EUphoric Youth launches with kick-off meeting in Trondheim
Partners of the EUphoric Youth project gathered in Trondheim, Norway, for the official kick-off meeting of the four-year Creative Europe cooperation project. Hosted by Rosendal Theatre, the meeting brought together representatives of 11 partner organisations from 10 European countries to establish the project’s shared vision, working methods and practical framework. Across two intensive days, partners explored the project’s ambitions, discussed ethical and inclusive approaches to working with young people, planned the first international Open Call, and developed communication strategies that will support the project’s long-term impact.
Running from 2026 to 2029, EUphoric Youth empowers teenagers to become cultural curators rather than passive participants, placing their voices at the centre of artistic programming and institutional decision-making. The kick-off meeting focused not only on project management and collaboration, but also on collectively defining how young people’s agency, accessibility, inclusion and democratic participation will shape every stage of the project. The first public Open Call for teenage curators will launch later this year, marking the beginning of a European collaboration that aims to transform how cultural institutions engage with the next generation.
The New Theatre Institute of Latvia was represented at the kick-off by Santa Remere and Sandra Lapkovska, who also led a workshop based on the experience of The Shake Down project (2022-23) – a Latvian-Norwegian collaboration in which young curators co-created programmes for the Contemporary Theatre “Homo Novus” in Riga and “Bastard International Arts Festival” in Trondheim. Combining lessons learned with practical group exercises, the session explored key aspects of working with teenage curators, including open calls, selection processes, co-curation models and ethical guidelines, laying the foundations for a shared methodology across the partnership.
Partners of the project are: SPRING Festival (SF), Utrecht, Nederland Rosendal International Theatre (NO), Trondheim, Norway New Theatre Institute of Latvia (NTIL), Riga, Latvia Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Tanzfabrik Berlin (TF), Tyskland Trafó House (TH), Budapest, Ungarn Festival d’Avignon (FDA), Frankrike ART DOT (AD), Kharkiv, Ukraine Lavanderia a Vapore (LV), Torino, Italia NTGent (NT), Gent, Belgia Materiais Diversos (MD) Minde, Portugal.