WE:SHAPE
What is WE:Shape?
WE:Shape is an interdisciplinary lab committed to transforming how artistic practices are taught, created, and sustained. Grounded in music and performing arts practice, pedagogy, and long-term experience within cultural and educational contexts, the initiative develops human-centered frameworks for music and performing arts institutions, universities, schools, cultural organizations, independent educators, and individuals from diverse fields.
At a time when social division, mistrust, and a widespread sense of unsafety shape both local and global politics, WE:Shape investigates what human beings need in order to engage in safe, dignified, and sustainable coexistence. The project foregrounds performative art, storytelling, and communal artistic practices as vital means for fostering connection, resilience, and mutual understanding.
With a particular emphasis on body-centered artistic practices, WE:Shape approaches the body as a site of memory, vulnerability, creativity, and embodied knowledge. Through this lens, the lab facilitates artistic projects, research-based inquiry, workshops, dialogues, and collaborative formats that support the development of inclusive, sustainable, and trauma-aware artistic and educational environments—without positioning itself as a clinical or therapeutic framework.
WE:Shape aims to contribute to long-term cultural transformation by linking artistic practice with reflective inquiry, sociopolitical awareness, and historical perspective, ultimately strengthening the integrity, expressive capacity, and creative potential of individuals and communities.
What WE:Shape Offers:
WE:Shape focuses on fostering safety, sustainability, and dignity in the arts and art education, always grounded in the sociopolitical realities of the communities it serves.
WE:Shape facilitates, curates, and creates innovative projects that intersect with:
-
Performance and embodied artistic practices
-
Public debates and critical conversations
-
Symposia, round tables, and podium discussions
-
Workshops, trainings, and community-engaged formats
WE:Shape offers these formats in collaboration with:
-
Music and performing arts institutions
-
Festivals and cultural venues
-
Universities and schools, including those offering Human Rights & Arts studies
-
Forums related to arts, science, and politics
-
Music and performing arts academies and educational programs
-
Grassroots initiatives and community organizations
-
Independent pedagogues, practitioners, and artists
Through these partnerships, WE:Shape cultivates inclusive, human-centered approaches to artistic and educational practice, with a focus on implementing safe, culturally informed, and sustainable artistic methods.
Founder, Artistic & Creative Director
Golnar Shahyar is a vocalist, composer, educator, and cultural thinker whose work weaves together artistic practice, pedagogy, and socio-political awareness. Rooted in years of experience as a performer and teacher, her work centers the lived, embodied realities of making art in complex personal and collective contexts.
Her teaching and facilitation at institutions such as the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Wiener Festwochen, Brunnenpassage, European Forum Alpbach, D/Arts, and the Musikverein engage with questions of equity, inclusion, and sustainability in music and music education. She has worked with professional artists as well as musicians of diverse ages, levels, and cultural, political, and class backgrounds, with particular attention to how artistic practice is shaped by displacement, censorship, war, migration, and intergenerational experience.
As the founder and artistic director of WE:Shape, Shahyar develops inclusive and resilience-oriented approaches to artistic and educational work, drawing from music and voice pedagogy, embodied performance practices, and cultural analysis. Her work places the human body and voice at the center—not as sites of correction, but as sources of memory, expression, curiosity, and relational knowledge.
Across her teaching, artistic practice, and advocacy, Shahyar emphasizes the creation of dignified, sustainable, and responsive creative environments. She understands art as transformative not through abstraction alone, but through attentive practice, shared responsibility, and a deep engagement with how people learn, create, and coexist.
WE:Shape Story
WE:Shape was originally initiated in 2022 by Golnar Shahyar (Musician, Composer, Educator) Rojin Sharafi (sound artist, composer & performer) and Yalda Zamani (conductor) as a response to the urgent need for greater diversity and representation in the performing arts and music. Emerging during the pandemic, the platform sought to raise awareness around these issues and to build a network of artists committed to strengthening community bonds and addressing the varied needs and requirements for a more sustainable and just artistic ecosystem.
After the pandemic, and due to the time and energy limitations of each of the co-founders, the activities of WE:Shape entered a pause. During this period, the discourse around diversity in the arts shifted considerably: diversity work began facing more complex and nuanced challenges, while broader sociopolitical changes across Europe and beyond introduced new pressures and highlighted the need for innovative and evolving methodologies.
In response to these developments, Golnar Shahyar decided to return to the platform and revive WE:Shape in its current form. Today, WE:Shape seeks to meet this transformed landscape by exploring the intersections of art, embodied experience, and sociocultural awareness—where embodied experience refers to how the body carries memory, emotion, and expression in artistic practice, and what safe, sustainable, and thriving artistic practice requires in relation to this. Through this lens, WE:Shape develops new approaches for fostering a more inclusive, resilient, and human-centered artistic community.