The VAHA Network met in Prishtina

The VAHA community gathered once again - this time in Prishtina - for the Transnational Networking Meeting of VAHA’s third round. Over three full days in mid-September, VAHA hubs and 16 new cultural organisations from across Turkey and the wider Council of Europe region came together to strengthen the growing network. 

Hosted by Sekhmet Institute, which is a VAHA network member, and organised at Termokiss, the meeting offered a welcoming and inspiring environment. We all felt genuinely cared for throughout the week thanks to our great hosts.

The programme combined creative presentations, slow dating sessions, workshops and cultural visits. Participants exchanged ideas, shared methods and discovered each other’s work through formats that encouraged curiosity and collaboration. A visit to Autostrada Biennale in Prizren offered valuable insights into how a group of artists and cultural actors can transform a city through persistence and vision. Back in Prishtina, the “Metamorphosis” walking tour guided by Foundation 17 researchers reminded us how urban history can be discussed and made visible, even when it is being erased.

Through these encounters, we once again experienced how much creativity can emerge in such resilient environments - how we can imagine new things together, learn from each other and get excited to build new projects by combining our strengths. We're now looking forward to seeing the final exchanges born from these new encounters. 

The Prishtina meeting reaffirmed the spirit of VAHA. It was great, as always, to explore what solidarity, imagination and collaboration mean across borders.