Homepage and cover pages artwork by Andreea Chirică.
ABOUT
AnthroArt – Action for People and Planet is an initiative of three applied anthropology organisations – Antropedia, Namla and Ambigrama – that aims to create an international platform for connecting anthropology and art, with the purpose of deepening awareness about inequality and our relation with the environment and driving change across three geographies: Romania, The Netherlands and Portugal, as well as beyond.
Antropedia, Namla and Ambigrama believe that anthropology – the comparative study of cultures and groups of people – has the potential to bring positive change in the world. Unfortunately too often, valuable knowledge produced by anthropologists does not reach far beyond the academic world, and does not actualize its potential for change. We want to create bridges – by translating anthropological knowledge into accessible information, into art, and into solutions through design thinking, we want to contribute to the pressing issues of our time.
Our actions are centered around three themes: Social Inclusion (focus of 2023), Sustainability (focus of 2024), and the Social Self (cross-cutting). Inequality in various forms is one of the pressing challenges of our time and this is why AnthroArt involves action for People. Creating a sustainable future depends on how we understand and change our relation with the environment, and this is why AnthroArt involves action for the Planet.
Beyond the valuable insights that anthropology brings about the challenges we face as a society, the discipline also helps us gain a better understanding of ourselves. The cross-cutting theme of the Social Self raises awareness about the ways in which society shapes us and the many norms and stereotypes we sometimes come to take for granted as who we are. This process of reflection helps us connect to each other in more meaningful ways.
We bring anthropology into the spotlight
We call for anthropologists – academics and practitioners – to reflect on their long-term research and applied projects and write short articles for a general audience. Each text will be recorded as a podcast and will become a source of inspiration for an artist who will create a unique illustration. We have a strong focus on the applied potential of anthropology and we aim to use anthropology’s insights for solving problems in the real world. We do that through bootcamps – interdisciplinary workshops where anthropologists and artists will be guided in a process of exploration and problem-solving to come up with actual ideas and initiatives on how to create societies that are more inclusive and have a more sustainable relation with the environment.
We bring art and artists into the spotlight
We inspire and support the creation of art and we showcase the works of illustrators, graphic designers and artists from Romania, Portugal and the Netherlands. All of our articles will be accompanied by editorial illustrations and during each bootcamp, the process and results will be translated into different forms of visual narratives: from illustrations to comic strips and street art, as well as skits enacted by actors in short video-clips. These creative expressions will be brought to the public through exhibitions, conferences, via social and traditional media, as well as through more permanent markers such as physical murals in the cities of Bucharest and Coimbra.
TEAM
Antropedia, Bucharest, Romania
Antropedia is a social research start-up with expertise drawing from our academic training at top universities such as Oxford and Kent University, as well as from our experience in applied research, consulting for the private sector, for non-profit organizations and for government agencies in Romania.
We are a research team with multidisciplinary training in the social sciences. We navigate with ease between psychology, sociology, law and political science, but anthropology is the field in which we find ourselves at home and this is where our strongest passion lies.
This is why we have embarked on a mission to disseminate academic knowledge and popularise anthropology. Our aim is to share with a wide audience the valuable insights that anthropology offers.
We value research in the field of anthropology as it is thorough, long-term, and brings an inside and nuanced perspective on the most diverse communities and groups of people, helping us know and understand each other better, showing us how we are always different, but united in the common and infinitely complex experience of “being human”.
Learn more about Antropedia on our website and follow us on Facebook.
Namla, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Namla is an educational start-up that aims to support anthropologists to practice sitting in spaces of design, intervention and effect in order to increase the visibility and engagement of anthropology outside of the academic space.
The two founders – Corina and Rosalie – both work in the applied anthropology space, and have combined over a decade of experience on navigating the tension between our wish to be objective, observing and nuanced, and the reality of the workplaces where we are asked to be experts and start programs, write policy and develop products.
We have learned that a good way to resolve this tension is by using iterative, cyclical processes, such as the ones that have been developed in the field of design, and we built a bootcamp to teach others about this possibility for negotiation.
Since its launch in 2020, Namla has run bootcamps with participant generated challenges, but also in collaboration with institutions such as the University of Amsterdam.
Learn more about Namla at on our website and on our Linkedin page.
Ambigrama, Coimbra, Portugal
Ambigrama is a Portuguese company dedicated to applied anthropology, having been the first company of its kind to be born in Portugal.
The creation of Ambigrama arose from the necessity to introduce the advantages of the use of anthropological tools and techniques to the Portuguese market and society, as well as to show the vital importance and impact that anthropology can have on the lives of people and organizations.
We have developed projects in the archeological, health, mobility and social inequality sectors, showing the adaptability and capability that anthropologists have to work in different contexts.
Ambigrama brings to the project a number of contacts and experience that will translate in the creation of content in its various mediums, evaluation and technical expertise to the end of quality content.
Learn more about Ambigrama on our website, our LinkedIn page, or follow us on Facebook.
CONTACT
You can get in touch with us in many ways!
If you would like to stay up to date with news about the project, as well as get notified about callouts, conferences, bootcamps and exhibitions, sign up for our mailinglist: https://forms.gle/8AXsfM2UtmXE1xVt8 (you will receive an email maximum one time per month).
If you have a general question/idea about the project, email hello@theanthro.art
If you have a question/suggestion about AnthroArt in the Romanian context, email romania@theanthro.art
If you have a question/suggestion about AnthroArt in the Portuguese context, email portugal@theanthro.art
If you have a question/suggestion about AnthroArt in the Dutch context, email netherlands@theanthro.art
PARTNERS
In each country, we work with several other partners. In the academic context, we closely collaborate with the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work at the University of Bucharest, the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Coimbra, and the Faculty of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at the University of Amsterdam.
We are starting up collaborations with many other local and international partners, and this page will be updated as we go.
If you want to partner with us, or have a great idea that links with what we do, we are happy to hear from you. Reach out to us through the contact details above!
AnthroArt – Action for People and Planet is a two-year project (2023-2024) co-funded by the European Commision, under the Creative Europe Programme (CREA), through a call-out for projects on cross-european and cross-sectoral collaborations to promote art and culture among citizens of Europe. We were one of over 130 projects selected. We are grateful for the opportunity and therefore proudly display the European logo on our website.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.