JOURNEY WEWARDS THROUGH COLLECTIVE COMMUNITY ACTION

Ŝančiai Opera Choir Performing at Cabbage Field, December 27, 2019. Photo: Darius Petrulis

In the following article artists Ed Carroll and Vita Gelūnienė, who work in Lithuania and Ireland, discuss three inspiring projects that address the necessity of collective community-led urban development.

Šančiai

The Cabbage Fields programme, in Šančiai, Kaunas, on a former military site which included cellars used for cabbage storage, leading to a community opera which has been performed in Kaunas, Rotterdam (NL) and Differdange (LUX).

Dublin’s Loughlinstown and Ballybrack

A community mapping project in Loughlinstown and Ballybrack on the south side of Dublin.

Charlemont

An urban gardening project on the deck of the central Dublin district of Charlemont Square.

INTRODUCTION¹

Our practice with others has involved three sites, each edgy in its own way, spaces nestled within low income communities filled with potential. By engaging with street residents and other local elements it is possible to foster a human-scale approach to urban development. Urbanists, such as Nabeel Hamdi², advocate for community participation in urban change, emphasising a necessary shift from individual to collective community action in support of community building.

Our experience reveals that urban planning erodes public land and perpetuates spatial injustice when private interests eclipse community needs. Inequalities present complex challenges and require community expertise.

Below is a visual illustration of each site, beginning with the 19th-century cabbage cellars in Šančiai, Kaunas, Lithuania, a former military barracks complex.

Low angle view of an arched brick structure covered in grass, with visible entrances under the arches and residential houses and trees in the background. In the foreground is a brick structure with metal wire sides with a wooden top and several trees with white bark.

Cabbage Field Cellars. Photo: P. Drauss.

Next is a street-level view of 1970s public housing in Loughlinstown and Ballybrack.

View through an archway, into a residential area, with a person sitting on a paved area, surrounded by planted bushes and hedges. Overhead, the archway is adorned with hanging flowers.

Inagh Court, Ballybrack, 2024. Photo: V. Gelūnienė.

Lastly, built in 2017, the Charlemont social housing complex in Dublin.

A wide wooden deck surrounded residential buildings with balconies. Potted plants and a table are set on the deck.

Ffrench Mullen Deck, 2024. Photo V. Gelūnienė.

MOMENTS OF POTENCY

Our approach reclaims public land and seeks new experiences of publicness that foster collective governance. When neighbours transform shared outdoor spaces, they exercise cultural rights and challenge inequalities in urban planning. This citizen stewardship can reveal cultural identities while ensuring public resources serve public interest.

Šančiai

Since 2014, many collaborators³ have worked on the Cabbage Field, which had been neglected and used for dumping. The community web site provides extensive documentation about the various projects and activities undertaken since then.

A group of artists and cultural activists engaged local users, collected stories and visions, and explored both the tangible and intangible cultural value of the site. These efforts to reclaim the public space were manifested through artistic actions, outlined below with links, and a set of planning visions presented to Kaunas Municipality.

Activities with links to creative documentation

2014—2017: Cycle of arts projects called Friendly Zone #5 #6 #7

2018—2021: Opera process: Libretto, Opera School, and results 2018 2019 2020 and 2021

2022 – 2023: Performances in Differdange (LUX) and Rotterdam (NL)

By 2018, there had been no progress with the Municipality in terms of developing the site even though a real community had built up around its future. It was then that opera emerged as a form to reveal a narrative of the site and of Šančiai’s identity. The concept was proposed to various groups, receiving a positive reaction.

Over time, the opera brought together local stories and characters, with community-born musician and Lithuanian National Prize winner Vidmantas Bartulis composing the music for a libretto collaboratively written by local individuals.

Between 2018 and 2023, participation in the opera grew, diminished, then regrouped for outdoor meetings during Covid 19. During this period, we invited both professional and non-professional artists to participate in choir and dance rehearsals for public productions. Choreographer Lina Puodžiukaitė directed international productions, fostering a collective experience for all artists.

A choir of ten people in illuminated white robes and sculpted headwear performs outdoors at night, under a dark sky, illuminated by stage lights. A screen displays text and images, and a green-lit hillside serves as the backdrop, with a sign reading "Kopūstų laukai" (Cabbage Field). Other figures stand at the top of the hill, lit by a spotlight from a large brick arch.

Community opera, Cabbage Field during Balsamic Popular 2019. Photo: D. Petrulis.

Liorančas Balzaminė Kalėdų tuopa 2019 on Community opera, Cabbage Field 2019. Film: A. Liorančas.

Dublin’s Loughlinstown and Ballybrack

In 2023 the Southside Partnership Creative Places initiative invited the community arts organisation Blue Drum to research how creative practice and public spaces can be improved in Loughlinstown and Ballybrack. In addition, an artist-in-residence helped to seed work with local community groups.

An exhibition display with eleven wooden A-frame style easels, each holding informational panels with text and images on white paper, focusing on the research findings of "Ballybrack and Loughlinstown Spaces and Connections Research." The panels are arranged in rows, with titles like "FLOW," "BXL," "INTO," and others, exploring themes such as "Facts & Figures," "Research Method," "Surveys," and "Create Opportunities". The panels include diverse graphics, diagrams, photographic images, and infographics. The display is set against a plain gray wall, with a dark gray carpeted floor.

Creative Place ‘Gatherfest’. Research exhibition panels, 2024. Photo: E. Carroll.

Research findings showed that there were underutilised public spaces and a network of community centres, though there was a lack of dedicated art spaces. The centres had strong daytime programming but few evening and weekend offerings. A survey of cultural engagement identified the need to renew community spirit and confirmed the potential for creative initiatives in green spaces and programmes focusing on culture, health and environmental renewal.

Activities with links to creative documentation

2023: Loughlinstown & Ballybrack: Research & Mapping

2024: Small Change Project: Ennel and Inagh Courts: Community Tour

2025: Mapping: Loughlinstown Linear Park and Courts: Memories Activities, Walkability and Nature

A group of people, many holding umbrellas, gather under a concrete tunnel in front of a series of homes. Above, four large hanging baskets overflow with colorful flowers, while a sign on the building reads "Cuirt Ennel Ennel Court."

Loughlinstown, Small Change Tour 2024. Photo. V. Gelūnienė.

By early 2024, the research was completed. Through the artists’ own initiative, a subsequent effort focused specifically on two streets in Loughlinstown. A Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council Creative Ireland bursary award was used to engage with residents and to map memories and public space activities. This led the artists to produce a walking tour for residents and a community celebration afterwards to mark the life of a recently deceased resident.

The tour stimulated calls to expand the area under review to six streets that flow into the Loughlinstown Linear Park. In 2025, a short mapping process responded to local Councillors’ and residents’ call for action. The initiative is being led by us with Loughlinstown Estate Management, and students from Dun Laoghaire Further Education Institute. Workshops and field trips gathered data to map local memories, daily activities in public space and nature. A community trip to other community-led green initiatives took place to gather ideas. Dun Laoghaire Rathdown staff agreed to organise an internal meeting across its departments to have an integrated discussion about plans for the area. The mapping helped identify specific spaces for transformation and energised residents.

Charlemont

Eight years after regeneration, original residents see improved quality in the condition of their housing but less interaction with other residents, while new social housing tenants lack historical connections. The public-private structure has separated tenants—private (majority) and social (one block)

Activities with links to creative documentation

2024: Mapping workshops and designs agreed: Presentation and agreed Design

2025: Creating a community-owned and managed green culture garden

This diverse community faces potential antipathy when it comes to community building. Building Community Wellbeing, Charlemont’s plan for 2023-2026 identified that arts and culture are critical to the development and expression of identity and belonging.

Two women smiling and pointing towards a detailed architectural rendering of a rooftop patio design, featuring seating areas, a pergola, a bar, a storage unit, and numbered sections with labels like "Green" and "Picnic".

Ffrench Mullen Deck Design 2024 with S.Brady and A.Carroll. Image: E. Carroll, V. Gelūnienė and D. Bručas. Photo: V.Gelūnienė

Blue Drum proposed a design process for an outdoor podium deck (15m x 20m) as a space that could be community-managed and programmable for individual and collective action. Working with residents and staff, a singular vision was established for the deck as a green culture garden. This hands-on space can work through positive agendas for change among all tenants.

In early 2025, a small group of adults and children began weekly gardening with the support of an artist mentor. Plans continue to achieve visible transformation, culminating in a one-day self-build of a roofed pagoda for outdoor gatherings.

NAVIGATING CULTURAL RIGHTS: THE 2020 ROME CHARTER OF UCLG

The United Cities Local Government Network Rome Charter is helpful in navigating good practice in cultural rights. The Charter, written by François Matarasso, presents five capabilities (following Amartya Sen’s work), discovery, creation, enjoyment, protection, and sharing:

Discovery → Creation
Discovery maps existing community dynamics—both energies and tensions—within historical contexts, naturally leading to creation, where residents become collaborators.

A group of diverse people huddle together under an overhang of a concrete building in overcast weather. The woman in front with light blonde hair, blue puffer jacket, and glasses gestures with her right hand toward the viewers, while others in the group are wearing hats, coats, and holding umbrellas of various colors, including bright pink and green. The group includes several older women, one in a pink knit hat, and a man in a black jacket and a black cap with a serious expression.

Small Change Walking Tour, 2024. Photos: V. Gelūnienė.

Kaunas created an opera through workshops. Loughlinstown residents conducted mapping sessions, while Charlemont explored fostering a community through community gardening within their deck space.

Creation → Enjoyment
Co-created activities evolve into the enjoyment phase, where communities reclaim public spaces through gathering events and spectacle. Loughlinstown’s efforts led to a community street tour, while Charlemont implemented urban gardening workshops. Kaunas’ workshops culminated in the winter opera.

Nighttime performance with large effigies held aloft on poles and surrounding crowd watching a fire.

Night time performance with effigies held aloft on sticks, watched by a group of people in the foreground and many others in the background.

Community opera, Cabbage Field, 2018. Photos: D. Petrulis.

Enjoyment → Protection
As communities experience reclaiming spaces, they develop a commitment to protection, whether of unrecognized cultural assets, like Felim McConville’s silicon shed in Loughlinstown or through active governance roles. In Kaunas, opera performances strengthened the resolve to register building cellars as a heritage asset despite Municipal opposition.

Woman with surprised expression standing in front of a wall covered in various masks, including clowns, monsters, and skulls.

Fealim McConville’s silicon mask shed, Loughlinstown. Photo: E. Carroll.

A group of people gathers around a table. They examine a large black and white architectural rendering and diagrams with various symbols. Pens, scissors, and a mug are scattered around the table.

Charlemont mapping workshop 2024. Photo: V. Gelūnienė.

Protection → Sharing
Communities that preserve their heritage through cultural practices can share their creative expressions beyond local boundaries. Kaunas demonstrates this through international performances where 40 community members travelled to other translocal communities.

A couple and other visitors walk through a brick archway. The walls are lined with framed sketches and displays of antique artifacts, including metal tools, bottles, and a circular metal piece. In the background, people gather in an open area with a garden. The archway is part of a brick structure.

Kaunas Biennial, Friendly Zone #6 for Kaunas Biennial, 2015. Photo: R. Ščerbauskas.

Friendly Zone #6 Film. A. Liorančas.

The Cyclical Nature of the Rome Charter
From our experience these cultural capabilities are central to community building for transformative change. Our experience is that community cultural work is rhythmic—expanding and retracting—responsive to the passing of time, while remaining connected to people, using heritage and art to transform landscapes and, sometimes, to form fleetingly politically coherent communities.

WEWARD: EQUALITY THROUGH SHARED SPACE

Šančiai

The Cabbage Field opera contributed to strengthening local civil society and its defence of public space. Residents, in some cases, are the fifth generation of their family who settled there. The work went beyond simply producing an opera; people discovered how to express their sense of belonging in the process of co-creation. Sharing their experiences with others generated collective energy as residents performed aspects of their own identity. The format of 6-day rehearsals leading to performance created its own hardship and enjoyment and contributed to the wider community desire to protect the spirit of the neighbourhood.

A group of people outdoors, including children with arms outstretched, with a woman in a light-colored coat, standing in front of a building with a blue painted bus, a large group of people watching in the background, set against a cloudy sky.

Šančiai community opera singing rehearsal 2018. Director: S. Urbonienė. Photo: D. Petrulis.

The cello player Saulius Bartulis, recalled:

“The very choice of genre – the “impertinent” idea of choosing an opera genre, and executing it with the strength of the community – was simply a historical moment!” ⁴

“You made a choice to make an opera from within the story of the neighbourhood. This is a difficult choice because it’s not always possible to keep the quality and authenticity,” ⁵

said Peter van der Hurk a co-founder of the International Community Arts Festival, Rotterdam.

In December 2024, the community’s efforts led to the official registration of the ‘Cabbage Cellars’ as a cultural heritage site.

Dublin’s Loughlinstown and Ballybrack

The work engaged 40 residents and five organisations through its community-led approaches, including information leaflets, trust-building meetings, and workshops exploring public space, memory and activity. A walking tour was conducted with 25 participants celebrating the 1970s court architecture, highlighting women’s leadership, and honouring community resilience.

Gina Hogan, a volunteer with Estate Management, remarked,

“The tour helped us see our place as a cultural heritage. Now with the mapping, residents are able to think about their public spaces – its greens, walkways and park.” ⁶

A group of nine people gather outdoors around a wooden table in a garden setting, with one man in a green hooded sweatshirt facing the group and appearing to be speaking, while others listen and smile. The background includes a blue wall with ivy and a black metal fence.

Loughlinstown and Charlemont field visit to bee-keeper, Anthony Freeman O’Brien, Liberties Community Project 2025. Photo: E. Carroll.

The tours prompted local political engagement, with a follow-up meeting resulting in a Council motion and commitment from a senior community officer to conduct further community consultations and community mapping of the Courts and wider park areas.

Importantly, Denis Murray, an environmentalist since the 1980s, noted:

“the mapping process has really helped focus and reinvigorate resident action.” ⁷

No physical change is visible yet, but momentum has generated practical ideas for resident-led action animated by community development centres.

Charlemont

Fiachra O Mathuna, coordinator of the resource centre remarked,

“The Green Culture Garden concept and gardening workshops have seeded real community building. We don’t know what will grow but it’s seeded and we look forward to seeing it grow.” ⁸

Study visits to experienced gardening communities helped to increase enthusiasm. A one-day self-build of a roofed pagoda will create an outdoor gathering space, serving as both a community building exercise and a way to maintain momentum through manageable changes that can spark resident-led transformation.

A group of people wearing winter clothing, including green and gray hats, jackets, and a beige fleece, are bent over a patch of green plants in front of a brick building. The main person is wearing a green hat and looking directly at the camera.

Roots Gardeners, Charlemont Deck, 2025. E. Carroll.

In summary, each context produces its own legacy. Šančia residents nurtured civil society and co-created new cultural heritage. Loughlinstown completed creative mapping, mobilised residents, prompted political engagement, and highlighted social housing heritage. Charlemont’s deck design for a green culture garden sparked energy for environmental action.

Each project demonstrated different approaches to community empowerment and public space activation, with varying degrees of institutional support and resident involvement.

Across all sites residents are the subject not the object of the practice.

CONCLUSION: EMERGING INSIGHTS FROM PRACTICE

The practices shared from Ireland and Lithuania illuminate how community culture can catalyse transformation when it steps over ‘egology’ and prioritises a collective ‘ecology’.

Its key features include:

Residents as Agents of Change: Living Heritage as the Catalyst
Our work, cognisant of the Rome Charter, signifies a collective searching for ways in which communities discover their ordinary cultural assets and a co-creation of new expressions. Community culture thrives when residents actively preserve and reimagine local heritage as living. The Loughlinstown mapping project demonstrates how bottom-up initiatives amplify resident voices and safeguard social housing heritage. Similarly, the community opera and the tours exemplify how cultural practices can directly confront historical injustices while creating new opportunities for belonging.

These approaches reveal a potent dynamic: when creative resident expertise combines with artistic creativity, it produces new cultural assets related to its identity and its public space, showing how community-led cultural work provides an essential counterbalance to top-down urban planning.

Working outward from the collective memories e.g. reclaiming public life when the Soviets left, or public housing in Dublin, legitimises local histories that can inform more responsive urban practices.

Collective Action: Repossession of Spatial Justice and Public Value
Enjoyment, understood as ‘repossession’ of cultural practice, can’t just be about consuming culture and entertainment but can evoke a new stewardship that leads to protection of community spaces and assets for the here and now. What is co cocreated is an outward sign of the journey from enjoyment to protection through uncovering deeper connections to their shared spaces.

The activism of Žemuju Šančiai bendruomenė, as analysed by art critic Lina Michelkevičė (2024), highlighted how creative practices directly engage with contested urban issues to effect social change. Their work in the Cabbage Field represents part of a significant repertoire of creative actions that safeguard public interest against competing urban agendas. Though at earlier stages, both Dublin projects show potential for similar sharing of approaches and outcomes.

Spatial justice emerges when communities reclaim and reimagine the public value of shared spaces, forging vital connections between physical environments and social cohesion. These community-led interventions demonstrate that public space is not merely problem-laden physical infrastructure to be managed but an experience of collective identity and publicness.

Ecological Integration: Environmental Consciousness in Community Practice
Community members’ active role in shaping their environments continues to face structural obstacles that fail to include residents as “citizen experts.” The post-pandemic shift in the perception of public space has accelerated a deeper recognition of the relationship between environmental conditions and community well-being. However, the participation structures are hugely undernourished.

Gardening workshops and environmental art practices in both locations represent more than aesthetic improvements—they embody a movement toward sustainable urban living anchored in collective ecological awareness. These initiatives, albeit fragile, demonstrate how art and culture can drive environmental sustainability when they build connections for change across communities.

This practice-sharing between Ireland and Lithuania exemplifies how community arts effectively bridge cultural, social, and environmental divides, fostering resilience and transformation in urban neighbourhoods.

As François Matarasso incisively observed,

“If people cannot represent themselves culturally, how can they do so in any other way, even politically? If people are only imagined and portrayed by others, how can they be free and equal members of society?” ⁹

People dressed in vintage clothing applaud around a long table set with plates, with a crowd of onlookers visible in the background.

Šančiai Community opera, Cabbage Field, ICAF 2023. Photo: D. Petrulis.

NOTES

1. Gelūnienė, V., & Carroll, E. (2018). “Cabbage Field Case Study.” Prepared for United Cities Local Governments, Culture 21 Network.
Carroll, E. (2021). “Genius Loci – When Imagination of Civil Society confronts Extraction Urbanism” in People, Places and Stories. Castelló: Council of Europe. Published in Spanish and Catalan in “Memoria Viva” by Jaume I University. English version pp. 19-31.
Gelūnienė, V., & Carroll, E. (2022, December). “We are the artists of our lives.” Interview by Kotryna Lingienė for Modernism for the Future series.
Gelūnienė, V., & Carroll, E. (2023, February). “Šančiai community opera – The Cabbage Field.” Interview by Owen Kelly for miaaw.net podcast series [19:15-22:46].
Gelūnienė, V., & Carroll, E. (2023) ‘A Practice of Civil Society: The Sanciai Community Opera ‘Cabbage Field” Published by International Community Arts Festival, Rotterdam. See pages 30-42.
2024 Loughlinstown and Ballybrack Creative Places Research Presentation.
2024 Loughlinstown and Ballybrack Creative Places Research
2025 Small Change Report for dlr Creative Places
2017 Goodbye Tom Kelly Flats. A final goodbye from the residents to their homes.
2024 Charlemont Deck Design Process with Residents

2. N. Hamdi (2013) Small Change: About the Art of Practice and the Limits of Planning in Cities. Routledge.

3. The following shorts by A. Liorančas illustrate the level of collaboration involved: (i) https://vimeo.com/114437187 (ii) https://vimeo.com/110562819 and (iii) https://vimeo.com/138490085 and (iv) https://vimeo.com/110567382

4. See ICAF (2023) The Sound of Change, p.36

5. op. cit.

6. Gina Hogan in correspondence 2024-09-30

7. Denis Murray in correspondence 2025-02-20

8. Fiachra O’Mathuna in correspondence 2025-02-25

9. Matarasso, in his posted review of the community opera, Cabbage Field. Differdance 2022.

References:
A. Goldbard (2023) In the Camp of Angels of Freedom. What Does It Mean to Be Educated? New Village Press.
F. Matarasso, F. (2019). A Restless Art: How participation won, and why it matters. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon and London
N. Crowley (2022) Civil Society for Equality and Environmental Sustainability: Reimagining a Force for Change. Dublin: TASC.
L. Dovydaitytė C eno galimybės ir ribos: projekto Šančiai – draugiška zona atvejis, trans., The possibilities and limits of socially engaged art: the case study of “Šančiai – Friendly Zone” project, in Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, 74, 125−141.
L. Michelkevičė (2024). “Monografijos ‘Kultūros kūrėjai ir urbanistinis protestas Lietuvoje’ leidyba.” Funded by the Research Council of Lithuania (LMT LT), Contract No: S-LIP-24-20. Implemented by: Vilnius Academy of Arts.

JOURNEY WEWARDS THROUGH COLLECTIVE COMMUNITY ACTION

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