Established in 2023, NEB & Inclusió is ESPRONCEDA’s programme dedicated to promoting social inclusion, cultural diversity, democratic participation, and territorial engagement through art, culture, and digital innovation.
The programme fosters collaboration between local, national, and international communities, promoting tolerance, respect for cultural diversity, and democratic values while creating new opportunities for participation and access to culture. Particular attention is given to removing barriers to cultural participation, preserving minority languages and traditions, and strengthening connections between communities and territories.
Aligned with the New European Bauhaus and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), NEB & Inclusió integrates art and technology as transformative tools, using digital and immersive practices alongside community-centred approaches to explore contemporary social, cultural, and environmental challenges.
Through residencies, workshops, exhibitions, participatory projects, and interdisciplinary collaborations, the programme encourages creative exchange, civic engagement, knowledge sharing, and collective experimentation, positioning art and culture as essential drivers of a more inclusive, democratic, innovative, and sustainable society.
Over these five years, NEB & Inclusió has developed into a collaborative model linking art, technology, territory and society. It has become a benchmark for implementing New European Bauhaus values at a local level, with a tangible impact that is recognised internationally.
Exhibitions, talks, workshops and open calls organised by ESPRONCEDA within the programme.
The programme is made up of twenty activities organised around three themes: research, innovation and artistic experimentation; environmental awareness and sustainability; and inclusive access and community roots. They take three forms: residencies and research processes, training and knowledge-sharing between professionals, and open calls for emerging artists. Also in 2026 ESPRONCEDA is hosting the only official satellite event of the NEB Festival 2026 in Barcelona, which makes it a leading hub for the initiative in Catalonia. This edition goes deeper into where sustainability, craft and contemporary creation meet. Digital innovation runs through all of it as a transformative tool, not as an end in itself: it widens creative possibilities, connects traditional knowledge with contemporary methods, and opens up creative work to a wider range of groups.
In 2025 the programme went further in its territorial and international reach. ESPRONCEDA was the official host of the ENCATC Congress 2025, the leading international congress on cultural management and policy. Artist Filip Wierzbicki-Nowak held a residency on urban ecology and spatial memory. What is Gender? was an international exhibition with an open call for Catalan artists committed to diversity and to deconstructing gender identities. SensAI Hack Barcelona, an international hackathon, brought together more than 120 creators working in XR, AI and immersive technologies.
In 2024 the focus moved to decentralising access to culture and involving groups that have traditionally been marginalised. Highlights included the RISE UP – Voices of Community residency, which encouraged co-creation between artists and peripheral communities. Another was KEILI, presented at the Sónar festival, which explored digital identity through immersive technologies. The year also included the Hackathon Metavers Navas, a space for interdisciplinary artistic innovation in the Navas neighbourhood.
In 2023 the programme became established in the field of new technologies applied to art. It launched artistic residencies in virtual reality, immersive art, blockchain and Web3. ESPRONCEDA took part in international events such as Ars Electronica (Austria), the NEB Festival (Brussels) and the MEET Center (Milan). It also fostered digital creative communities, putting social inclusion and the circular economy first in every action.
The programme began with the international NEB LAB symposium, which focused on strategies for building sustainable cultural ecosystems.
Please subscribe to newsletter to get updates from us.
Free invitations to our openings, open calls for artists and our programme, before anyone else.
