June 2025
The Gjirokastra Foundation is pleased to launch its participation in MON-ART: Monasteries of Art, a new cultural cooperation project financed by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
MON-ART brings together cultural organisations from several European countries to explore how public art can inspire greener, more community-rooted ways of living. The project will transform underused historic spaces, including monasteries, castles and heritage sites, into platforms for artistic creation, community engagement and sustainable cultural development.
Coordinated by MIM Edizioni in Italy, MON-ART includes partners from Albania, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and Cyprus. Over a period of 36 months, the project will develop artistic residencies, exhibitions, public events and community-based cultural activities.
The Role of the Gjirokastra Foundation
As the Albanian partner, the Gjirokastra Foundation will lead the national component of the project, drawing on its long experience in cultural heritage preservation, community engagement and the regeneration of historic spaces.
Within MON-ART, the Foundation will organise artistic residencies and public interventions in selected heritage contexts, with a particular focus on the relationship between art, memory, identity and community life.
In Gjirokastra, the project will engage with the city’s historic public spaces, including the Old Bazaar and the Castle, areas of high heritage value that also face the pressures of commercialisation, underuse and changing patterns of community life. Through artistic research, public engagement and creative interpretation, MON-ART will contribute to reactivating these spaces as places of dialogue, participation and cultural reflection.
Benefits for Gjirokastra and the Wider Region
For Gjirokastra and its surrounding region, including the Drino Valley, MON-ART offers an opportunity to strengthen the connection between heritage and contemporary cultural life.
The project will support new forms of cultural participation, encourage dialogue between artists and local communities, and create opportunities for young people, artisans, historians, elders and local residents to contribute to the artistic process. By working with oral histories, traditional knowledge and public spaces, the project will help bring local memory into contemporary artistic expression.
MON-ART will also contribute to the visibility of Gjirokastra as a living cultural landscape, not only as a place of historic value, but as a space where heritage can inspire creativity, sustainable development and community pride.
Albanian Values, Community Memory and Contemporary Art
A central theme of the Albanian component is the exploration of core Albanian values, including Besa and religious harmony. The project will invite artists to reflect on these values from contemporary and regional perspectives, asking how they can be understood, challenged, reinterpreted and shared today.
Artists will work closely with local communities, including elders, historians, artisans and young people, to shape their creative work through dialogue and participation. The process will not only document cultural memory, but also open new ways of thinking about how traditional values can remain meaningful in modern society.
The Contribution of Creative Europe
Through the support of Creative Europe, MON-ART connects Albania with a wider European cultural network. The project strengthens cooperation between cultural organisations, supports artistic mobility, promotes the reuse of heritage spaces and encourages inclusive, sustainable cultural practices.
For the Gjirokastra Foundation, participation in MON-ART represents an important step in linking Albanian heritage with European cultural innovation. It demonstrates how historic places can become active spaces for creativity, education and public participation.
MON-ART is not only an artistic project. It is a cultural movement that seeks to preserve, reimagine and share essential values through public art, community engagement and the living power of heritage.
