Young people and the local artistic community: the Inclusion and Involvement action is aimed at them, with dedicated activities starting in the autumn, within the perimeter of the European Capital of Culture. It will be enough to fill in a form on go2025.eu to participate in the various initiatives, which are part of the action of inclusion of new audiences (Outreach), managed by the EGTC GO. The activities aimed at middle, high school and university students, which started already at the beginning of the year, have so far involved more than a thousand people.

ACTIVITIES WITH YOUNG PEOPLE TO DATE

Beginning with the countdown event to the start of GO! 2025, held on 8 February 2024 at the Kinemax, which symbolically saw young people at the helm, work began on inclusion and planning together with the local youth population. On 19 March, there was an event to bring together the universities in the area (Trieste, Udine, Nova Gorica), which is gaining solidity through a convention, the drafting of which took place in a participatory manner. These activities are also being condensed into a quarterly format, the ‘university café’. In the summer, it was the turn of the international Summer School for young people, led by Chemnitz 2025, which took place in Ghent, in the logic of offering young people training in civic and expressive skills through contact with peers in an international context. There have been and are still ongoing, moreover, specific youth involvement activities with events organised by OSCE, the Universities, Eurodesk Italy, and the municipalities of the GO! 2025 area, in the venues and in correspondence with important activities of partners and institutions in the area dedicated to the development of youth welfare and culture.

Above all, the first phase of a wide-ranging youth participation and empowerment process was structured and concluded, involving 1,000 students from the Universities and high schools of Nova Gorica and Gorizia, collecting their wishes, analysing together the criticalities of the cultural ecosystem, recognising the cultural resources that bring wellbeing to young people and hypothesising intuitive solutions to improve the future of the cross-border city of Nova Gorica-Gorizia, through a participatory methodology.

PARTICIPATORY PLANNING FOR THE YOUNG PEOPLE OF THE TWO CITIES

The concept of art-based citizenship, citizenship based on art, permeates the participatory planning pathway designed for the local youth segment (14-25). The project envisages bringing together a group of young people from the area who, with appropriate training and under the guidance of experts from EGTC GO and Javni zavod GO! 2025, will proceed with the construction and implementation of identified projects. Activities will take place on a monthly basis, starting in September 2024 and throughout the year 2025 in three synergetic phases.

The first phase, from September to December 2024, will involve the identification of places in the city in need of rethinking (e.g.: urban spaces to be enriched, cultural heritage to be enhanced, parks to be revitalised) and the initiation of a participatory process of re-appropriation of space through creativity and artistic presence. The second phase, with work within the youth group, will consist of the selection and detailed planning of activities and actions identified by the youth group to improve the quality of culture and life in the cross-border city: the working group will be able to provide opinions to the official GO! 2025 team on the capital's projects.

In the third phase, final but with an eye to the future, it will be time for the consolidation of the cross-border youth working group as a permanent one, with the support of various cross-border institutions for its recognition. This will be one of the instruments of the Legacy, the legacy of GO! 2025: the process will start in the last quarter of 2025.

The activities are addressed to girls and boys aged 14-25, residents or students in Nova Gorica-Gorizia and neighbouring municipalities of the GO! 2025 area (there will be an internal division into two groups of ages 14-18 and 19-25). The group will meet once or twice a month, in turn in Gorizia and Nova Gorica; the activities will take place in Italian and Slovenian, with possible support in English to foster collaboration with international artists. To participate, just fill in the online form in the relevant news on the www.go2025.eu platform.

INVOLVEMENT OF ARTISTS

In addition to the youth segment, the Outreach plan also intends to focus on the cross-border artistic community, whose skills and perspectives will be enhanced, again with a view to art-based citizenship. 

The objectives of this action are multiple. On the one hand, there is the desire for established local artists and young artists to make a substantial contribution to identifying the priorities of the common legacy of GO! 2025, focusing on the critical resources present in the area and the needs to be met, and together seeking intuitive solutions. To achieve this goal, a series of participatory workshops will be organised, which will also produce guidelines for the valorisation of local artists.

With a view to a major influx of visitors on the occasion of the European Capital of Culture, it is also intended to raise awareness of the creativity and practices of local artists. The plan is to map artists' studios in the area and organise visits to their places of creation. Artists will also be promoted through the organisation of group exhibitions in the spaces of GO! 2025, the GO! Centre and the X Centre, curated by prominent local or guest curators.

Special attention will be given to young local artists: in order to facilitate their involvement in a network of European professionals in the development of activities and events, an archive of CVs and artistic presentations will be created, which will be used by the various cultural projects across the territory.  

Artists from the cross-border area are invited to participate in this action: to apply, simply fill in the Become an artist form, available on the go2025.eu platform in the Join us section.