A TRIBE CALLED ART QUEST
AN INTERACTIVE SCAVENGER HUNT THROUGH BARCELONA'S CREATIVE ECOSYSTEM
CATEGORY
Cultural Quest
LOCATION
Sant Antoni & Raval, Barcelona
YEAR
2025
ROLE
Experience & Game Designer · Community Coordinator · Cultural Programmer · Graphic Designer
About the project
A Tribe Called Art Quest transformed Barcelona's independent art scene into an interactive learning journey.
Designed for Artist Ally's members who are primarily immigrant artists and cultural practitioners, the experience combined gallery visits, creative challenges, reflection, and community building to help participants discover the city's cultural ecosystem while building meaningful relationships with one another.
HOW CAN NEWCOMERS DISCOVER A CREATIVE ECOSYSTEM THROUGH PARTICIPATION INSTEAD OF INFORMATION?
Finding galleries, studios, and creative spaces is relatively easy.
Understanding how they connect—and feeling that you belong within them—is much harder.
A Tribe Called Art Quest was designed to make Barcelona's artistic ecosystem visible by allowing immigrant participants to experience it collectively rather than navigate it alone.
MAPPING BARCELONA'S CREATIVE LANDSCAPE. TOGETHER.
Participants travelled together across independent galleries, creative studios, and cultural spaces, meeting the people behind each initiative while completing small creative challenges along the way.
Rather than simply visiting places, participants reflected, documented, drew, wrote, discussed, and shared their own experiences, gradually building both a personal understanding of the city and new relationships within it.
The experience concluded with an informal community gathering where participants exchanged recommendations and expanded one another's maps of Barcelona's creative landscape.
ACTIVE PARTICIPATION & DIALOGUE WAS AT THE CENTRE OF THE EXPERIENCE.
A curated itinerary connecting independent creative spaces across Barcelona designed for active participation rather than observation.
Through creative prompts, personal reflection, and shared conversations, participants became contributors to the experience itself, leaving with both a deeper connection to Barcelona's cultural landscape and a personal record of the journey.
Prompted Artifact
Artist Ally Passport™
Each participant received a custom-designed passport guiding them throughout the experience.
Every cultural space introduced a new prompt encouraging observation, drawing, writing, or personal reflection connected to that location.
Rather than collecting information, participants gradually built their own creative journal of the city.
Knowledge Sharing
Community Knowledge Exchange
The final gathering invited participants to collectively share their favourite creative spaces across Barcelona, expanding the group's understanding of the city's artistic ecosystem beyond the official itinerary.
EXPERIENCE PROGRAM
Guided Cultural Route
A curated journey through independent galleries, print studios, and creative organisations across Sant Antoni and Raval.
Artist & Space Introductions
Short presentations introducing the philosophy, exhibitions, Artist Ally members' perks and communities behind each participating space.
Creative Challenges
Reflection prompts and small activities completed throughout the journey using the Artist Ally Passport.
Community Gathering
An informal closing conversation designed to strengthen relationships and encourage ongoing connections within the local creative community.
BEHIND THE EXPERIENCE
Rather than introducing participants to spaces individually, the experience was designed to help them understand the relationships that form a cultural ecosystem.
01
MEANING-CENTERED DESIGN™
02
COMMUNITY INFRAESTRUCTURE FRAMEWORK™
03
EXPERIENCE JOURNEY FRAMEWORK™
04
LEARN THROUGH PARTICIPATION FRAMEWORK™
XAV'S PARTICIPATORY SYSTEMS USED
Passport Journey System™
The passport structured the visitor journey while encouraging continuous participation.
Community Infrastructure Framework™
The experience prioritised relationship-building over networking, creating the conditions for genuine community to emerge.
Prompt-Based Reflection System™
Creative prompts transformed each cultural visit into an opportunity for personal interpretation and dialogue.
Experience Journey Framework™
The route intentionally progressed from orientation and exploration to reflection, conversation, and belonging.
Impact
A Tribe Called Art Quest demonstrated how cultural orientation can become a community-building experience rather than simply a guided tour.
By combining exploration, participation, and dialogue, the project helped artists build familiarity with Barcelona's creative ecosystem while fostering relationships that could continue long after the experience ended.
