"New Horizons: Disabled-led change and representation in European outdoor arts festivals", FESTIVAL.ORG, United Kingdom

FESTIVAL.ORG proposes a ground-breaking international project to grow Deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent (DDN) audiences for outdoor arts, through a collaborative, replicable model rooted in local lived experience, alongside a tour of a new disabled-led participatory show Dancefloor Activist. This pilot will be a collaboration between Greenwich+Docklands International Festival (GDIF) (UK), Festival dos Canais (Portugal), Zomer van Antwerpen (Belgium), and La Mercè (Spain).

While Europe has made important strides in improving disability representation and access within performing arts, DDN audiences still remain underrepresented and underserved.

This award would support three strands of activity:

The presentation and access costs of touring an exceptional new piece of disabled-led performance Dancefloor Activist.

A programme of community-led audience engagement to connect with DDN communities across the four festivals, with a particular focus on Dancefloor Activist.

A programme of training, development and capacity building to strengthen the partners’ ability to engage and warmly welcome large and diverse DDN audiences at their festivals.

Our overarching aims for this project are to increase DDN attendance to outdoor arts across Europe, through building trust and relationships with these communities, and to develop the capacity and ability of European cultural organisations to engage and welcome these groups.

© Photo : David Levene

"Cinemini Europe: Including All", Eye Filmmuseum, Netherlands

Cinemini Europe: Including all is a film education project, designed in collaboration with several European partners, aimed at children aged 3 – 6 with a hearing impairment to introduce them to cinema in a playful and meaningful way and to offer them a new language to express themselves. The Cinemini Europe consortium was originally founded in 2019 and developed a toolkit for educational and film professionals across Europe and the rest of the world, to provide them with practical tools to design high-quality film education activities for the young age group of 3 - 6, which is currently underserved. Through creative activities, children explore film as an art form and experience a carefully curated selection of short European films – ranging from early cinema classics to contemporary animations and experimental works. While Cinemini is technically accessible for children with a hearing impairment, it is not yet truly meaningful or empowering for them. With support from the Art Explora Prize, we aim to co-create new inclusive tools and film selections in collaboration with this target group – ensuring the programme is not only accessible, but genuinely relevant and impactful for children with a hearing impairment.

© Photo : Eye Filmmuseum

"Les mallettes culturelles", Cité de la musique - Philharmonie de Paris, France

The "cultural kits"offer seniors living in nursing homes the opportunity to explore the collections of the Musée de la Musique through participatory workshops led independently by the staff of the establishments.

This set of four kits provides clear and detailed activity materials in which music is both the subject of the workshop and a tool for well-being and memory support.

In addition to the activity sheets, there is a multisensory box containing items to touch, handle, and smell, a puzzle, a photo gallery, and rich multimedia content.

This first edition will explore music through the theme of the four seasons, a unifying theme capable of evoking emotions, sensations, and memories. Each kit will be dedicated to a season, creating a dialogue between music and other arts.

The kits aim to involve all staff at the establishments, through activities that foster a collective dynamic to enrich the daily lives of residents.

For the first time, the museum is designing educational materials adapted for independent use by activity teams. Training and remote support will enable beneficiaries to make the most of the kits.

© Photo : Gil Lefauconnier

"Micro School Inspire, La Collection Lambert, France

The "micro-école Inspire", a unique initiative in France created in collaboration with the French Ministry of Education, gives students who have dropped out of school the opportunity to rediscover a love of learning through art, thanks to total immersion in the art centre and encounters with artists from diverse backgrounds.

Permanently located in the heart of the museum, the Inspire micro-school offers Year 5 and Year 6 pupils who have dropped out of school a new methodology: the works on display and encounters with artists from all disciplines are the guiding thread for learning the fundamentals.

The museum becomes a place of exploration and emancipation, a space to be inhabited differently and together: with visitors, staff and artists... As the exhibitions come and go, the children reveal themselves, reclaim the world and build themselves up as sensitive citizens, far from stigmatisation.  

Today, the challenge is twofold: to ensure the sustainability of the programme and to prepare for the transfer of this experience to other cultural institutions, both in France and in Europe. This network of partners in arts and cultural education will enable this promising model to grow.

© Photo: Pauline Abascal - La Boîte Orageuse

"Future Heritage: A MakerLab and Roleplay Experience for Creating the History of Tomorrow", EESTI AJALOOMUUSEUM SA, Estonia

"Future Heritage" is an innovative educational project by the Estonian History Museum that empowers young people to explore, create, and define their own heritage through artistic expression, hands-on making, and immersive storytelling. The project combines two powerful learning formats: a new MakerLab space and a series of immersive roleplaying games (larps). In the MakerLab, students will work with historical objects and themes, using modern tools like 3D printers, laser cutters, and craft materials to replicate, reinterpret, and design artefacts that reflect both the past and their personal identities.

The roleplaying experiences, inspired by Nordic larp traditions, invite participants to engage emotionally and imaginatively with history through stories that connect archaeology, rituals, memory, and the future. One such experience, “Underwater Heritage”, lets students embody both the creators and discoverers of lost objects.

The project particularly focuses on engaging underrepresented youth, including Ukrainian students and children in foster care. Through a series of workshops, co-creation sessions, and inspirational meetings with practitioners and historians, participants will develop a deeper understanding of heritage as something they shape, not just inherit. Culminating in a youth-led exhibition in late 2026, Future Heritage positions young people as active storytellers and future-makers within the museum and society.

© Photo: Vahur Lõhmus

"Clarion - an instrument for everyone", Open Up Music, UK

Across Europe, disabled people remain underrepresented in cultural life. Despite the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights and inclusion mandates, many still face structural and practical barriers to accessing or making music. Traditional instruments are often physically inaccessible, and most digital music tools have not been designed to be compatible with assistive technologies.

Clarion offers a transformative solution. Co-designed with disabled young people, Clarion can be played expressively with any part of the body - including the eyes. Available on iPad and Windows, it offers a highly adaptable, joyful entry into music-making. This isn’t just about access - it’s about artistry. Clarion enables users to shape sound with intent and emotion. It invites exploration, improvisation, and performance.

With support from Art Explora, we will:

Make Clarion available to individuals (currently it is only available to organisations)

Develop training materials to equip music teachers with the confidence and knowledge to teach Clarion effectively

Build relationships with music institutions interested in inclusive practice, offering entry points for collaboration and shared learning

This work directly supports Art Explora’s aim to broaden access to culture and empower communities through innovative, inclusive models.

© Photo : Jon Furley

"Turning the Tide", Thames Festival Trust, United Kingdom

Turning the Tide is a major cultural engagement project by Turner Prize-nominated artist Catherine Yass, designed to challenge perceptions of disabled people in public space and empower disabled young creatives. Key elements include:

Partners: Delivered with Thames Festival Trust, disabled-led theatre company Graeae, and the City of London Culture Service.

Main Installation: A site-specific film installation projected onto the iconic, abandoned old Blackfriars Railway Bridge columns over four nights in September 2026, featuring young disabled performers and reaching an estimated 10,000 viewers.

Creative Development: Collaboratively developed with a disabled-led artistic team including Artistic Director of Graeae Jenny Sealey, promoting excellence in work by D/deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent artists.

Education Programme: A UK-wide series of visual art workshops (June 2026–March 2027) in filming, photography, and projection, co-designed for disabled and SEND children, young people, and adults, led by Yass.

Exhibition: A month-long riverside display featuring community-created artworks and insights into the creative process, with an expected audience of 390,000.

Final Film: A standalone artwork film by Yass and videographer Hugo Glendinning, to be screened nationally in 2027 at venues such as ICA and Whitechapel Gallery, with wide scope for national & international touring potential.

© Photo : Catherine Yass

"Rossy de Palma Invites Toulouse", Le Nouveau Printemps, France

Rossy de Palma invites Toulouse and infiltrates a neighborhood of the city through a well-established, collaborative festival and artistic and mediation projects involving residents and users of the neighborhood.

In 2026, the Le Nouveau Printemps festival invites multidisciplinary artist Rossy de Palma for an edition resolutely focused on the public. The festival takes over the Matabiau and Bonnefoy station neighborhood, its interstices, its public spaces, its artistic and unusual venues, and invents new artistic formats in a neighborhood and city undergoing rapid transformation, the beating heart of the metropolis and a region at the heart of Mediterranean Europe.

Le Nouveau Printemps is introducing a new, enhanced method of audience engagement: involving the neighborhood, connecting with artists and local communities, promoting heritage and creativity, and encouraging residents to participate in numerous projects in the program or in the organization of the festival itself.

We believe that a festival of this size and renown bringing together an international artist and a city is innovative, original, and well-suited to current challenges. The whole project already serves as a model of shared and demanding cultural development for other localities.

© Photo : Théa Drouin

"La Grande Parade #2", Centre National pour la Création Adaptée (CNCA), France

Enabling wider access to artistic practices for audiences of all ages, with or without disabilities, from city centers to rural areas, and highlighting the creativity and uniqueness of each individual during a festive and inclusive event in public spaces.

The GRANDE PARADE places as much emphasis on the creative workshops leading up to the event (in dance, visual arts, writing) as on the big parade on the day itself. It is an opportunity to engage together, in a diverse setting, in creative processes and to celebrate our uniqueness.

© Photo : Alain Derrien