Shkodër 2026 — Art for Earth: Youth Shaping Sustainable Cities Creatively
Shkodër, Albania | 21–23 September 2026 | WP2 · Second transnational event
3 Event Days · Art · Youth · Sustainability
The second Radical Green transnational event brought the project community to Shkodër for Art for Earth: Youth Shaping Sustainable Cities Creatively. Hosted by CODE Partners, the meeting connected young people, artists, local institutions and international delegations through activities on creativity, biodiversity and environmental responsibility.
At ARKA Youth Centre and the Historical Museum of Shkodër, participants combined discussion with recycled-art workshops, Land Art, digital creativity and collective visual expression. The event continued the cooperation launched in Valletta and explored practical ways to connect culture with the green transition.
The event at a glance
Event: Art for Earth: Youth Shaping Sustainable Cities Creatively. Host and WP2 lead: Consulting and Development Partners — CODE Partners. Main venues: ARKA Youth Centre and the Historical Museum of Shkodër. Project coordinator: Valletta Local Council.
The programme focused on the relationship between youth participation, art and sustainability. Shared creative work brought Albanian and European experiences into dialogue, with contributions from local young people and school pupils, artists, cultural practitioners, institutions and the project delegations.
21 September — From Valletta to Shkodër
The opening at ARKA Youth Centre welcomed the international delegations and introduced the event’s objectives. CODE Partners, local institutional representatives, Valletta Local Council and Focus Europe connected the Albanian activities with the wider Radical Green cooperation process.
The session Radical Green: from Valletta to Shkodër reviewed the first event’s experience and the objectives of WP2. Partner exchanges addressed local initiatives on youth participation, sustainability, art and culture, together with the role of the Local Climate Action Groups.
The day concluded with an introduction to the practical workshops and the organisation of participants into working groups. This established the basis for the collaborative creative activities that followed.
22 September — From waste and nature to creative action
Artist and entrepreneur Stela Tosca contributed to the discussion on sustainable art and environmental responsibility. During From Waste to Art, young participants worked in groups with discarded and reusable materials, transforming plastic, glass, paper, metal and textiles into artistic creations carrying environmental messages.
The Nature as a Creative Space workshop used natural elements to create temporary works inspired by Shkodër’s landscape, ecosystems and biodiversity. Together, the workshops explored different relationships between artistic expression, the reuse of materials and the surrounding environment.
Digital artist Klodian Zhivani led a session on digital art and augmented reality for environmental awareness. Participants discussed how mobile devices, digital tools and virtual artistic content can communicate environmental challenges and connect physical places with digital messages.
In Our Radical Green Shkodër, local and international participants developed creative messages on biodiversity, recycling, climate action, sustainable cities and youth participation. The sharing and reflection sessions considered what had been learned and how the methods could be used in other local communities.
23 September — Collective art for biodiversity
At the Historical Museum of Shkodër, sculptor Petrit Bilali led the collective Land Art activity Celebrating Shkodër’s Biodiversity. Young participants, including pupils from Oso Kuka secondary school, helped design and create a temporary installation in cooperation with ARKA Youth Centre.
The work used natural and recyclable materials to communicate the importance of local biodiversity and natural heritage. Its temporary format reflected a leave no trace approach, connecting artistic expression with responsibility for the setting in which the work was created. The museum activity also connected with the European Heritage Days.
At ARKA Youth Centre, artist Diomen Borici worked with young people on a mural dedicated to biodiversity and sustainability. The activity created a collective visual expression of the event’s themes within a space used by the local youth community.
Closing contributions from CODE Partners, Valletta Local Council and the project partners brought together reflections on the three days and the next stages of Radical Green.
Participation and results
The event recorded 94 participants: 61 women and 33 men. Five countries of residence were represented: Albania, Italy, Malta, France and Belgium.
The main artistic outputs included the recycled-art workshop creations, the temporary Land Art installation at the Historical Museum and the biodiversity-themed mural at ARKA Youth Centre. Co-creation and reflection sessions gave participants an opportunity to exchange ideas and consider how these approaches could be shared with other project communities.
The event also provided a setting for institutional dialogue and attracted coverage of its artistic activities. Photographs, the event film, the host organisation’s reports and the Event Description Sheet document the work undertaken.
From the event to the project’s digital outputs
The artworks and their documentation provide material for the Interactive Map on Recycling Artworks, the digital output associated with Milestone 2 of WP2. This follow-up involves organising descriptions, photographs, locations and information on reused materials, alongside the content verification and validation foreseen by the project.
The event report and the development of the interactive map are distinct parts of the project. This event archive presents the activities and results of the Shkodër meeting without treating the map as an already completed output.
Event film
Watch the film documenting the second Radical Green transnational event in Shkodër.
Photo gallery
A selection of photographs from the project’s Shkodër event materials. (Ph. Paolo Barone)
Radical Green — Shkodër, 21–23 September 2026 — photo 1
Event documentation
The Event Description Sheet provides the detailed account of the activities, the participation figures, the outputs and the communication references for WP2.
Reports from CODE Partners / ARKA Youth Centre
Media coverage and further reading
About Radical Green
Radical Green — Increasing citizens’ participation in the green transition through art performances and cultural initiatives. Project No. 101249579 | Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) Programme | Networks of Towns.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.