Arcadia is a cultural programme that takes place every three years. Born from the legacy of Leeuwarden-Fryslân 2018, it is not a festival or a series of events. It is a continuous cultural process, a space where artists, citizens and communities come together to explore the questions that shape our future.

Arcadia is built on a simple idea: culture is a tool for collective imagination. Each edition focuses on urgent themes – landscape, community, sustainability, the future – and turns them into artistic projects, public interventions and participatory experiences. It keeps the spirit of 2018 alive while helping Fryslân imagine what it could become in the next decades.

The upcoming edition, Arcadia 2028, places a new generation at the centre. Not as an audience, but as creators. The message is clear: the future of Fryslân should be imagined by those who will live it. This is why Arcadia is launching an open call for professional artists, designers, creatives and makers aged 25 to 35, inviting them to share their fiergesicht – a Frisian word meaning “vision”, but also “the courage to look beyond what exists”.

What is a fiergesicht?
It is an idea, a project, a creative gesture that tries to answer a fundamental question: What will Fryslân look like in ten, twenty or fifty years? What should remain? What needs to change? What new forms of community, culture, work and life can we imagine?

A fiergesicht can be:

an artwork
a design or prototype
a performance
a research project
a territorial intervention
a collective creation
There are no disciplinary limits. What matters is the ability to look beyond today.

What Arcadia offers
Selected participants will receive:

- €5,000 to develop their idea
- mentorship and guidance from the Arcadia team
- support in finding partners in culture, education, care or business
- the opportunity to turn their idea into a real project in 2028

Arcadia is not looking for finished projects. It is looking for visions to nurture.

How to apply
Applicants should send:

- a project description (max 2 pages)
- a motivation statement
- a short bio
- a portfolio
- to Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. È necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo. by 18 October.

Questions: Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. È necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo..

Arcadia 2028 is more than an open call. It is an invitation to imagine what a liveable, connected and forward-looking Fryslân could be. It asks young people to take the helm and share their energy, ideas and perspectives. In a rapidly changing world, Arcadia chooses to start from what does not yet exist: the visions of a new generation. Because the future does not simply arrive. It must be imagined, shaped and shared.