This story is part of our Impact Stories series, spotlighting our fellows who, drawing on socially engaged arts, help communities across Europe confront past experiences, address present challenges, and imagine new futures. Here, Marta makes the case for towns and cities designed to work for people — not the other way round.

After starting out in the contemporary institutional art circuit, I realised I was much more fulfilled by community art and public spaces, where creativity truly intersects with social and political life. This impulse drove me to create something that I felt was necessary, filling a gap in the field of cultural activity.

This led me to found Largo Residências, whose mission is to create opportunities that bring people together through culture. What began as a small initiative has grown into a network of projects that use art to support social inclusion and community life. A big part of our work is hosting events, workshops, and activities accessible to all in empty or underused buildings, including a former military barracks and the former Miguel Bombarda Psychiatric Hospital, where we established the cultural and community centre, Jardins do Bombarda, in Lisbon (Portugal).

Through this, we’re showing a different way cities can function — one shaped by communities and the grassroots organisations that work alongside them for the common good.  At the local level, we want to show how sharing space with people you wouldn’t usually cross paths with can reinforce a sense of belonging . At the national level, we want to demonstrate that cities are only sustainable if communities have been involved from conception to action. And at a global level, we want to create more symmetrical societies through our advocacy work, where everyone’s fundamental rights are enshrined.

We’ve engaged more than 6,000 cultural professionals, 7,000 members of the community, and 200 partner organisations. Many of these initiatives have continued beyond our initial collaboration, resulting in independent projects that bring citizenship and a vision of a fair and sustainable city into cultural activities.

A city without spaces for artistic encounter is a city vulnerable to isolation and populism. The landscape of the next decade will be measured by the strength of the bonds we weave, elevating cultural rights to the same heights as economic and social rights. In the face of deep polarisation, socially engaged arts have evolved from institutional ornament to the ethical infrastructure that sustains democracy.

Explore more stories of socially engaged arts driving change across Europe. View the Stories of Impact map here.