[artinfo] EUROPE# call/grant: CULTURE OF SOLIDARITY

[ober]

CULTURE OF SOLIDARITY

https://www.culturalfoundation.eu/culture-of-solidarity

We invite you to apply for the European Culture 
of Solidarity Fund. The Fund supports imaginative 
cultural initiatives that, in the midst of the 
global pandemic crisis reinforce European 
solidarity and the idea of Europe as a shared 
public space.

Facing the Coronavirus crisis could be a strong 
European moment. A moment when people understand 
how important it is to have friends who support 
each other, a moment of sharing vital 
information, expertise and supplies, a moment 
when you realise how a fundamental crisis can be 
managed much better through cooperation and 
solidarity.

But so far this has not been the European moment 
we had envisioned. National leaders have taken 
the initiative and do whatever it takes to 
protect their citizens against the virus. Their 
approaches might differ in terms of public health 
responses, but they are surprisingly consistent 
when it comes to protecting the national 
interest. Where is Europe and the EU? Where is 
the shared European interest?

Over the last 75 years, Europe has managed to 
reinvent itself as a collaborative power, a 
sharing society. This has served us Europeans 
well. We cannot afford a rollback. We need to do 
whatever it takes to keep the sentiment of 
European cooperation and solidarity intact.

In the past weeks, many emergency funds for the 
cultural and creative sector have been announced 
at national, regional or local levels and funding 
opportunities by the EU for the arts and culture 
are also underway. But so far public funding in 
Eastern and Southern Europe has been scarce 
compared to Western and Northern Europe, and we 
are yet to see support mechanisms for creative 
initiatives that strengthen a pan-European 
culture of solidarity.

There is still hope. All around the globe we see 
people reaching out to each other, practicing 
small and often imaginative human gestures of 
everyday solidarity, uniting us, across 
balconies, social networks, cities and countries. 
It is exactly this culture of solidarity we ought 
to nourish during this global crisis and beyond. 
This can be a European moment of solidarity, a 
moment of citizens and communities with 
creativity, imagination, caring for and 
supporting each other.


What we look for:
It is this moment - a European culture of 
solidarity - we have set out to capture and 
encourage. The Fund - set up in partnership with 
other foundations - is looking to support 
imaginative cultural initiatives - big or small - 
that reinforce solidarity and the notion of 
Europe as a shared public space in response to 
the current crisis and its aftershocks. It is 
open to individuals, collectives and 
organisations from all sectors and civil society 
at large with initiatives and ideas that:

expand the notion of Europe as an open and shared 
public space for everybody in times of inward- 
looking and national decision-making;

express and act in hands-on solidarity with 
people and communities across closed borders;

share experiences, knowledge, skills, stories, 
ideas and resources of solidarity across Europe, 
especially outside mainstream public attention;

sustain people-to-people interaction beyond 
European borders and in times of travel 
restrictions and social distancing;

maintain cultural life and social experiences 
with a European outreach in times of home 
lockdown and prepare the ground for a cultural 
revival of Europe after the crisis;

develop new approaches in operations of cultural 
work and new alliances across sectors to deal 
with the current challenges imposed by the crisis.


What we offer:
The Fund has grants available in three amounts:

¤5.000 - 15.000 (5 - 10 awarded projects per submission round)

¤15.000 - 30.000 (2 - 3 awarded projects per submission round)

¤30.000 - 50.000 (1 - 2 awarded projects per submission round)

Grants can be used for financing a wide range of 
activities ranging from seed money for entirely 
new initiatives
to (co-)funding for scaling up already existing 
ideas to European level. They can cover material 
costs, office costs, online co-working and 
communication tools, production costs, but also 
expert fees and staff costs.


How does it work:
The Culture of Solidarity fund will see various 
application windows this year, and we will 
distribute funding equally over all windows. The 
first round opened April 6 2020 and has a 
deadline of Monday, 27 April 2020, 12.00 CET. We 
will communicate results four weeks after the 
deadline.

All incoming proposals will be assessed on the basis of their

relevance to the overall theme and focus of the Fund;

feasibility and implementation potential;

impact they may have on the challenge addressed and communities involved.

We will pay special attention to proposals coming from:

regions where so far there is little to no 
emergency funding made available for the cultural 
and creative sector institutions;

people and communities that face discrimination 
on the basis of race, ethnicity, (cultural) 
background, people with disabilities and members 
of the LGBTQ+ community.

Representatives of organisations as well as 
individuals over 18 years old are eligible to 
apply; and applicants can be based anywhere. We 
do not accept proposals submitted by political 
parties. Our work is strictly non-partisan, 
although pro-European.


To apply:
IMPORTANT. Please find all details and more 
elaborate criteria in this document.

We ask you to fill in an online form. Pay 
attention: you cannot save your work in this 
wufoo form, so here is a word document containing 
all questions. We recommend you copy paste the 
answers from there. Additionally we provide an 
alternative budget template here.

Stay safe, and good luck!