{"id":2786,"date":"2026-05-12T07:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T07:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/?p=2786"},"modified":"2026-05-12T07:18:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T07:18:14","slug":"gjirokastra-foundation-launches-mon-art-a-creative-europe-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/sq\/gjirokastra-foundation-launches-mon-art-a-creative-europe-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Gjirokastra Foundation Launches MON-ART, a Creative Europe Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">June 2025<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2781 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Postimi-i-pare-poster-.jpeg\" alt=\"MonArt Poster\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Postimi-i-pare-poster-.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Postimi-i-pare-poster--200x300.jpeg 200w, https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Postimi-i-pare-poster--683x1024.jpeg 683w, https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Postimi-i-pare-poster--768x1152.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">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.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"><strong>The Role of the Gjirokastra Foundation<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">In Gjirokastra, the project will engage with the city&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"><strong>Benefits for Gjirokastra and the Wider Region<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">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.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"><strong>Albanian Values, Community Memory and Contemporary Art<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">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.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"><strong>The Contribution of Creative Europe<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\">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.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2786"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2794,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2786\/revisions\/2794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gjirokastra.org\/gjirokastra\/sq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}