What is TIDAL ArtS?
TIDAL ArtS (Transforming and Inspiring Aquatic Landscapes through Art and Sciences) is an EU-funded initiative under the Mission to Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030. It operates through two strands: the Lighthouse Projects and the Residency Programme. Both bring together artists, scientists, and communities to develop work responding to marine science, climate change, and biodiversity.
The Lighthouse Projects
From over 600 applications, 20 Lighthouse Projects were selected across four regions: the Atlantic-Arctic, Baltic and North Sea, Danube-Black Sea, and the Mediterranean. Each project develops site-specific public art in collaboration with local communities and scientists.
The Baltic and North Sea Projects
Five projects are underway across the Baltic and North Sea region:
The Sea Begins Here (Lithuania) draws on marine science and local memory to explore how coastal communities relate to the boundary between land and sea.
Oyster Matter (Netherlands) takes bivalves as a starting point for thinking about marine restoration, the blue economy, and the relationship between human activity and ocean ecosystems.
Hotel Kittiwake+ (United Kingdom) uses performance and public engagement to open conversations about North Sea biodiversity and habitat loss. A public showcase on a North Sea beach is coming soon.
Echoes of the Deep (Germany), developed by the Berlin-based collective NeoNature, is building a virtual diving experience and online community centred on the underwater world of the Baltic Sea.
Baltic Code of Signals (Denmark) draws on the historical language of maritime communication as a way into questions about how we read and respond to what the sea is telling us.
Seaweed Stories: The First Completed Project
The first TIDAL ArtS Lighthouse Project to complete is Seaweed Stories, created by Cracking Light Productions in County Clare, Ireland.
Over six months, the project invited residents of North Clare to explore the Liscannor Bay coastline through workshops in foraging, seaweed cooking, macro photography, and printing. The project culminated in an exhibition at the Courthouse Gallery in Ennistymon, showing prints, macro photography, seaweed pressings, and a hand-dyed tapestry made from coastline-gathered seaweed and community stories.
Fish in a Kettle: Immersive Theatre in Liverpool
From the Atlantic-Arctic strand, Fish in a Kettle by Lab Rats Collective ran at Fabric Studios in Liverpool in May 2026. The immersive show placed audiences inside a house party set in Liverpool in 2050 — a city battered by rising tides — and was developed in collaboration with marine scientist Dr Marta Payo Payo from the National Oceanography Centre.
The Residency Programme
Alongside the Lighthouse Projects, TIDAL ArtS runs a separate Residency Programme — four artists or collectives, each awarded €50,000 to develop a year-long project embedded in a host location connected to the EU’s ocean and water mission.
The four selected projects are:
Living Archive of Water — Clara Jo, Turku Archipelago, Finland. A film, photography and installation project exploring water as a living co-narrator of ecological memory and collective storytelling.
Counterfactual Hydrologies — Klara Kofen, Venice Lagoon, Italy. An exploration of the Venice lagoon’s past, present and future — as ecosystem, colonial archive, industrial body, and climate frontier — through the lens of the EU’s Digital Twin of the Ocean.
Azores From Below — Sonia Levy, Bint Mbareh & María Montero Sierra, São Miguel Island, Portugal. A project exploring submarine soundscapes and submerged histories of resistance in the Azores, drawing on collective voicing, oral histories, and participatory listening sessions.
Huso Huso — Adam Hudec & Monika Pascoe Mikyšková (Dusts Institute), Danube River, Hungary. A project engaging with the extinction of the beluga sturgeon as both ecological and cultural loss, working with Danube sediments processed into natural pigments and community workshops in Ráckeve.
Residency kick-off events are taking place now across Europe — Venice in May, Budapest in May, Turku in June, and the Azores in June. Final exhibitions are planned for Spring 2027.
Why Art Belongs in the Blue Economy
TIDAL ArtS is built on a straightforward premise: science tells us what is happening to our oceans, but emotional engagement with place is one of the strongest drivers of long-term behaviour change. Art is not a soft addition to ocean policy but an practical tool for building the public understanding that sustainable ocean economies depend on.
Explore all projects: tidalarts.eu
