the right to work in the cultural sector under decent conditions. How is the work of artists and cultural workers valued and recognised? What inequalities continue to occur in cultural work? How can we ensure cultural work and workers' economic, social and environmental sustainability? In this episode we have an up-close look at the realities of artists and cultural workers across Europe and how they and their allies are fighting for their rights.

Special guests:
Catherine Magnant - Head of the cultural policies department in the European Commission Directorate General for Education and Culture
Noel Kelly - Director of Visual Artists Ireland
Katharina Weinert - Policy Adviser, European Music Council - SHIFT Project
Julia Pagel - Secretary General of the Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO)

Music Credits:
Intro: Funk Saviour - Ketsa
Intermediary: HoliznaCC0 - Ramen, Johnny Ripper - Typing, Daniel Birch - Birds Eye View, Daniel Birch - Memories in Color, Daniel Birch - Vast Possibilities 
Outro: Can’t Stop We - Ketsa

Episode produced and hosted by:
Marco Fiore, Michael Culture Association
Maya Weisinger, Culture Action Europe

Culture Action Europe’s podcast Frequencies and Michael Culture Association’s Eucropolis present a four-part collaboration exploring the current discourse and practice around cultural rights in our communities across Europe. The series focuses on the four focus areas of the 2022 conference Culturopolis, co-organized by the Culture Institute of Barcelona and Culture Action Europe, which brought together researchers, cultural workers, artists and policymakers to exchange ideas and work around cultural rights.

This episode focuses on Participation and Communities. Who is being left out of the experience of culture? What is the cultural sector doing to improve the situation? We asked these and other crucial questions to the people from across the sector who are looking critically at the various conditions that affect the right to participate in the city’s cultural life, as well as the various forms of cultural participation. 

Special guests:
Alexandra Xanthaki, UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights
Gaia Raisoni from IED Istituto Europeo di Design S.p.A. – Società Benefit
Luca Bergamo, Cultural professional, former Vice-Mayor and deputy Mayor for Cultural Development of Rome
Maud Ntonga (MCA) and Ines Martorell (Dedale) from the MEMEX project

Music Credits:
Intro: Funk Saviour - Ketsa
Intermediary: HoliznaCC0 - Ramen, Johnny Ripper - Typing, Daniel Birch - Birds Eye View, Daniel Birch - Memories in Color, Daniel Birch - Vast Possibilities
Outro: Can’t Stop We - Ketsa

Episode produced and hosted by:
Marco Fiore, Michael Culture Association
Maya Weisinger, Culture Action Europe

Culture Action Europe’s podcast Frequencies and Michael Culture Association’s Eucropolis present a four-part collaboration exploring the current discourse and practice around cultural rights in our communities across Europe. The series focuses on the four focus areas of the 2022 conference Culturopolis, co-organized by the Culture Institute of Barcelona and Culture Action Europe, which brought together researchers, cultural workers, artists and policymakers to exchange ideas and work around cultural rights.

This episode focuses on Diversity, on the difficulties around invisibility or lack of diversity and on the importance of participation and the decision-making capacity inherent in the design of cultural policies. This area tackles the diversity of identities included in cultural rights (gender, sex, ethnicity, language, origin, background, etc.) and the difficulties that may be encountered with regard to freely experiencing this diversity.

There is a need to tackle the insufficient presence and visibility of diversities in cultural expressions and practices, as well as in participation and the decision-making capacity inherent in the design of cultural policies.

Special guests:
Creative Homeless - An initiative for combating the stigma of being homeless through artistic practice
Jaslyn Reader - ​​Alumni Deakin University, Society of Gender Professionals
Sara Brighenti - Deputy commissioner of the National Plan for the Arts – promoter and co-author of the Porto Santo Charter
Joana Dark (Ariadna Rulló)

Music Credits:
Musical excerpts from Joana Dark
Intro: Funk Saviour - Ketsa
Intermediary: Typing - Johnny Ripper, Daniel Birch - Birds Eye View,
Outro: Can’t Stop We - Ketsa

Episode produced and hosted by:
Marco Fiore, Michael Culture Association
Maya Weisinger, Culture Action Europe

Click here to listen on Youtube.

Today we will be listening to a sound diary from three different cultural organisations based in Malmö and Lund in Sweden. The sound diary aims to “sonify” the daily operations of the people and organisations who make out the local culture sector there. It is an initiative from the European cultural network Trans Europe Halles in Lund, as a part of Culture Action Europe's project Amplify: make the future of Europe yours.

In the podcast, you will hear three sound pieces in a row - three diary entries - from Stpln , a culture incubator and coworking space in Malmö; from NGBG, a hyper-local culture association and festival in Malmö; and from Krognoshuset, a member-driven art gallery in Lund. The recordings were collected on days in April 2022. If you have the possibility, we recommend that you listen with headphones in a quiet space.

“Frequencies” is a podcast that explores arts and cultural initiatives that seek to impact and transform communities, near and far. Each episode features the work, voices, and experiences of artists and cultural workers across Europe and beyond. “Frequencies”, a production of Culture Action Europe, lives at the intersection of culture and politics by focusing on the power cultural practices and agents have in nurturing inclusive, open, diverse, fair and democratic societies.

The Amplify Sweden hub will be part of the upcoming event #AmplifyinAction, a day full of debates, conversations, presentations, cultural and artistic programs and actions to put culture centerstage. We’ll see you on Europe Day, the 9th of May 2022, on our livestream at europeday.eu. Follow the hashtag #AmplifyinAction and find the full program on the Culture Action Europe website.

Hosted by Maya Weisinger

Music: "納骨堂 (johnny_ripper remix)" by Tide Jewel