The PartArt4OW project – in which we are responsible for developing and managing the three open Open Calls to identify the PAIs, as well as for evaluating the impact assessment of the PAIs and of the project as a whole – announced the launch of the PartArt4OW Sailing Lab. This initiative is a research and documentation sailing boat crossing the Mediterraneum in summer 2026 to connect artists, scientists, civic society actors, and local communities across Europe, strengthening participatory approaches to ocean and water sustainability.
As part of the project activities, PartArt4OW partnership is operationalising the Sailing Lab that will visit some of the Participatory Art Initiatives. The PartArt4OW Sailing Lab is a fully equipped sailing boat dedicated to ecosystem building, dissemination, research, and visual documentation. It fosters connections between artists, scientists, civic society actors, and coastal and inland communities by cruising European seas and documenting ongoing Participatory Art Initiatives and the multiple forms of community engagement with ocean and water health. The Sailing Lab functions as both a physical and conceptual bridge, offering a space for engagement, creativity, and knowledge sharing. While reaching selected locations where PAIs are taking place or have taken place, the Sailing Lab will host and present the results of other initiatives, offering local communities access to projects developed in different waters, territories, and cultural contexts.
The PartArt4OW Sailing Lab activities are coordinated by Raw-News Visual Production Agency and Sapienza University of Rome in collaboration with the PartArt4OW partnership. It operates on a Beneteau Cyclades 50.5, provided by Altura company, and hosts researcher, documentarists, sailors and media to document and made publicly available the PAIs and the networked communities along the nord-west Mediterranean shores for about one-month in Summer 2026. To complement dissemination and ecosystem-building activities, the Sailing Lab will connect creative communities engaged in PAIs with relevant stakeholders and initiatives; conduct video interviews with experts, artists, scientists, and engaged citizens; conducting research on mediterranean communities socio-cultural engagement with the ocean and the major issues the ocean &society relationships are facing today.
The Sailing Lab navigation plan will be circulated in early spring 2026, and it will reach the PartArt4OW Demo-day in Badalona (Barcelona) by the end of July 2026.
Institutions, researchers, artists, media representatives, and local actors interested in connecting, visiting the Sailing Lab while it is in harbour or in organising activities upon its arrival are invited to get in contact with:
- Federico Fornaro, PartArt4OW SailingLab coordinator
- Chiara Certomà, PartArt4OW coordinator
- Carolina Dopico, PartArt4OW communication and media
- Paolo Melodia, PartArt4OW SailingLab skipper