Elisava and Open Arms sign an annual agreement to develop the Open Arms School collective research project

Thanks to the collaborative work undertaken in the last academic year, Elisava has now signed an annual agreement with Proactive Open Arms for the 2022-2023 academic year, which has been presented at the School by Oscar Camps, founder and director of the NGO. The agreement aims to materialise Open Arms School, a collective research project developed jointly by Elisava and Proactive Open Arms, within the framework of Elisava Research Barcelona and REDES (Research & Education in Design) in Lisbon.

Through methodologies such as action research, direct action, co-production workshops and collaborative sessions with the NGO we want to promote intersectional practices in order to create a schoolship that explores the concept of designer at an agency through exploring, playing, learning, eating, adapting and communicating.

After working in a laboratory from January to July and during last September, with 24 students and the teaching staff Elia Bago, Sara Torres, Ignacio and Juan Ezcurra from Sociedad 0; Ramón Faura, Manuela Valtchanova, Rebeca Font, Joan Achón, David Haro and Esther Brosa, Albert Fuster and Raúl Goñi as coordinators, Elisava has signed an annual agreement for the 2022-2023 academic year with Open Arms, through which the NGO will collaborate in the following formats:

A project to transform the former Open Arms vessel into a school, as part of the subject ‘Global Project 1’ (Society), which is included in the Degree in Design. The aim is to turn it into an educational space that will dock in ports all over Europe, thus joining forces with the NGO’s activities.

There will be an open call for students from all mentions of the Degree in Design the opportunity, so that they can carry out their final degree project in collaboration with the NGO, in order to continue exploring design as a mediating tool and explore other pedagogical environments for the defence of human rights.