The overall objective of the Nida Art Colony is to improve the quality of art and design education in Lithuania and to implement innovations in the field of art education by promoting international cooperation. At the same time NAC is looking forward to initiating artistic and educational events, also is seeking for various collaborative projects itself. The following section is a record of such activities.

Interformat Symposiums

The Interformat symposium (since 2011) is yearly event which hosts ~40 artists, curators, researchers and practitioners to reinvent the format of presenting and sharing art, knowledge and experience. One of the key features of contemporary culture is the changing role of the artist, who sometimes assumes the role of a researcher and curator, and vice versa. Where are the borders of these roles? How could a serious researcher and theorist do a performance, and how could a playful artist do serious research and theorize? Every symposium has a different focus/topic.

Techno-ecologies

Techno-ecologies aims to re-approach cultural, social and ecological sustainability through artistic explorations and cultural innovation. In response to the current situation of economical, climate, social and cultural crisis, the project is aimed at developing viable solutions, while building a trans-European collaboration platform, which will support artistic and creative explorations towards sustainable future development.

On Hosting and Displacing

On Hosting and Displacing... focuses on the specificity of remote, picturesque contexts dominated by landscapes (both rural or alpine/marine) that are being “regenerated” today through touristic and cultural policies, and will question critical models for artistic intervention in such environments. Sharing experiences between two institutions, Nida Art Colony and Fondation Chateau Mercier (FCM) et Ecole Cantonale d’Art du Valais (ECAV) à Sierre – the project with create a temporary, itinerant colony of art and cultural producers will circulate and exchange between Nida and Sierre between 2012 and 2013. The project will be documented by a publication.

Exhibition - Genius Loci

Genius Loci was the first curated exhibition of artworks produced at Nida Art Colony. The term 'genius loci' refers to the distinctive atmosphere or pervading spirit of a place. This exhibition focused on those works that dealt primarily with Nida as a sensory environment - light, sound, smell, touch, narrative, communication, and experience.

Migrating Art Academies

Migrating Art Acadmeies (MigAA) is an ongoing project in collaboration with a network of art academies, people and events. A radical departure from the traditional learning process within bricks-and-mortar, MigAA trained and released a group of graduate art students who run a series of mobile and located explorations that, literally, span Europe - from the Baltic beaches of Lithuania to the Gironde Estuary in France, the Tatras mountains of Slovakia and beyond.Interformat Symposium 2012

Nida/Share Summer School

This nine day intensive summer school took place in July 2012 and addressed issues of visual thinking, thinking-through-practice and the role of creative and experimental writing practices in doctoral level studies in visual art forms.

Contemporary Past - Tracking a Postcard

The third intensive summer course, Contemporary Past, concentrated on the issue of message transfer in visual arts. Offering different approaches to the chosen subject: participants had the opportunity to deepen their knowledge in visual semiotics, to discuss selected art works with their creators, to get to know the history of the old mail route of the Curonian Spit, which served as a shortcut of the 19th century mail road connecting Koenigsberg and Riga and to watch relevant documentaries and fiction. Through theoretical lectures, discussions, workshops, guided field trips and independent research – the first week was devoted to lectures discussions and field trips; the second – to individual research and workshops. Public review and discussion of created works took place on the final weekend.