On 16 September 2026, the EPIC-UP project hosted a webinar to explore the role cultural and artistic activities can play in fostering social inclusion of migrants and refugees. From music and museums to theatre and arts, the initiatives presented during the webinar showed different ways of creating opportunities for people to connect, participate, and take an active role in their communities.
Why culture matters for inclusion?
Tom Green from Counterpoints Arts shared evidence from projects showing how arts and cultural activities can strengthen connections across communities and create lasting networks.
One example is The Real Picture, a filmmaking project with 32 young refugees and asylum seekers in the Scottish Highlands. All participants reported making new friends and feeling part of a community, while 95% felt their English and confidence improved. At a broader level, Tom also shared findings from Stories of Change, a study of the Refugee Week in three English cities. The research showed how cultural activities can increase the positive visibility of refugee communities, create partnerships across sectors, and build connections that extend beyond the event itself.
Good practices: Culture initiatives for inclusion across Europe
Anis Barnat, co-founder of El Sistema Greece and co-lead of Community Arts Network, highlighted three principles for making cultural activities genuinely inclusive: reaching people where they are, ensuring continuity to build trust, and creating pathways into the wider community. El Sistema Greece provides free music education to children and young people, including refugees and asylum seekers. The initiative also supports participants in moving from being students to becoming mentors and leaders, turning newcomers into active contributors to the community.
For Paolo Montemurro, founder and director of MateraHub, the arts can also be a space for developing skills that are valuable beyond the cultural sector. His examples showed how theatre and other creative practices can be used to strengthen employability and entrepreneurial skills. For instance, different practices can help jobseekers prepare for interviews or support people in their own projects through teamwork.
Pooneh Yekta presented Multaka, which means ‘meeting point’ in Arabic. This initiative trains newcomers as museum guides and creates meeting points between museums and diverse communities. Its approach goes beyond making museums more accessible: newcomers become guides, educators and creators themselves. Recent workshops invite participants to explore museum collections through their own perspectives and personal stories and give young artists the space to share their work.
EPIC-UP experience at the local level
The EPIC-UP project is currently testing six social innovation pilots to improve migrant integration services at the local level. Two of them, Harraga Vibes and Creative Path, focus on different ways of connecting migrant inclusion with the cultural and creative sectors.
Harraga Vibes is a pilot project presented by presented by Luca Martinengo and Kobby Abban from ADL Zavidovici in Brescia (Italy), using music and a mobile cargo bike to create inclusive spaces for young people with a migrant background. The project brings a mobile music setup -including speakers, a mixer, laptop and microphone- to different public spaces across the city. Its aim is to encourage cultural expression, social connection, intercultural exchange and positive use of public spaces.
Creative Path is a pilot project developed by the Municipality of Oberhausen (Germany) together with the NGO Kitev which supports newcomers in building a career in the creative sector. Marga Dresen presented how the initiative connects participants with experienced mentors and combines one-to-one mentoring with workshops on topics such as self-employment, cultural networks, self-marketing, funding, career tools and artistic identity. Early results include participants moving toward self-employment, successfully applying for grants, developing collaborations, and gaining greater confidence and independence.
Key takeaways
The webinar showed that there are already many good examples across Europe demonstrating how cultural and artistic activities can contribute to the inclusion of newcomers. Across these different experiences, some common lessons emerged:
- Inclusion starts with access. Organisations need to go where people are and create activities that people can realistically access. Equally important is moving beyond one-time initiatives and ensuring continuity, trust and sustained relationships.
- Participation can become agency. The examples from El Sistema Greece and Multaka showed how newcomers can move from being beneficiaries to becoming mentors, guides, and creators.
- Cultural activities can open up new opportunities. The projects presented by MateraHub highlighted how creative activities can help people develop transferable skills, strengthen confidence, and explore pathways into employment and entrepreneurship. For newcomers, this can mean not only participating in cultural life, but also building professional networks, accessing opportunities, and developing greater independence.
- The challenge is to move from individual projects to more systematic approaches. The experiences shared suggest that cultural and creative approaches have the potential to become more firmly embedded in local integration strategies and services. This means creating stronger connections between municipalities, cultural and migrant organisations, and recognising culture as part of a broader local approach to inclusion.
