In rural areas, art builds connections and breathes new life into democracy

Long viewed through the lens of their challenges, rural communities are now telling a different story—one of villages where residents, artists, organizations, and elected officials are seeking new ways to come together, make decisions, and take action collectively. Often underfunded, these initiatives are at the heart of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation’s “Médiations et démocratie culturelle” call for projects, whose 2026 winners will be announced next September. What they have in common is using artistic creation as a catalyst for dialogue, civic engagement, and regional transformation.

A feast for the ears that tells the story of a village in a different way

On November 15, 2025, in the community hall in Le Chastang, Corrèze, about a hundred residents of Saint-Pardoux-la-Croisille and Le Chastang fall silent to listen to what is neither a speech nor a concert, but a soundscape: voices, sounds, stories. On the menu for this unique feast: “things that grow, things that bleat (…), things that snap, others that ask questions (…) and still others that go ‘bong’ or ‘splash.’”

In the room, we recognize glimpses of local life. Female farmers talk about their work, children reenact memories of cooking, and residents offer a different perspective on their community. At the table, we savor vegetables from the local garden that were brought to life through writing workshops. That evening, we didn’t just come to watch an artistic performance—we took part in a collective story.

Behind this “sound banquet”—with a pay-what-you-want price—conceived as part of the project Eating with Your Ears, lie eighteen months of workshops, experimentation, and collaborative creations between artists and residents. And above all, a simple idea: in these rural areas, residents are not merely an audience. They become co-creators of the works, and sometimes even co-decision-makers for the projects.

Art as a Way to Reach Out to Others and Build Connections

In sparsely populated areas far from major cities, the challenge is not only to produce works of art, but also to create opportunities for people to come together. According to the Fondation de France, nearly one-third of French people today find themselves socially isolated, and this reality is particularly pronounced in rural areas where community services and spaces are becoming increasingly scarce.

In light of this, the projects supported by the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation as part of its call for proposals Médiations and Cultural Democracy explore a different way of making art: a practice that reaches out to residents, takes root in everyday spaces, and transforms artistic creation into a space for connection.

In the Cévennes, the ARCHIPELs , led by La Fabulerie, offers immersive and sensory experiences that take place both at markets and in residents’ homes. In the Hautes-Alpes, La Bulle brings together nursing home residents, caregivers, local residents, and artists to create a living space designed collectively—from the vegetable garden to the furnishings for the future café.

Further west, in Aveyron, the Squatteurs du Blues—citizen-artists who have received psychiatric care—travel through the villages with their mobile stage, l’Estafette, inviting residents to discuss and create together. In Puy-de-Dôme, the Jardin-cocon is transforming a former vocational garden into a space for creativity and intergenerational and intercultural exchange. Meanwhile, in Haute-Loire, Refaire Assemblée, our utopia breathes new life into the old “Assembly Houses” of the Velay by inviting residents to collectively reinvent the uses of this vernacular heritage, turning them into new spaces for gathering and communal living.

But these steps are not straightforward. In Saint-Pardoux-la-Croisille and Le Chastang, the project “Eating with Your Ears” initially met with skepticism. “The artists didn’t hesitate to go door-to-door—visiting people who hadn’t attended the workshops to explain their approach and build trust,” explains Manée Teyssandier, a member of the Peuple et Culture collective, which launched the project.

A year later, the “sound banquet” drew a crowd far beyond initial expectations, and the organizers had to turn away guests. What took place there went beyond mere artistic production: it was an opportunity for people to come together, in a context where 71% of French people believe that social cohesion is in poor shape at the national level and one-third at the local level.

When Art Becomes a Tool for Regional Cooperation

While these projects transform relationships among residents, they also change the way local stakeholders work together. In rural areas, where resources are often scattered, solutions rarely come from a single actor. They arise from encounters between groups that, until now, had little experience collaborating: artists, nonprofit organizations, local governments, researchers, farmers, and social actors are brought together to share their perspectives and expertise.

In the southern Luberon, for example, the project Les Assemblées extraordinaires was born out of this desire to break down barriers between different practices. This initiative began with a collaboration between the association Au Maquis—which is involved in citizens’ conventions—and Vélo-Théâtre, which has been developing participatory art forms for several years with the Groupe n+1 theater company. Around them, about ten organizations have come together: a community center, a solidarity grocery store, local governments such as the City of Apt, and the Luberon Regional Nature Park. Their goal: to imagine new forms of collective debate centered on the challenges of life and food. “The approach is based on the desire not only to share knowledge with one another but also to learn from one another—to be both teachers and learners,” explains Charlène Chivard, executive director of Vélo-Théâtre.

Before presenting the initiative to residents next fall, the collective took the time to test for itself how what it called the “citizens’ conventions on nourishing arts and cultures” would work. For ten months, the partner organizations participated in a shared journey exploring major questions such as: “What kind of democracy do we live in?” and “Food systems today.” Each meeting brought together researchers, specialists, and artists—an approach designed not to pit theoretical knowledge against sensory experiences, but to foster a dialogue between them.

This preparatory phase is essential: it allows the various stakeholders to learn to work differently even before inviting residents to participate. This is because the project’s ambition goes beyond simply organizing cultural events. The goal is to create the conditions for sustainable cooperation that can foster new ways of acting at the local level.

Empowering Residents

Beyond partnerships between organizations, these projects raise a deeper question: How can we enable residents to once again play an active role in community life?

In the Extraordinary Assemblies, the democratic aspect is taken into account from the very outset of the project. The future citizen groups will be deliberately diverse—residents, organizations, professionals, elected officials, and cultural stakeholders—in order to bring together different life experiences around shared concerns.

The organizations that will be leading these conventions during the 2026–2027 academic year are putting together their group’s program while leaving the door open to suggestions from those who register. “The goal is to create things together, so we don’t keep repeating the same patterns, and to offer activities that address the concerns of the people we work with,” explains Charlène Chivard.

What sets these approaches apart is that they do not limit participation to verbal exchanges. Artistic practices open up other avenues for collective reflection. By combining dance, theater, or drawing with more academic elements, the topics take on a new dimension: they are experienced as much as they are discussed. “Coming together to dance, draw, and create things through even the most rudimentary theatrical practice really builds strong bonds between people,” says Charlène Chivard. She specifically mentions a session on food-related violence, developed with a sociologist and a dancer: “ Their respective backgrounds really intersected, allowing us to go beyond simply sharing knowledge and instead to physically experience this violence, to live through it.”

This approach also seeks to overcome a limitation often observed in participatory processes: the gap between collective deliberation and its practical implementation. “What was truly frustrating about the Citizens’ Climate Convention was that people had thought things through and made numerous proposals, but no action could be taken afterward,” Charlène Chivard continues. Thus, “The Citizens’ Convention we’re leading aims to empower people to take action. ” The final stage of the project will take the form of an artistic piece designed to extend the discussions and open up avenues for action. It’s a way of showing that democracy can also be built through experimentation, creativity, and the imagination.

Revitalizing Regions Through the Power of Imagination

Throughout these projects, the changes brought about cannot be measured solely by the number of workshops held or participants involved. They are also evident in the way residents view their community and envision its future.

At the “Manger avec les Oreilles” sound banquet, the creations of residents from both villages—sound portraits, animated films, culinary stories, and soundscapes—offered a fresh perspective on food. For Peuple et Culture, this experience now paves the way for new opportunities to discuss agricultural production methods and the issues they raise. “The goal is to stimulate discussion around these political issues. For their part, producers want to share how they work to produce high-quality, environmentally friendly food , ” explains Manée Teyssandier.

In the Luberon as well, the organizers of the Extraordinary Assemblies emphasize art’s ability to transform collective narratives. “It’s truly important to show that art allows us to create new ways of telling stories and can drive real change in our society,” emphasizes Charlène Chivard. “By giving rise to new narratives grounded in scientific knowledge but infused with an artistic dimension, we foster an experience and understanding that differ from those offered by traditional modes of knowledge transmission.”

By blending scientific knowledge, residents’ experiences, and artistic practices, these projects offer a different way of approaching major social and ecological transformations. They do not seek merely to inform or raise awareness; they aim to foster a shared experience. “ If we recognize that everyone is capable of creativity and that everyone has a place in this interaction with art, it shows just how much we can create in a community,” concludes Manée Teyssandier. “This restores people’s dignity; bonds are formed.”

Far from the image of a rural world in decline, these initiatives reveal communities where people are experimenting with new ways of working together. Communities where art becomes a space for connection, but also a laboratory for democracy.

How can art help transform communities? What are the key elements of sustainable cooperation between artists, residents, local governments, and community stakeholders? Drawing on the experience of 13 projects supported in the Hauts-de-France region as part of the “Médiations et démocratie culturelle” call for proposals, this blog post Artistic Dynamics at the Heart of Communities shares the lessons learned from a collective endeavor spanning several years. Testimonials, analyses, feedback, and recommendations shed light on the conditions that foster the emergence of artistic initiatives rooted in local communities and promoting citizen participation. Intended for artists, cultural mediators, organizations, institutions, and local governments, this resource offers concrete guidelines for designing, supporting, or developing cultural democracy projects. An inspiring read for anyone who wishes to use art as a lever for social and regional transformation.

Des dynamiques artistiques au coeur des territoires : notre Carnet Apprentissages

Photo credits: © Vélo Théâtre; © Assemblées extraordinaires; © Manger avec les oreilles