Trust the Process is a podcast about socially engaged arts that invites you to trust the unconventional nature of artistic processes and, more importantly, the impact they can have over time. This project is part of the Ask, Pay, Trust the Artist campaign and is supported by the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts.

This episode is a bit different from the others, as it marks the beginning of a special series that unfolds throughout Culture Action Europe's Satellite BEYOND gatherings.

This interview was recorded during the first of these gatherings, which took place in Riga in mid-April 2026 under the title "Different Times, New Solutions". Nurturing these conversations was a shared intuition: that moments of disruption also carry possibilities for re-imagination, and that culture does not simply react to change, but actively generates it. In a context where democracy can feel increasingly fragile, threatened by the long shadow of conflict, grassroots artistic practices often emerge as acts of care, resistance, and collective agency. This is why socially engaged arts became a recurring thread throughout the conference discussions, with fellows from the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts directly involved in the programme.

Throughout the episode, you'll hear the voices of Luís Correia, representative of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and collaborator of the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts, who gives us some more detailed insight into the rationale and intentions behind the creation of the Alliance for Socially Engaged Arts and its flagship programme: the fellowship.

Together with Luís, socially engaged arts practitioners and fellows Samra Said, co-director of Arts and Homelessness International, and Damien McGlynn, Director of Create Ireland, take you through a conversation on what it really means to move at 'the speed of trust’ in the process of co-creating with a community, digging into the limits of short-term project-based funding, and on what it takes to create the conditions in which socially engaged arts can truly thrive.

Enjoy listening.

Special guests:

Luís Correia, Samra Said & Damien McGlynn

Music credits:

Original music by Kerem Çelikoğlu

Episode produced and hosted by:

Sara Bandinu, Culture Action Europe

This podcast aims to spark an ongoing conversation around socially engaged arts — one we hope to nurture by collecting grounded stories of change-making. If you are a socially engaged practitioner and would like to share your experience, feel free to get in touch at sara@cultureactioneurope.org — I would love to hear from you!