Introduction
In a climate of instrumentalised culture and institutional decay in North Macedonia, audience development is commonly understood in quantitative terms. Institutions prioritise numbers over depth of engagement, and state cultural policies favour populist programming. In contrast, the North Macedonian cultural organisation Kontrapunkt envisions audiences not as passive consumers, but as co-creators in an ongoing process of cultural and social transformation. As a response to prevailing state policies, Kontrapunkt emphasises sustained engagement over fleeting public attention. In ‘Re-Imagining Audiences: Culture as a Catalyst for Change’, art historian and cultural producer Tijana-Ana Spasovska outlines an activist model of audience development that values critical engagement, intellectual curiosity, and the empowerment of individuals and communities. Drawing on ideas from amongst others Bertolt Brecht, Augusto Boal, and Valie Export, she illustrates how audiences can become co-creators, thinkers, and active participants in cultural discourse.

Context
This text is one of the pilot studies of Re-Imagine Europe: New Perspectives for Action. In these contributions we explore and reflect on artistic practices and experimental approaches in the cultural field that can engage and activate audiences and communities to address ecological, social, and political challenges. The pilot studies provide an overview of practices of cultural organisations that can serve as models, recipes, or tools for transformation for current and future generations of cultural workers and artists.

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