ReStory is a European cooperation project exploring how young people experience, interpret and connect with public spaces in their cities.
Public spaces are part of everyday life, yet their histories, memories and social meanings often remain unseen. ReStory invites young people to look at these places from new perspectives, discovering the narratives connected to them and reflecting on how they can become more open, inclusive and accessible spaces for intergenerational, intercultural and cross-community encounters.
Through arts, creativity and participatory methods, the project aims to support young people in reconstructing a sense of belonging to the places they inhabit. At the same time, it encourages them to actively contribute to reclaiming and reshaping public spaces through artistic exploration, storytelling and community-based interventions.
The project combines research, methodology development and practical artistic work. Partners investigate young people’s experiences in public spaces, collect stories and memories from local communities, and explore the historical background of selected places. These findings will feed into shared methodologies and pilot activities, including arts-based sensory explorations of public spaces and participatory artistic interventions directly in the field.
A key outcome of ReStory will be a free publication presenting the project’s background, research and pilot activities. It will include a practical toolkit with more than 12 methods for exploring public spaces through art and participatory approaches. The publication will be available in English and in the national languages of the partner organisations, supporting youth workers, artists, educators and cultural practitioners in adapting the ReStory approach to their own contexts.
ReStory— Reclaiming Public Space through Participative Narratives is coordinated by ROOTS & ROUTES Cologne (Germany), in partnership with SMouTh (Larissa, Greece), Centro di Creazione e Cultura (Florence, Italy), City of Women (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Kaunas Cultural Centre of Various Nations (Kaunas, Lithuania), and Subjective Values Foundation (Budapest, Hungary). The project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
ReStory explores how young people experience public spaces and how arts, creativity and participatory methods can help reimagine them as places of belonging, encounter and active citizenship.
Related: Organisations
Subjective Values Foundation (SVF)
Subjective Values Foundation – in Hungarian language: Szubjektiv Értékek Alapítvány – is active in the fields of the arts, poverty, talent-scouting, anti-racism, diversity, cycling and sustainability.
ROOTS & ROUTES Cologne e. V. (RRCGN)
ROOTS & ROUTES Cologne e. V. (RRCGN) is a non-profit association that promotes cultural and social diversity in arts and media, strengthening of diversity conscious youth work as well as promotion of international exchanges and international youth mobility.
Synergy of Music Theatre (S.Mou.Th.)
Synergy of Music Theatre (S.Mou.Th.) is a non-profit organization, whose workforce is a group of dedicated, experienced and emerging artists.
Centro di Creazione e Cultura
Centro di Creazione e Cultura (CCC) is a Florence-based association focused on artistic education and creation, aimed at fostering mobility and professional growth of talented emerging artists.
City of Women
City of Women is a feminist organisation for gender equality in the arts, best known for its international festival held every autumn – this year marks its 31st edition.
Kaunas Cultural Centre of Various Nations
Kaunas Cultural Centre of Various Nations (lt. Kauno įvairių tautų kultūrų centras - KITKC) is a non-profit cultural and educational organization dedicated to promotion of cultural diversity, shaping intercultural relations and dialogue between people of different nationalities and developing such values as tolerance and respect in the civil society.
