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Rural Radicals

@ruralradicals

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Are you planning to start a creative space outside the city? We help emerging and existing non-urban creative spaces thrive
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This was Creative Grounds Fieldlab #2
Sicily you were beautiful and inspiring 🙏🏽

From empty palazzos, architects dreaming big and hidden gems with the most rural music recording studio and cinema!

And then there were all the encounters you can’t put into an itinerary: conversations in villages, unexpected buildings, plants, animals, local characters.

A few facts & figures from the four days:
- 6 participants from 5 countries
- 8 active rural projects visited
- 4 vacant properties explored
- 20 rural projects represented at our network event
- 300+ km driven
- 5 dogs and 12 kittens petted
- an unlimited amount of fresh figs eaten

We hope we inspired some city dwellers and convinced them to start their projects on the countryside 😎

We will keep you informed when they do!

Thank you for all the locations who participated:
@merakitestadellacqua
@lecasedelbagolaro
@sarp_gallery
@cummari_sicily
@liquoricehill
@agriturismo_borgodegliulivi
@agricolastallaini

And ofcourse a huge thank you to all participants and ppl involved:
@jetbyjetbyjet
@kornelijaei
@ellaxnina
@al_fianco
And everyone without insta!

📸 by @matt.iem by @ruralradicals

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5 days ago

Thank you all for joining this event! We were thrilled to see so many of you coming together. Rural pioneers paving the way for a thriving non-urban economy-system in Sicily 🤗 taken in Sicily, Italy by @ruralradicals

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9 days ago

(EN below)

Tocmai s-a încheiat vizita partenerilor noştri internaționali din proiectul de cooperare "Transforming Rural Landscapes", după două zile pline de activități.

🔷️ În prima zi am avut un atelier cu antreprenori, tineri și alți membri ai comunității locale, pe tema transformării clădirii fostei percepții din Baciu într-un centru comunitar. Oaspeții olandezi și finlandezi ne-au adus și ei perspective foarte prețioase pe această temă, iar atelierul, de altfel, foarte intens, ne-a adus multe idei valoroase.

🔷️ În a doua zi, am avut vizite de studiu în teritoriu, unde am discutat despre alte spații comunitare create în clădiri vechi, readaptate pentru noi scopuri.

Suntem foarte recunoscători partenerilor din Rural Radicals, Leader Pohjois-Satakunta, Leader Joutsenten reitti şi Leader Oost-Groningen pentru vizita lor și pentru contribuțiile prețioase pe care le-au adus în această vizită. 💙
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🇬🇧
We just wrapped up the visit of our international partners from the cooperation project "Transforming Rural Landscapes", after two days full of activities.

🔷️ The first day featured a workshop with entrepreneurs, youth, and other members of the civil society, on repurposing the former perception building in Baciu into a community centre. Our Dutch and Finnish partners brought very good inputs and perspectives, and the workshop ended with valuable conclusions.

🔷️ On the second day, we enjoyed study visits in the GAL Someș-Nădaș territory, where we discussed the repurposing of various buildings.

We are very grateful to our partners from Rural Radicals, Leader Pohjois-Satakunta, Leader Joutsenten reitti and Leader Oost-Groningen for their visit and their precious contributions to this visit. 💙 taken in Judetul Cluj by @ruralradicals

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11 days ago

𝗕𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗖𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗨’𝘀 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗼𝗳? · 𝗔 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗨 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲,𝗯𝘆 @encc_connects 𝗮𝗻𝗱 @reset_network 𝗶𝘀 𝗢𝘂𝘁 𝗡𝗼𝘄!

This new episode is dedicated to exploring how the European Union supports cultural organisations operating outside major urban centres, reflecting on how cultural actors can effectively engage with EU institutions and make their voices count in shaping policy.

Our host Matteo Vigné @matsouchito is inviting Gabrielle Bernoville, speechwriter for AGRI Commissioner, Ella Overkleeft, founder of @ruralradicals and André Torré, researcher on territorial governance and land-use disputes in spatial and industrial economics to discuss the challenges, contradictions, and potential reforms needed to better support decentralised cultural ecosystems across Europe.

🔗 Tune in to the full conversation on Reset! network SoundCloud (link in bio) by @ruralradicals

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11 days ago

#𝐓𝐄𝐇𝟏𝟎𝟐 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐁𝐨𝐥𝐳𝐚𝐧𝐨!❤️‍🔥🦷
The opening of GRINTA! takes place in Bolzano — bringing us all together halfway through our journey before we continue the final stretch together.

Museion - a long collaborator of BASIS - will be our host for the day. This occasion is an opportunity for both organisations to make their partnership visible and highlight the value of cooperation and creating synergies between different actors in the local culture scene✨

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After the official part is over, we are invited to stay and trace the evolution of South Tyrol’s independent cultural ecosystem through conversations about the past, direct encounters with people actively shaping the scene today, and a playful word game imagining speculative scenarios of its future.

▪️This activity is designed and brought to us by Ella Overkleeft, @ruralradicals, and Museion Art Club.
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There will also be an opportunity to see the Museion’s latest exhibition, RAMM:ELL:ZEE TIME:LINE, have an aperitivo and join one of the guided tours.❤️‍🔥

🎫 Stay tuned for more updates and, of course, make sure to purchase a ticket. Link in the bio🔗
Mind that no session registration is possible without a valid ticket.

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📸 Museion Art ClubLucia, Rose Buffa / Museion facade, Luca Guadagnini by @ruralradicals

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14 days ago

We’ll be in Romania next week!
As part of our Transforming Rural Landscapes project we’ll organise a workshop in Cluj-Napoca.

If you want to be there please register through the link in bio! by @ruralradicals

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18 days ago

Day 3 of the Sicily Fieldlab brought us to @agriturismo_borgodegliulivi, waking up between the olive trees and learning about the harvesting process.

At @merakitestadellacqua we discovered all the secret little spots on their land including a darkroom (for photos), recording studio and various caves that will be developed in the upcoming years.

We closed the day at @agricolastallaini a more well established artist in residency in a beautiful limestone quarry.

For each edition we collaborate with a local a local photographer. This time @matt.iem captured our whereabouts. taken in Sicily, Italy by @ruralradicals

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a month ago

Day two in Sicily took us from a dreamy gallery garden in a tiny village to a centuries-old palazzo, meeting people who are creating new ways of living and connecting along the way.

At SARP, we discovered a daylight art gallery, an artist residency, a hotel and a Japanese chef. The gallery thrives through a diverse mix of income streams and an international network. A beautiful example of how a small place can thrive by opening itself up to the world.

Later, we stepped into a breathtaking and grande palazzo where a Sicilian family is creating something that is still quite new here: a social and members’ club built around bringing like-minded people together.

We also met Michelle, who has created a women’s co-living space and carved out her own space by connecting to other woman.

By the end of the day, we were covered in Etna ash and very well fed.

Lesson of the day: collaboration can help ideas grow, especially in places where it isn’t yet the norm. by @ruralradicals

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a month ago

Day 1 of the Creative Grounds Fieldlab Sicily.

We started at @lecasedelbagolaro where the owners have spent years building their own local ecosystem: growing, making, sharing and living from the land around them.

A place that makes you wonder - what if life could actually be this good?

Their advice: start from enthusiasm and vision. Take your time. Make mistakes. Pivot. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a life built around the land.

Being an incubator for local businesses is part of what they do, we had the best kombucha tasting with Selvetica Lab who bring fermentation culture to Sicily.

From there, we visited the remarkable project of architect Igor, who seems to have made a habit of doing things differently. Not according to the book, but according to what makes for a better way of living.

His house opens up in every direction: the valley, the Etna, the mountains and the sea. New materials and unconventional building methods are part of the process too, like H-shaped wooden blocks that reduce the need for cement.

Different places, different approaches, but the same question underneath it all: how do we build lives that are more connected to where we are?

Fully inspired.
On to day two. by @ruralradicals

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a month ago

What makes a multifunctional building work in practice?

Part of our webinar series within the Transforming Rural Landscapes project.

Explore how vacant or underused non-urban buildings can combine culture, work, entrepreneurship, services, learning, and community life. Through practical cases and research perspectives, we will look at community embedding, programming and business models, and the financial and managerial conditions that support long-term viability.

Date: 29 September 2026 Time: 15:00–17:00 CET
In English

For LAG’s, municipalities, rural organisations and initiatives working on vacant buildings, rural regeneration and place-based development.

Free registration👉🏼 link in bio

#ruraldevelopment #leader #adaptivereuse #realestate #heritage by @ruralradicals

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a month ago

Over the years I’ve visited so many creative spaces. Both urban - and for the last 5 years the non-urban - ones. Being the millennial that I am, I wasn’t feeling the reels and got the ‘how do I make this about me’ ick.

Because it’s not 😎 It’s about @ruralradicals as a noun - the people doing this work.

This video is about @hotel_orkestra and why you should visit them!!

@aukjedekker coming from @sexyland_world bring decades of artistic experience to the place. Expect artist in residencies but different. Bridging worlds and disciplines, all connected to the land.

And Kristian bringing in his vast knowledge on animals and the natural world, that is translated in all sorts of tours and collaborations to understand our position in this majestic thing called nature.
@european_walking_safari

This will become something very special! It already is. The embodiment of urban and rural synergy.

You can reach out directly to them via Instagram if you’re an artist and want to work with them.

#ruraldevelopment #artsculture #heritage #nature taken in Asturias, Spain by @ruralradicals

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a month ago

This is our frontline: a project focused on experiencing built heritage firsthand, stepping inside the businesses that bring these places to life, and speaking directly with the people behind them. 🏞️🏡

It’s not just a tour, that’s why we call it a Fieldlab. It’s about learning, understanding and exchanging knowledge.

You could call it regenerative B2B tourism, or an entrepreneurial impact journey. To be honest, it’s a new thing.

You might meet the future partner for your project, connect with an investor for your venture, discover a completely different business model, or totally rethink the plan you had in mind.

Creative Grounds started in Portugal in 2025. Sicily follows this September.

In March 2027, we’ll continue with a special Sauna Edition for wellness entrepreneurs in Denmark and Sweden, followed by another Creative Grounds edition in September 2027 - location TBD. We’re open to ideas!

The ambition is to bring Creative Grounds to different regions across Europe. From Slovenia to Spain, and from Ireland to Ibiza.

Want to bring Creative Grounds to your region or explore a collaboration?
 Write to us at hello@ruralradicals.com

And for now…
We have one final spot left for Sicily! 🌋 by @ruralradicals

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2 months ago