Since May, the New Inherit project has been blooming inside the walls of the Other Music Academy (OMA) in Weimar. As part of this creative journey, four Cultural Ambassadors have launched their artistic residencies –each one unique in focus, but united by a common purpose: co-creating the ART’kademie, a living, evolving artistic space grounded in community, expression, and participation. But who are these ambassadors, and what are their workshops all about? Let’s take a closer look at the powerful ideas and inclusive practices shaping this summer’s cultural movement.
Mariana’s Collage Residency
Mariana is leading a co-creative collage residency focused on using art as a vehicle for storytelling, transformation, and empowerment. Her workshop invites participants to explore their personal narratives and embed them into a large-scale community mural that will permanently enrich the walls of OMA. This space becomes not only a canvas, but a mirror, reflecting the diverse voices and shared visions of the community that inhabit it. Targeting young adults aged between 18 and 30 years old, especially those with migrant, refugee, or international backgrounds, the residency offers a welcoming, English-speaking environment where everyone can explore identity, connection, and creativity. Through collage, participants are turning their lived experiences into visible, collective memory –transforming both the space and themselves in the process.
Lotte’s Rooting Residency
Next, we meet Lotte, whose Rooting residency invites participants to reconnect with nature, origins, and personal growth. Her project began with the now-legendary Vegetational Tour of Weimer, where participants learned to identify edible plants and dangerous herbs –a grounding experience that set the tone for what was to come. Through a mix of storytelling, sensory exploration, and hands-on creation, participants are encouraged to reflect on their own definitions of “roots” and home. Materials range from clay and textiles to dried plants, natural pigments, graffiti, and more –everything is welcome, and everyone is invited to contribute. The residency brings together a beautiful mix of neighbors, neurodivergent individuals, migrants, and students –people with different experiences and understandings of “roots” and home, but a shared desire for expression and belonging. Together, they are shaping OMA into a truly inclusive third space.
Zaida’s Home Residency
Zaida’s Home residency is deeply rooted in care, community, and resistance. Focused on the everyday experiences of migrants and refugees in Weimar, this residency creates a space to explore the concept of “home” not just as a place, but as a feeling shaped by bureaucracy, language, and cultural displacement. Participants engage in workshops that reflect on the system surrounding them –sometimes through acts of creative subversion, such as reinterpreting official documents–. These exercises are not only expressive but empowering, offering space to question norms and share untold stories. Zaida works daily as a translator with refugee communities and brings invaluable experience and sensitivity to her role. Her residency fosters solidarity, visibility, and mutual support among people navigating similar challenges –regardless of their artistic background.
Hannah’s Sensations Activation
Hannah offers something refreshingly different with her Sensations Activation mini-residency. Centered around the rituals of drinking and sensory perception, this residency invites participants to slow down, disconnect from digital overload, and reconnect with their own bodies through taste, smell, sound, and touch. The workshops combine mindfulness, reflective dialogue, and playful experimentation, challenging participants to explore their emotional and cultural relationships with consumption. Open to all backgrounds, no prior art experience is needed –only curiosity and an openness to feel. This residency is a gentle yet powerful reminder that art can be intimate, immersive, and deeply personal.
But now that you know all about the residencies and our cultural ambassadors… What comes next?
All four residencies are currently ongoing, building momentum toward the grand finale: a Final Exhibition and Vernissage on September 13th at OMA. This celebration will showcase the incredible outcomes of months of co-creation, storytelling, and community connection. Whether you’ve been part of a residency or are just discovering ART’kademie, you’re warmly invited to join this event, witness the power of participatory art, meet new people, and become part of a growing cultural ecosystem in Weimar.
Participation is always free, and everyone is welcome!
