Open Call for Cultural Institutions: Flying Rivers

About the Programme

Flying Rivers is an international, distributed climate action initiative centred on water and the hydrological cycle. It invites cultural institutions around the world to become part of a collaborative movement that uses art, culture, research, education and public engagement to address water-related challenges and climate change.

The initiative does not require participating institutions to follow a particular exhibition format, programme structure or project scale. Instead, each institution is encouraged to build its participation around its existing programmes, communities, collections, physical sites and organisational capacities.

The programme aims to make the hydrological cycle more visible and understandable to the public, encourage cultural discussions about the importance of water, and promote collective responsibility for protecting the planet's water systems.

It also seeks to challenge greenwashing and the political and economic forces contributing to the global water crisis through sustained, coordinated cultural action.

Who is behind it

Flying Rivers was created by artist Bill Balaskas (billbalaskas.com). It was developed in collaboration with the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW, watercommission.org) and Anna Dupont, co-curator of GCEW follow-up initiatives.

Background and rationale

Flying Rivers is a cultural response to the GCEW’s final report, The Economics of Water: Valuing the Hydrological Cycle as a Global Common Good, published in October 2024 (economicsofwater.watercommission.org). The report puts water first as a vital natural resource, alongside the human right to safe water and sanitation. It proposes that the hydrological cycle be recognised and governed as a “global common good.” It concludes that no adequate response to climate change is possible without urgent, holistic action on water.

The page explains that “blue” water in rivers, lakes, glaciers and aquifers, and “green” water held in soil and vegetation, interact continuously with the oceans and the atmosphere. They do so through evaporation, atmospheric transport and precipitation, and together form a single interdependent planetary cycle. Flying Rivers takes its name from this cycle and its invisible flows of water vapour that connect distant regions.

The final paragraph of the report acknowledges that facts and scientific evidence can inform narratives, but that culture is the ultimate medium through which those narratives are formed and disseminated. In Climate Change and Culture (2026), published by UCL Bartlett, GCEW Co-Chair Mariana Mazzucato similarly positions arts and culture as essential social infrastructure. In that role they shape collective imagination and build public legitimacy for a just transition.

Aims

Reflecting this understanding, Flying Rivers seeks to make the hydrological cycle publicly legible and to foster the cultural imaginaries and collective norms needed to value and protect water. It aims to build pressure for political action and to help educate a new generation capable of sustaining long-term change. It now aims to bring together a critical mass of partners committed to sustained and coordinated action. That action challenges greenwashing and the political and economic forces driving the water crisis.

History

Flying Rivers was announced and developed in 2025 through a sequence of three events presented in the official public programme of the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale. The sequence began on World Environment Day (June 5) and culminated during the Biennale’s finissage week (November 19). At that final event, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (baltic.art) was announced as the programme’s first collaborating institution. Following the events in Venice and further international consultation with cultural practitioners and institutions, the programme issued this open call.

What participating institutions receive

Participating institutions will receive a visual communication toolkit that includes posters, digital banners, artwork tags and projections, along with a wide range of learning resources. These materials can be adapted to the institution’s own programmes, audiences and contexts. The programme will also facilitate exchanges with scientists, activists and researchers. These exchanges are meant to inform the development of public, educational, curatorial and site-specific responses that address water-related issues and support efforts to protect the hydrological cycle.

Flying Rivers International Museums Consortium

Participating institutions will also be invited to shape a new framework for climate action through the Flying Rivers International Museums Consortium. The Consortium does not adopt a predetermined model. It will develop shared principles through collective work in the months and years ahead. A central ambition is to formulate an International Water Pledge for the cultural sector, co-authored by participating institutions, scientists, artists, researchers and activists.

Who can participate

Flying Rivers welcomes institutions across all geographies, scales and models. These include museums and galleries of contemporary, modern, medieval and ancient art, and organisations dedicated to archaeology, architecture, design, film, photography, natural history and science. They also include interdisciplinary and discipline-specific institutions, and collecting and non-collecting institutions. Heritage sites, archives, libraries, cultural centres, foundations, biennials, and community-led and artist-run spaces are welcome too, along with other institutional forms not named on the page.

How to apply

There is no formal application form. The way to take part is to send an expression of interest, and you have two options for doing so. You can use the Flying Rivers contact form https://www.flyingrivers.art/about, or you can email info@flyingrivers.art.

Your message should be a brief introduction to your institution and its location. If you wish, you can also add any initial thoughts about participation. The page asks for nothing more than this, so no proposal, budget, portfolio or supporting documents are requested. Expressions of interest are considered on an ongoing basis, so you can send one at any time.

The e-flux page also has an RSVP button for this announcement. It says the Global Commission on the Economics of Water “will be in touch” after you submit it. The page does not describe the RSVP as part of the application process, so the contact form or email is the route the call itself names.

There is no fixed deadline. The expressions of interest are considered on an ongoing basis.