There’s now an exciting opportunity in Greece to take part in a pioneering program of design & art residencies in the run up to the Athens Design Festival. A platform of intense genuine creativity, involving all social groups, the first ever manifestation of its kind in the whole country.

The 2026 residencies’ program, Periplus* Workshops, offers the unique opportunity for emerging creatives to respond to nature in a small isolated rural village, in the middle of the legendary Psiloritis UNESCO Global Geopark area on the island of Crete, in Greece. A land of myths, which through a myriad of powerful historic changes is characterized by its strong environmental physiognomy and genuine agricultural character, along with a multifaceted folk heritage. With inhabitants of an exceptionally independent nature, that form a distinctive society and with long-lasting rooted traditions regarding material culture.

In a carefully structured period of twelve intensive days, a selected determined group of multidisciplinary participants use limited resources to create individual and collaborative responses, culminating in a local exhibition which is open to the wider local community and encourages an outward-facing conversation about the value of experimental creativity in context.

As well as learning from and working alongside local people, participants in Periplus Workshops foster sustainable development through skill sharing, introducing new approaches to problem solving and storytelling. At the same time, learning about the traditional forms of handicrafts and local material culture, they are looking for new ways of better preserving and innovatively including them. They take active part into giving the selected territory visibility as a living laboratory, open to new thinking capable of playing a key role in positively improving the social fabric and bring about new ways of doing and being.

Spaces are limited and following the amazing response created in the previous years, there are expectations for significantly high-quality responses. 

Application deadline: 2026-4-30 (for early bird only)

Residency starts: 2026-07-19

Residency ends: 2026-07-30

Location: Anogeia village [Rethymno region, Crete - Psiloritis UNESCO Global Geopark] Greece

Link to more information: www.periplusworkshops.com