Atlas
of Arrival

What it is

Each year the Atlas of Arrival puts one question to people who shape how cities receive others: those who run cultural programmes, plan capitals of culture, design public space, or have themselves arrived somewhere new. Their answers are published together, credited by name, beside records of public conversations on the same question and a short essay by the editor.

It is an atlas because it is made of places. Each answer comes from a particular city and is printed as coming from there.

The word “arrival” in our title is used with a debt to Doug Saunders' Arrival City (2010), which showed how much depends on the places where newcomers first land.

How it appears

The Atlas is published once a year. The first volume appears in autumn 2027.

It begins with a public conversation on the question, planned for Tirana at the end of October 2026: 75 minutes, three guests, with the audience answering before and after. A record of that conversation goes to contributors and hosts at the end of 2026.

If you have been asked to contribute

A contribution is a sentence or two, in your own words.
It costs nothing. No contributor pays to be included, and nothing is being sold alongside it.
You are credited as you choose: name, role and organisation, or name only.
You see your contribution in place and approve the wording before it is printed.
Your words appear in the Atlas, in the record sent to contributors, and on the page announcing it. They are not used in advertising, and your organisation's name or logo is never used to suggest a partnership.
You may change or withdraw your contribution at any time before printing.

Reading it

The annual volume is free to read as a PDF. A small print run goes to contributors and hosts.

The editor

Andrew Ahachinsky is an editor and host of public conversations, based in Vancouver, Canada. He makes printed works about entry, access and participation in cultural life. His work Field Object 001 is shown at PRINT 2026 in Mexico City.