Source: new-european-bauhaus.europa.eu
Written by Marine Masson (PULSE-ART Project Coordinator, SFC), Marina Guimaraes (EMEA), and María Ruiz de Cossío (EMEA)
March 3, 2026
Designing the Future: How PULSE-ART Animates the New European Bauhaus
The New European Bauhaus (NEB) is often described as the “soul” of the European Green Deal. Rather than focusing solely on technical or economic solutions, the NEB promotes a holistic transformation grounded in three core values: sustainability, aesthetics, and inclusion.
At the heart of this transition is PULSE-ART (Project for Up-scaling Learnings and Skills in Art Education). Funded by Horizon Europe, PULSE-ART serves as the living laboratory that brings the NEB’s ambitious vision into the practical realm of education and creative industries.
Beyond Decoration: Art as a Problem-Solving Tool
While the NEB calls for a bridge between technology and culture, PULSE-ART actively builds that connection through transdisciplinary collaboration. We move beyond viewing art as a finished product, treating it instead as a dynamic process that generates dialogue, experimentation and shared solutions.
By integrating the Cultural and Creative Sectors (CCS) into educational systems, PULSE-ART empowers citizens to navigate the “twin transitions”, green and digital, not as passive observers, but as active creators. Whether through Game Jams in Malta or Scientific Illustration in Spain, we test how creative expression can address complex social and environmental challenges, from climate literacy and digital engagement to identity formation and intercultural understanding.
The Triple Pulse: Sustainability, Aesthetics, and Inclusion
PULSE-ART operates through the three pillars of the NEB, ensuring that each aspect of the project contributes to measurable changes in education, culture and creative practices.
Eco-Literacy through Expression (Sustainability): Through artistic research and partnerships with initiatives such as PALIMPSEST, we encourage participants to reinterpret and engage with their environments through circular and sustainable practices, transforming climate objectives into creative, community-driven actions.
The Beauty of the Learning Experience (Aesthetics): Functionality forms the foundation, while beauty elevates the experience PULSE-ART promotes educational approaches that are sensorially and intellectually stimulating, demonstrating that a sustainable future is one we actually want to live in.
A Culture of Belonging (Inclusion): Through our Mosaic Hubs, we open traditionally exclusive spaces to a wider range of voices, fostering participation across disciplines, communities, and backgrounds. By prioritizing accessibility and diversity, we ensure that the New European Bauhaus movement is a shared journey across Europe.
Mapping the Impact: The PULSE-ART Observatory
The NEB is a movement in the making, and movements require data and direction. To support its ongoing development, PULSE-ART is establishing an Arts in Education Observatory to track, evaluate, and enhance the project’s impact. Alongside our Competence Framework, this platform offers practical guidance for educators and policymakers to integrate NEB values into educational programs and cultural initiatives across Europe.
Deepening the NEB Connection: From Alignment to Affiliation
To further consolidate its role within the New European Bauhaus ecosystem, all PULSE-ART partners will formally affiliate with the New European Bauhaus community by the end of this year. This step reinforces the project’s institutional anchoring within the NEB network and enhances its visibility, policy relevance, and collaborative potential at the European level.
Affiliation provides strategic advantages: direct access to cross-sector knowledge exchange, participation in policy dialogues, increased dissemination channels, and opportunities to co-develop initiatives with other NEB-aligned actors across Europe. It also strengthens PULSE-ART’s capacity to scale results, contribute to EU-level debates on arts in education, and foster long-term impact beyond the project lifecycle.
In parallel, PULSE-ART is organizing yearly networking and mutual learning exercises (MLEs) with NEB members. These gatherings ensure continuous collaboration, structured peer learning, and cross-project synergies, transforming alignment with NEB values into active co-creation and shared experimentation.
Conclusion: A Call to Co-Create
The New European Bauhaus is an invitation to dream collectively. PULSE-ART works as the laboratory where these ideas are tested and brought to life. By merging scientific rigor with the transformative power of the arts, we are not just preparing for the future, we are actively shaping a future that is inclusive, creative, and sustainable.
PULSE-ART AND NEB EVENTS: Overview
September 25, 2025 | Layers of Values: Exploring Impact in Culture, Art and Education
PULSE-ART’s first Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE), “Layers of Values: Exploring Impact in Culture, Art and Education. How Do We Know it Worked – not just for some, but for everyone?”, marked the launch of structured collaboration with the New European Bauhaus community. Included in the official programme of MONDIACULT 2025, the dialogue addressed a central question: how do we measure value in arts, culture, and education?
Across five European project showcases and three interactive workshops, a clear message emerged: artistic and cultural initiatives generate transformative yet often intangible outcomes -such as self-confidence, civic engagement, and cultural awareness- that traditional evaluation systems fail to capture. Participants identified five priority dimensions for impact measurement (agency, skills, civic engagement, awareness, and societal impact) and highlighted mixed, participatory methods (including storytelling, photovoice, zines, and videogames) as tools capable of capturing lived experience and identity transformation.
A second key message stressed that evaluation must itself be inclusive and co-created. Multilingual accessibility, reflexivity, transparency, and recognition of positionality were identified as structural conditions for fair and equitable assessment. The MLE strengthened cross-project alignment and positioned PULSE-ART as a contributor to advancing Cultural Awareness and Expression (CAE) within the NEB ecosystem.
January 31, 2026 | NEB Open days – Heritact Final Event, Eleusis
PULSE-ART was invited to participate in the Inclusion roundtable at the Open NEB Day of the Heritact Final Event, held in Elefsina and online on January 30th, 2026. The roundtable was moderated by Dr. Jenny Darzentas (University of the Aegean), an expert in “Design for All” approaches. The diverse panel featured Siobhán Sexton (Mayo County Council) on digital school engagement, Helen Charoupia (University of the Aegean) on community-led design, Maria Vitaller del Olmo (Aalborg University/Palimpsest) on playfulness in social inclusion, Dr. Olga Imellou (University of Nicosia) on educational policy and special needs, and Doris Ossberger on universal design and web accessibility.
Representing PULSE-ART, coordinator Marine Masson (Science For Change) discussed redefining “Inclusion” by shifting the focus from physical presence to deep socio-cultural engagement. Drawing on PULSE-ART’s research, she emphasized that true inclusion requires transversal professional development, equipping educators with participatory, arts-based methods to foster social cohesion. Addressing the practical meaning of “accessibility,” Marine argued that heritage is a living process. She noted that nearly one-third of the barriers to cultural awareness identified by PULSE-ART are socio-cultural and perceptual—stemming from cultural biases, discrimination, and self-censorship—rather than merely physical. This event provided a vital opportunity to strengthen “sister-project” ties and foster New European Bauhaus connections across Europe.
February 27, 2026 | NEB Academy first conference in Barcelona
At the 1st New European Bauhaus (NEB) Academy Conference held in Barcelona on 27th February 2026, Leticia Domingos (SFC) presented PULSE-ART in a PechaKucha Pitch, emphasizing the vital link between cultural awareness and the transformation of the built environment. The pitch, titled “Developing Cultural Awareness and Expression for Inclusion and Civic Participation,” presented the project as a key contributor to the NEB’s vision of a beautiful and inclusive future. By focusing on the transversal integration of art-based practices into education systems, PULSE-ART complemented the Academy’s core mission of upskilling the building sector for a regenerative and resilient future. Ultimately, the presentation sparked the curiosity and interest of the professionals in attendance, who were primarily from the construction and architecture sectors.
June 9-13, 2026 | NEB Festival 2026, Brussels
Looking ahead, PULSE-ART will participate in the New European Bauhaus Festival, taking place in Brussels from 9 to 13 June 2026. Together with nine other Horizon Europe projects (ALPHABETICA, Art of Darkness, CONVIVIUM, HeritACT, make-a-thek, PACESETTER, PALIMPSEST, STARTUP, and TOWCHED), PULSE-ART forms part of “NEBULE – New European Bauhaus United for a Living Environment.” NEBULE is conceived as a shared exhibition and co-creation space showcasing how transdisciplinary research and innovation projects operationalise NEB values. Across four dimensions (Display, Workshop, Communication, and Demonstration) the cluster presents immersive experiences, interactive tools, policy dialogues, and participatory sessions.
Within NEBULE, PULSE-ART brings a systemic perspective on co-creation in education. Through its exhibition presence, it showcases its evidence-based methodology for strengthening Cultural Awareness and Expression (CAE), together with its Competence Framework and policy insights, demonstrating how arts-in-education can be measured, scaled, and embedded into European policy frameworks. Complementing this, PULSE-ART will engage policymakers, educators, researchers, and cultural actors in a co-creation exercise aimed at refining practical pathways to integrate New European Bauhaus values into education systems across Europe.
