17/12/2025
Thank you for this beginning
As we close the year and look back at the residency, one thing feels clear - what we experienced together was a starting point, something that will continue in different forms and directions.
18 experts, 19 participants, 10 online residency workshops, and a full week together in Latgale. Time for conversations and focused work, for laughter and tiredness, for slowing down and being present. A rosols workshop, cold dip swimming, sauna, and space to breathe. Time spent getting to know and appreciating Mark Rothko, reflecting on art and place.
Discussions on wellbeing, mental health, sustainability, crafts, media literacy, creativity, storytelling, civic activism, creative entrepreneurship, music, humour and politics. Along the way, there were personal discoveries, new friendships and connections that will carry on beyond the residency.
The residency brought together people from Belarus, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, the Faroe Islands, Ukraine, Norway and Estonia, as well as participants who currently live across the Nordic and Baltic region and beyond, coming from South Africa, the Philippines and France. Different backgrounds, shared curiosity, and a strong willingness to listen, learn and create together.
Our alumni, thank you for being part of this journey:
Daminik Davydau
Jens Yago Bundgaard-Raundal
Koketso P.T. Khule
Evelina Anna Pitane
Frida Garcia Vivant
Linnea la Cour Brag
Simone Broni Kallehauge
Khrystyna Sivachenko
Svitlana Yaroschuk
Viktorija Gilberte
Elīna Barone
Daniela Blumane
Katrīna Ziemele
Lotta Vaher
Mariam Huliieva
Freddy Navarro
Mykyta Kalinin
Petur Asano
Thank you to all the experts who shared their knowledge, time and openness with the group:
Mārtiņš Eņģelis, Jonas Büchel, Maija Krastiņa, Linda Curika, Una Rozenbauma, Pedro Ferreira, Ansis Stabingis, Diāna Kiščenko, Maija Laizāne, Evika Muizniece, Kaspars Eglītis, Ģirts Ozoliņš, Māris Čačka, Ieva Zemīte.
Thank you to the team who made this possible and kept everything together throughout the process:
Eva Johansone: moderator of the online residency
Žanete Eglīte: project manager
Mitya Savelau: creative director
Betija Adriana Luhaera: social media
Thank you to our consultants Maija Kāle, Sofia Savelava, Galina Aizvakara and Lizaveta Dubinka-Hushcha, and to everyone who helped along the way: Andris Taškāns, Mārtiņš Kiščenko, Jekaterina Viļuma, Daina Skudra, Dzintra Iliško and Līga Bērziņa.
Thank you to the places in Latgale that hosted us and shaped the experience: Lūznava Manor, Svilpaunieki and the Rothko Museum.
And thank you to those who made it all possible:
Embassy of Denmark in Latvia;
the Nordic Council of Ministers office in Latvia;
Danish Cultural Institute in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania;
Embassy of Sweden in Riga
the Latvian Academy of Culture,
Daugavpils University,
and all others who supported this work.
This was a beginning. We will continue.
Stay tuned on social media and follow us at www.civic-af.org
