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How do we adapt to a rapidly changing world while staying attentive to the sacredness of the Everyday?

Welcome to a pioneering project dedicated to enhancing a sense of belonging through the power of creative education.

On a mission to foster connection, self-expression, and a sense of belonging, making art and mindfulness accessible to all, for a more attentive and peaceful society. 

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We view the creative act as a powerful medium that liberates individuals from the compulsive need to consume, enabling them to fully embrace the experience of life as Creators.

Our Values

Attention 
Connection 
Intention
Expression 
Authorship
Belonging
Expansion 

Our Story  

RONG PLACE ETS (2020–2023)

 

It started with an empty room, a few people, and the intention to make space for creative agency and collective belonging.

Founded in Puglia, Italy, in 2020, Rong Place was a participatory art and research platform investigating how shared creative action in an intentionally open space can transform the way individuals relate to space, to one another, and to the unfamiliar. In 2021, the project was formalised as a non-profit organisation — Rong Place ETS — and its experimentation phase was supported by the PIN grant (Regione Puglia) and the European Social Fund for Social Development. Within a minimal 15 m² empty room, more than 30 participatory practices were tested between 2020 and 2023, engaging over 500 participants across Italy, Switzerland, Brazil and China. These experiments treated emptiness not as absence, but as a generative condition — a "making room" policy: a spatial and relational practice where meaning emerges through presence and interaction rather than production. Rong Place ETS concluded its active phase in 2023. This archive holds the record of that work.

Approach​

By engaging with the anthropological roots of art, we emphasize the importance of looking beyond the artistic object itself. We believe that art has the power to reshape limiting cultural frameworks, dissolve feelings of separation, and create space for new perspectives. Humans, across time and cultures, have always felt the need to create — and how this creativity can become a transformative force in shaping individuals and communities alike is what we seek to investigate.

By integrating diverse cultural behaviours in response to sensory experiences common to all humans, we seek to foster deeper connections and a more inclusive understanding of our shared humanity. 

Art-Based Research (ABR) Methods

Art-Based Research (ABR) methods provide a crucial set of tools that enable us to explore these themes in dynamic and innovative ways. ABR draws from diverse art forms—literary writing, music, dance, performance, visual arts, and film—allowing us to address research questions in holistic and deeply engaged ways where theory and practice are intertwined. 

ABR methods adapt the tenets of the creative arts in order to address research questions in holistic and engaged ways in which theory and practice are intertwined (Leavy 2020).  This interdisciplinary and inclusive approach allows us to open new ways of seeing and experiencing the world. The methods we use include, but are not limited to:

  • Literary forms: Short stories, novels, experimental writing, graphic novels, comics, poems

  • Visual arts: Collages, paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, video art

  • Textile arts: Quilts, needlework, especially in indigenous research

  • Performing arts: Performance scripts, theatrical performances, dances

  • Multimedia: Films, songs, musical scores

The Power of ABR in Addressing Social Inequities

Through its public accessibility, collaborative nature, and ability to provoke deep emotional and intellectual engagement, ABR provides a unique platform for advancing public scholarship and creating knowledge that has a tangible impact on society. As part of our commitment to social responsibility, we embrace ABR for its potential to serve as a methodology for radical, ethical, and revolutionary research that is futuristic, socially responsible, and useful in addressing social inequities (Finley 2008).

By promoting a horizontal relationship between researchers, participants, and audiences, we bring “others” into the research process, ensuring that a diversity of voices is represented and that knowledge is co-created. This approach not only enriches our understanding of art’s role in society but also democratizes the research process, making it more inclusive and transformative.

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Our arts-based research focuses on the anthropological aspects of human exchange, particularly rituals, celebrations, and gifts. In this way, we aim to understand how individual sensitivities relate to collective experiences through shared creative intentions, which can ultimately reshape limiting cultural frameworks and dissolve feelings of separation.

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Mindful Collaborations

We are partnered with like-minded groups and individuals interested in new sustainable imageries. Interested in collaborating with us? Contact us to explore how we can work together to empower creative education.
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Sponsors, Partners and Patrons

© 2024 by Rong Place (ETS). CF 93522970727. P.IVA  08625300721 All Rights Reserved. 

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