Aegina Retreats by The Cool Projects

Aegina Retreats by The Cool Projects Creative retreats, art workshops and residencies on the island of Aegina. Aegina Retreats was created by the The Cool Projects.

A space for painting, ceramics, movement and exploration through nature, materials and the creative process.
Once we were a workshop producing locally handmade olive oil soap bars, bodycare products, objects for the home & bath. We were the perfect place where you could learn about the traditional methods of olive oil soap making and try our rich variety of soaps.

We also created a Cool Collection of objects made by us and some collaborators. Today we are a colour & clay studio offering a series of workshops & retreats in painting & ceramics. Our mains objective: make you discover another angle to the creative process, that will unblock you from the insecurities of creating, using colour or clay. At the same time we offer you a little peak into life on an island, whether in the summer, spring, autumn or winter -all seasons are good for Aegina. And you can stay at our guest house, the Grapevine House, while you are here. When we are not running our workshops-retreats, we are in the studio, making stuff: Yanis amidst colours, pigments, inks, brushes, spatulas, papers, canvases, metals, woods... the list is long. marina surrounds herself with studio and wild clays and materials picked up from her walks with Yanis and their dog: stones, pebbles, leaves, distorted plastic bottle... the list is indeed endless. We exhibit when we can, together and separately, and we sell some of what we create through our site as well as in our space in Aegina. last but not least, we organise events in collaborations wiht artists from Greece amnd beyond. Stay tuned, become part of our community. And yes, we have remained true to our commitment to a green life where we recycle and upcycle as much as we can.

05/09/2026

marina in the studio with a myriad of samples, old pieces, pieces in the making, ready ones waiting to leave the studio, to be exhibited, to find their final destination. Some other pieces by students and participants who have been coming in the last 3 years to follow classes, workshops and retreats.

04/09/2026

Creative Flow
19-25 September 2026

A few spots left for a unique week in Aegina. The sun will still be warm and shiny, the sea welcoming, the food tasty. An ideal last minute gift to yourself or a dear friend.

A week immersion into your own creativity with the soft guidance of Yanis. He will help you see how to approach the creative process in a way that may be unfamiliar and yet will feel natural to you; in a safe environment, a studio filled with colours and tools. Observation and play will come together and allow you to draw, paint, explore, take a break, go for a walk, come back, try something new...

Want to know more? DM us, email us, call us.

27/08/2026

Pieces made earlier this summer in one of marina's Shape & Decorate retreat where clay is burnished and polished, and then fired in reduction to get this beautiful black, at times mat, at times shiny and other times shinier. As participants walk to the studio, they pick up elements from nature that might inspire them to use as texture on their pieces - a way of decorating them: a fig leaf, a flower, a seed, a shell.

Next Shape & Decorate Workshop: September 26 - October 3. Please not there are only workshop spots left. Contact us for more information.

26/08/2026

As our three summer exhibitions in Amorgos, under the overall title Mnemosyne, curated by Yanis Zagorianakos have come to an end, we remember hanging some of Yanis's paintings earlier this summer, still in Aegina, to start getting a sense of how they will look when hanging together. We could never have imagined how beautifully and almost magically these exhibitions would have gone, particularly Mneme, the third and final one, which brought together many artists, each with their own practice. Practices and pieces that kept on growing and changing and creating new dialogues as days went by. The old school of Kolofana, a space with a special energy and wonderful analogies, the garden around it, the wind became the perfect setting for an ongoing dialogue between all of us.

24/08/2026

Exploring wild clays and where clays come from, how to forage them is a central part of marina's ceramics retreats. It is a way of connecting to the long line of potters who came before us and have been making pots of all sorts for thousand of years. A way of understanding the amount of work that goes into it: foraging the clays, preparing them, letting them sit, for months of even years, to finally use them and make pots and vessels of which we see so many shards as we walk the earth, as well as reconstructed pots or even unbroken ones in museums.
Contact us if you are interested in one of our retreats. We will be delighted to welcome you in our studio.

19/08/2026

There are three more workshop and retreats with Yanis until the end of the year to explore the creative process through colours and pigments and a myriad of painting exercises. Come dive into the creative flow and let yourself be guided by your own creativity, however hidden you may feel it is and allow it to do its thing.
Dates available:
19-25 September
17-23 October
5-11 December
Contact us for more details. In the meantime, enjoy your summer.

18/08/2026

Looking to close your summer holiday with a creative holiday? Why not take a plane and then a boat to finally dock on the island of Aegina and spend a week in marina & yanis's studio to explore clays and how you can use them to hand build pieces that you will take back home with you.
Contact us if you are interested.
We look forward to welcoming you at Aegina Retreats, in September or any other time.

Mneme – A Group ExhibitionOpening tonight7 August, 20:00Kolofana, AmorgosA small glimpse for those who can't make it ton...
07/08/2026

Mneme – A Group Exhibition
Opening tonight
7 August, 20:00
Kolofana, Amorgos
A small glimpse for those who can't make it tonight. We'll miss you, with Anna Pangalou, Nikoleta Xenariou, Andreas Theodorou, Iannis Psallidakos, Meij Gommers, Giulia Marchetti, Patrick Aumont , Christina Milanou, Marina Coriolano Lykourezos, Stratis Vogiatzis Cosmo Shuepel, Yanis Zagorianakos

Μνήμη – Ομαδική Έκθεση
Απόψε τα εγκαίνια
7 Αυγούστου, 20:00
Κολοφάνα, Αμοργός
Μια μικρή γεύση για όσους δεν θα μπορέσουν να είναι μαζί μας απόψε. Θα μας λείψετε,
Αννα Παγκάλου, Νικολετα Ξεναριου, Ανδρέας Θεοδώρου, Ιάννης Ψαλλιδάκος, Χριστίνα Μιλάνου, Patrick Aumont, Giulia Marchetti, Meij Gommers, Μαρίνα Κοριολάνο Λυκουρέζου, Στρατής Βογιατζής, Cosmo Schuppel, Γιάννης Ζαγοριανάκος

28/07/2026

From our workshop with George Vavatsis.
We picked wild, local clays. Prepared them. Mixed them. Used them.
We made slips and tried them too.
We fired them and had wonderful results... and many cracked pieces that didn't make into the kiln.
More research to be done. A clay body to be used with what the island has to offer us.
Thank you George, thank you all of you who came and took it all with such generosity - the creative process in ceramics is so similar to the process of life. We are constantly faces with our limitations and with our ability to imagine and adapt.

Address

5 Ag. Paraskevis Street
Aegina
18010

Opening Hours

Monday 10:30 - 14:30
Tuesday 10:30 - 14:30
Wednesday 10:30 - 14:30
Thursday 10:30 - 14:30
Friday 10:30 - 14:30
Saturday 10:30 - 14:30

Telephone

+30 2297 029359

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