The project Off Season Art Gardening aimed to contribute to, and create, art works in public outdoor spaces in three different countries.

In the project, we worked with outdoor art installations on the theme of gardens with an all year-round experience as an important component. The artists who was part of this project was given the opportunity to cooperate, be inspired, learn and develop in the various parts of the project. The public in the three countries could experience new cultural aspects of their cities and they was able to come along and listen to lectures. There was one Artist in Residence Week in each country during the project period from August 2018 – April 2021, in the Netherlands, Sweden and Lithuania. Read more about the project (PDF).

Sustainable use of digital technology

KASTiS project leader Lars Vipsjö contributed with lectures and workshops to the Off Season Art Gardening project, as part of the Artist in Residence Weeks. He gave examples of how digital technology can be used in a sustainable way, in various and transmedial forms of storytelling, in the context of localized and site-specific art projects. The aim has been to give the participators insights into how digital media can be utilized to create a media-conscious locative narrative and an engaging art experience. Read his report from the project.

Lotten Svensson, project leeder from the Universitys side in OSAG, gave workshops from VRIO about identifying important resources to develop places.

Also Lotten has written a report, about planning and development of cities and places with support from the cultural side. The report builds on work by Lynch (1960) about the Image of Places.

EU Creative Europe

The project was funded by EU Creative Europe along with Mariestad municipality, the University of Skövde, the organization Sense of Place in the Netherlands and Ukmerge municipality in Lithuania. This project was a step in developing and strengthening international networks of skills and artists who actively work with the inherent conditions of rural areas to create sustainable, competitive and attractive rural community development