As a nomadic NGO, we travel to rural and urban communities together with an extensive network of supporters and partners. We have led nine Xarkis Festivals in Arsos, Lofou, Koilani, Polystipos, Lympia and Agros, (2013-2022) festival.xarkis.org, one cultural event and pop-up market at the National State Fair called A New Day in Cyprus (2013), seven nomadic Xarkis Artist Residency Programs in the villages of Lofou, Koilani, Polystipos, Lympia and Agros, (2016-2022), four group exhibitions at Point Centre for Contemporary Art (2016-2019), eight workshops and participatory projects including the Nicosia Pop-up Festival, City Plaza, (2014) three workshops at Tenta Festival, Kalavasos, (2015) three non-formal educational programs including: Voicing & Craft Stories at NiMAC, Nicosia, (2017), two Masa potluck and Participatory Design workshops at the Cultural Heritage Museum and Deryneia Adult Center (2019), four kaFEMio coffeeshops in Polystipos (2019, 2020) with related online and on-site events at the Adult Center, Deryneia (2022), Everything Flows art platform (2020), Voicing Stories digital platform focusing on oral stories and the related educational program at the Nicosia Municipal Arts Center (NiMAC, 2017) as part of our EU youth social entrepreneurship award from the Youthopia Programme, and CONTESTED DESIRES transnational Arts Program (2019-2022) co-funded by Creative Europe and supported by the Cultural Services. Xarkis has received various awards and mentions from the beginning of its practice in 2013. It has been explored through the lens of community empowerment and its annual festival was featured on TEDx (2014). It was further showcased in the UNESCO edition of Cultural Expressions and Pluralism: Aspects of Modern Creation in Cyprus (2018), where it is presented as an example of good civil society practice that promotes the objectives of the 2005 UNESCO Convention. It was featured in Elefsina 2021 European Capital of Culture, Greece (2019), which spotlighted best-practices in projects situated within social practice. Xarkis was also featured in the Brazilian research magazine called Revista Mesa (2021), as a case study for socially engaged practices and was further featured in the Walking Society magazine (2021) with a feature interview of its director.
