I am a curator, creative director, researcher, and educator and my work is situated in an experimental, socially engaged practice that straddles design and fine art.
I design, curate, and art direct communication design projects, interdisciplinary arts festivals, non-formal education programs, workshops, exhibitions, and other projects. I am interested in socio-ecological practices and interdisciplinary methods of community engagement, for the purposes of sustainability and innovation.
I have a history of working in the public arts sector, in the higher education industry, and in the NGO field for over nine years.
My training began during the Masters' program in Communication design at Central Saint Martins (2012-2014). There I focused on the conceptualization and realization of Xarkis Festival which is now an international, nomadic arts Festival roaming mountainous villages of Cyprus. In 2013 I became the founder and creative director of Xarkis NGO. You can click here to read more about the NGO. xarkis.org
Recently finished NGO projects include the award-winning Xarkis Festival and Xarkis Multi-Residency Program, (Creative Europe, 2019-2022), MASA potluck (2019), participatory design workshops, and KaFEMio womens' coffeeshop (2019-2022), the award-winning, EU-funded social entrepreneurship initiative, and a crowd-sourced oral history library called Voicing Stories (2017, a UNESCO funded documentary with high-school students trained to collect craft stories in a non-formal education program (2017).
In the framework of my practice, I also have represented Cyprus at the international forum for young heritage professionals at the European Young Heritage Professionals Forum in Zadar, Croatia under the auspices of UNESCO (2019), and assumed the role of community engagement expert in the European Program Phygital, in collaboration with the University of Nicosia Research Foundation (2020).
My personal practice spans various exhibitions, publications, and initiatives such as Integrating Knowledge at Somerset House, London, UK (2013), The Written Stuff - Over-exposed Issue, London, (2013), Climbing the Mountain at COLLABO-NATION, The Cyprus Dossier (2014), Unique Print Exhibition at Camden Image Gallery, London, (2014), Also at Lethaby Gallery, London, (2014), Bird, OWK zine, Limassol, (2016) Doctoral Platform Spotlight in London,
(2018 ), Topophilia, in the Faneromenis 70 journal, Berengaria, Papadaki Warehouses Limassol, (2019), Admin Blues
and Brexit in the literary journal Armarolla, Nicosia (2019), Exotic Birds at Phytorio Visual Arts Association (2020), and creative direction for aλana zine (2022).
My work has received various awards and mentions from the beginning of my practice in 2013. Xarkis has been explored through the lens of community empowerment and our annual festival was featured on TEDx where I was invited as a guest speaker (2014). Xarkis was further showcased in the UNESCO edition of Cultural Expressions and Pluralism: Aspects of Modern Creation in Cyprus (2018), where it is presented as an example of good civil society practice that promotes the objectives of the 2005 UNESCO Convention. It was featured in Elefsina 2021 European Capital of Culture, Greece (2019), where best practices of socially engaged projects were given a spotlight, and was also featured in the Brazilian research magazine Revista Mesa (2021), as a case study for socially engaged practices. More recently, the Walking Society magazine as part of CAMPER (2021) shared a feature interview of my research and practice.
I have spoken at various conferences and universities about my practice in Cyprus and the UK and will soon deliver an artist talk and workshop, at the AANFA Organization in Canada in relation to my practice, while locally I will lead a workshop for the technical committee on culture (2023).
In the context of academia, I have received an AHRC Techne studentship for my ongoing practice-based research degree (Doctor of Philosophy - PhD) at Central Saint Martins, which focuses on developing a co-design methodology within craft heritage communities, alongside community resilience.
In academia, I work as an Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins, focused on tackling environmental issues via collaborative practice and an intersectional lens, and at London College of Communication, I work in the co-design unit focused on speculative futures under the MA Design for Social Innovation and Sustainable Futures.
For collaborations / commissions: get in touch at info@christinaskarpari.org