Breaking the Patterns: A Journey of Collaboration and Creativity

Breaking the Patterns is a project funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme, created to support emerging artists and early-career professionals in the cultural and creative sectors. Its goal was to provide a platform for collaboration, experimentation and professional growth through international residencies and collective exhibitions. Over the course of its cycle, the project was developed through partnerships in Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Greece, with each country hosting a unique phase of the programme.

As the project comes to an end, we look back on a journey that has truly embodied creativity, collaboration and cultural exchange across borders. Through residencies and exhibitions in all partner countries, artists from different backgrounds came together to explore new ideas and share experiences.

Throughout its development, Breaking the Patterns fostered genuine dialogue between local and international artists and also with local communities in the cities where the residencies took place. The residencies became spaces of shared learning, where participants could exchange perspectives while involving local communities and culture in the creative process. Each exhibition reflected the diversity of these encounters, showing how place, context and collaboration shape artistic expression.

Beyond the artworks themselves, the project created a strong network of creative professionals and organisations. It gave participants hands-on experience in curation, production, artistic promotion and collective organisation, as well as strengthening ties between cultural communities across the partner countries.

As Breaking the Patterns concludes, its impact continues in the confidence it inspired, the collaborations it sparked and the new perspectives it opened for everyone involved. The project may have reached its final stage but the connections and ideas it set in motion will hopefully keep growing long after.

We thank all the partners and participantes involved in this project, as well as the local communties who embraced it with open hearts.