Following our second round of the Democracy Resilience edition of the Culture of Solidarity Fund we welcome thirteen grantees in our community. These collaborative, creative initiatives will reinforce Europe’s core values and inspire Europeans to reengage with their democracies in a hopeful and forward-looking manner. 

An interview with our COS grantee Miodrag Kuč of ZK/U Berlin on the project 'Knowledgescapes of Urban Utopias', dealing with population decline and economic downturns in Eisenhüttenstadt (Germany) and Visaginas (Lithuania). The project helps residents craft a collective vision for their cities' futures through creative projects and extensive community involvement.

An interview with Culture of Solidarity fund grantee Office for Post-Artistic Services, a collective of artists and activists in Poland which was granted in our Just Transition edition of the fund. The collective's work bridges art and social issues, mainly through projects like Opolno-Zdrój is the Future!, where they engage with communities facing the challenges of transitioning from coal mining to sustainable futures.

Our annual magazine Common Ground offers readers a panoramic view of the issues we are addressing with our activities, those of our grantees, and those of partners and friends. Here we like highlighting the work of our Culture of Solidarity Fund grantee Dzherelo.

The latest edition of the Culture of Solidarity Fund supports European transnational initiatives that mobilise voters for the 2024 European Parliament elections. This edition has been developed in collaboration with Evens Foundation, Allianz Foundation & partners. 

European landscapes like the Alps and the Mediterranean have been severely affected by climate change-related disasters. More than ever, communities need to come to a shared understanding on how to prepare for the urgent shift from the prevailing resource - intensive lifestyles to low-carbon green economies and societies. The arts and creative sectors in Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria and Aosta Valley hold vast resources that allow them to engage with the complexities of a Just Transition agendas in their local contexts. This edition of the Culture of Solidarity Fund invited them to team up with peer organisations from other regions across Europe.

In our series of interviews with Culture of Solidarity Fund grantees, EUNIC's Franziska Stambke exchanges with Nikola Sedláčková (Czech Centres Prague) and Sarah Doignon (Institut français Prague) on the collaborative process of the project 'Sharing Ukrainian Stories'.

Regions all over Europe have been facing the painful consequences of a globally unfettered extraction and use of natural resources. More than ever, communities need to come to a shared understanding on how to prepare for the urgent shift from the prevailing resource - intensive lifestyles to low-carbon green economies and societies. This will require us to reset and recalibrate our lives to meet whatever challenges arise in the transition to living within a socially just and environmentally regenerative society. The arts and creative sectors in Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria and Aosta Valley hold vast resources that allow them to engage with the complexities of ecological transformation agendas in their local contexts.

Following our call to host and curate The European Pavilion 2024 five candidates have been shortlisted to receive the commissioning grant of EUR500,000.

Following the Culture of Solidarity Fund Just Transition call fifteen cultural organisations from all across the continent will receive funding to research and promote global just transitions, offer residencies, build networks, and host public events.

Meet the grantees of the second Culture of Solidarity Fund EUNIC Ukraine edition. Their projects contribute to longer term international cultural relations, deepening trust and understanding between cultural actors in EU member states and Ukraine.

Can libraries be therapeutic? Athens Comics Library and Refugee Week say yes!

Interview with Petro Ryaska, from our Culture of Solidarity Fund grantee 'Sorry No Rooms Available' about their residency programme. The residency seeks to integrate participants into the vibrant local art scene while also positioning itself as a cultural international platform, actively engaging with European and global art processes.

“We have become increasingly dependent on big tech for our media production and distribution in Europe. This means big tech companies can dictate the rules of the game." According to COS grantee Librecast this needs to change.

How are journalists and migrant-led media initiatives transforming the way we perceive, debate and report upon migration in Europe? This evening a broader group of (inter)national journalists, mediamakers and media-activists brought together by the Re:framing Migrants in the European Media launch their project’s magazine SHIFT!

Talking through challenges, team efforts, outcomes, support and future steps of the festival, the two directors shared how this year's edition held the title “state of emergency” and how this shifted the form of the online and offline screenings.

In a series of interviews with the grantees of the Culture of Solidarity Fund Eunic Ukraine edition we look back on how their projects helped embedding Ukrainian culture in wider European spheres. The project “Chemins d’Ukraine – les constructions solidaires” offers a series of roundtables on the topic of systemic change through civic and cultural actors and projects. These will take place iat “Week-end à l’Est” in Paris dedicated to Ukraine this year.

In a series of interviews with the grantees of the Culture of Solidarity Fund Eunic Ukraine edition we look back on how their projects helped embedding Ukrainian culture in wider European spheres. The Vytautas Magnus University Centre of Ukraine and partners organise a series of events to acquaint Ukrainian and Lithuanian communities and to popularise Ukrainian culture in Lithuania, a country which has welcomed many Ukrainian refugees.

In a series of interviews with the grantees of the Culture of Solidarity Fund Eunic Ukraine edition we look back on how their projects helped embedding Ukrainian culture in wider European spheres. "The main ambition of the EUNIC cluster while applying for funds from the Culture of Solidarity Fund, was the continuation of fulfilling the objective of the “One Day More” artwork, which, as a sign of solidarity, was meant to become a place of gathering and sharing."

The project "Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Under Threat" received a grant of €23980 from the Culture of Solidarity Fund to draw public attention to the cultural heritage of the Black Sea region while also demonstrating specific tangible and intangible Ukrainian cultural elements.

The Czech Centre of Bratislava together with Goethe Institut Bratislava, Institut français de Slovaquie and local partner Aparát O.Z. received a grant of 14 990 € from the 'COS round 7 (2022)' for their project “Freedom through the eyes of women artists“.

Our Culture of Solidarity infodemic grantee European Digital Rights has published four science fiction stories that illustrate some of the obstacles people face when engaging with technology, how people can be part of the solution; and what our collective futures could look like.

Our Culture of Solidarity Fund Eunic Ukraine grantee Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden hosts the online panel discussion 'Decoloniality in Ukraine: Is there still a place for a ‘soviet soldier’ in historic memory?' The discussion addresses the possibilities of building a conversation about the uncomfortable past notwithstanding the resistance to the oppressor. It questions what artists, researchers, and cultural practitioners can do in terms of building complex, multi-layered and non-linear narratives?

After a succesful application fourteen cultural organisations in thirteen European countries organise exhibitions, assemblies, film screenings and public lectures, funded by the Culture of Solidarity Fund Eunic Ukraine edition. All together these events will help embedding Ukrainian culture in wider European spheres.

Climate Caravans develops creative tools on how to reflect with cultural means upon specific local transformations caused, directly or indirectly, by climate change.

Varna Summer Festival is a long-standing international forum of music art. Building on years of experience and using its strong position and wide influence in media, within the frames of the festival, two concerts aiming to promote solidarity with the people of Ukraine and the powerful voice of music for peace will be organised. Leading musicians from 16 countries in collaboration with Varna State Opera Symphony Orchestra will present a variety of musical masterpieces. The mission of these concerts will be to speak for peace and understanding between different nations and religions. Besides the wide reach of the audience, the aim is also to achieve a strong artistic collaboration among musicians from different countries and express their support to Ukraine's music society, ensuring a strong sense of togetherness, mutual understanding and acquaintance.

The Theater of Warfare project consists of the production and distribution of a short documentary. The film will immerse the audience into a new world, where the main characters that used to be actors, theatre directors, and art managers volunteer to help Ukrainians to settle in the shelter (theatre), organize transfers abroad, collect humanitarian help and medication and reach out to volunteers delivering help around the country.

Our COS grantee East Left Media Outlet published their thematic series about housing movements in Central-Eastern Europe, besides having translated and exchanged articles between member platforms.

Transbordering Laboratory aims to address the idea of forming new realities in European cities that are divided by borders.

Crossing borders for the future is living the European idea on the pathway where local friendships and relationships unite.

OASIS-2027 is a platform designed by onEarth Foundation to raise awareness about environmental protection and seek sustainable solutions to systemic challenges related to climate change.

SPACE aims to activate local communities and inspire local actors to develop future-oriented cultural solutions to systemic challenges.

DOTZ is a media project funded by racialized female journalists. The project will examine the double standard adopted by the Western media during the early stage of the Ukraine conflict, in March 2022, and analyse the issue of the pushbacks of the people of colour by the authorities that took place at the borders with Poland. It aims to build up a journalistic narrative as unbiased as possible, through the point of view of journalists and professionals with migrant backgrounds and to create journalistic storytelling focused on an ethical narration of the racialized communities.

The project  Propaganda: Understanding for Resistance by Youth Drama Theatre "AmaTea" will enable youngsters in Ukraine to look at crucial topics in the history of their country and learn about the role that various forms of art have played in the deformation of information or propaganda around various historical events.

From the Battlefield: Words and evidence of Ukrainian artists and thinkers, supported by artists and thinkers from the Netherlands during the Russian war against Ukraine is a collaborative art project initiated by Maria Vtorushina, curator-in-residence at SEA Foundation, Tilburg. Though the role of Ukraine in Europe has recently changed to the fortress, protecting the democratic values of the world, many Europeans are still affected by misinformation.

This project by Fundacja Floating EKA aims to give voice to war witnesses from four neighbouring countries - Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and Russia and document eyewitness stories.

In a series of stories we portray our Culture of Solidarity Fund grantees. The grantee featured here successfully applied to round 5: Cultural grant for regional transformation, which we jointly ran with the Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung.

The project will collect an online library of essays by Ukrainians in the fight for freedom, illustrate and share them with English-speaking audiences. Stories about strength, dignity, support, and humane values. Dialogues with intellectuals and cultural actors worldwide will give analysis to the stories in anthropological, sociological, cultural, and philosophical terms. The project gives voice to the deep transformation process for Western Culture taking place in Ukraine now, prevents disinformation, develops narratives for updated democracy and contributes to integral thinking.

Ukraine meets Calabria is a film training programme conceived, planned and executed by La Guarimba in Southern Italy, and is part of the Kino Guarimba Film Residency V edition. Within this program, 10 young emerging directors from Ukraine will be given the opportunity to participate in the film residency free of cost. Within the frames of the programme, Ukrainian participants will shoot their short films while engaging with the other participants and the locals, sharing their stories and offering a first-hand perspectives of the situation in their home country.

The initiative aims to document how Russia’s war-affected villages: occupied, liberated or located in the areas where fighting is ongoing. While the media maintains an active focus on the effects of war on more populated urban areas in Ukraine, life in smaller communities is not properly covered, even though the urgency is higher than before. Active since 2021, the “Old khata project” was capturing rural lifestyle, a unique Europe combination of traditional culture and modernity, and architecture across more than 30 Ukrainian villages. In response to the current events, the team will refocus and start documenting how these communities have changed or had to adapt to the current circumstances and are living through the war, resisting and reviving. Telling the true stories of those places behind the headlines, with a particular focus on cultural change and personal experience of people who live in villages affected by the war. The project will reflect the true faces of the people who live there, and true stories of what they have experienced and living through now.

“SOFA - School of Film Advancement” is a training programme that supports the development of national film industries in Eastern Europe. In response to the war in Ukraine, SOFA will host a five-day-long digital workshop for Ukrainian film professionals in exile, allowing them to network with professional networks across Europe. The workshop will offer an overview of possibilities for cultural managers to establish themselves in a new context and will provide methods and strategies for continuing their work. The programme is specifically designed for cultural operators in film communication, promotion or in the field of conception of specific film-related projects, i.e., cultural managers working in the film sector as film curators, festival organizers, etc.

To make contemporary Ukrainian art, particularly drama, visible in its global context, a team of professionals from the performing art sector will gather near 24 drama texts in “Anthology24”. A digital book of texts for the Ukrainian theatre sector will be created and translated into English, French, German, Polish and Czech languages in order to engage European partners. Such a project will help to open the European art market for Ukrainian playwrights. "Antology24" also will help artists to get royalties from theatres that will want to make contracts with artists. Stage readings of the texts will be open to everyone.

The project aims at supporting the cultural expression of Ukrainians, by providing conditions for them to work and build on past achievements as well as to bring more Ukrainian contemporary art to the international community, to make the voice of Ukraine lasting, strong and diverse. In the framework of the project, the team of Chornobyldorf Archeological opera (20 independent artists who are currently spread in different cities in Ukraine and Europe due to the war), will be able to reunite for rehearsals and prepare for the international presentation of a piece. Additionally, all instruments and scenography will be evacuated from Kyiv. Opera will be presented in the following countries: Netherlands (May), Austria (September), and Great Britain (November). Currently, negotiations are held to find additional partners interested in the presentation.

The Ukrainian Film Academy stands for the openness and globalisation of Ukrainian culture. Together with the Ukrainian State Film Agency and the Watch Ukrainian! Association, the Academy organized a series of charitable screenings of Ukrainian films abroad called The CinemAid Ukraine Charity Film Marathon. Screenings are currently taking place in Poland and are planned in France, UK, Germany and all over the world. All funds received from ticket sales will be used to cover the humanitarian needs of Ukrainian filmmakers.

Ukrainian curator, Lesia Kulchynska in collaboration with Galeria Catinca Tabacaru in Bucharest (Romania) will organize an exhibition of 13 Ukrainian artists, 8 of whom are currently working inside Ukraine. By providing platforms for creative work, disseminating financial support, and organizing multiple residencies in Romania, the exhibition will secure safe space and production possibilities in a time when physical and psychological support is critical to the well being of individual artists and the fabric of the Ukrainian artistic community.

Music for Future is an intercultural project for Polish youngsters and Ukrainian teenage refugees based in Poland. Aiming to create a youth orchestra that will take place in Krzyżowa Foundation on 04-11.06.2022. Youngsters will engage in week-long orchestral workshops that will give them an opportunity to integrate and connect through music.

The project envisages the creation of an exhibition ‘Old New Gaze’ aimed at representing the consequences of appropriation of Ukrainian cultural heritage as a result of Russian expansion. The purpose is to expand the study of the Ukrainian and Eastern European cultural heritage through decolonial optics.

The Sunflower Times initiative aims at debunking fake news, disinformation and misconceptions that pervade in the mainstream debate around the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Combining fact-checking work with analytical pieces to counter misinformation, negative stereotypes and propaganda that relativizes and undermines the efforts of Ukrainians to defend themselves against the Russian invasion.

Artistic Resilience in Times Of... is a two-step programme aiming to connect Ukrainian and German artists and create opportunities for exchange, new networks and collaborative artistic work. The first step of the project entails a launch of an international digital Art Lab platform for German and Ukrainian artists who deal with art in times of war. The Art Lab will create opportunities for exchange via digital online residencies and offers possibilities for joint artistic work. Additionally, keynote artists from different war zones or with working experiences in repressive systems will be invited to join the Art Lab and contribute to various sessions. The Art Lab is intended to be a model for future-oriented, solidarity-based ways of collaborative working and the practice of collective authorship. Within the second step of the programme, two guest curators from Ukraine will be invited to Schaubühne Lindenfels, to develop the programming for spring season 2023.

Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival is a medium-scale audience-focused film festival. It's the first Scotland-based film event entirely dedicated to the screening of cinema from Eastern Europe with film strands focusing specifically on human rights, progressive politics, and Ukraine.

Voxeurope aims to support local independent news media and extend the coverage of the war providing readers and partners with sources and perspectives from Eastern Europe. Voxeurope will select, translate and publish valuable articles from independent local sources from Ukraine and the countries more concerned – Russia, Belarus, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Moldova, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. Relying on an established network of correspondents in those countries for curating and selecting the articles

Katowice – the City of Gardens is the main cultural institution and artists residence in Katowice responsible for cultural, publishing and educational activity as well as artistic events. In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the institution became a reception point for the refugees, but also an active player in securing opportunities for work and artistic expression of cultural professionals fleeing from the war.

Jewish-Ukrainian Social Initiative strives to reduce vulnerability and build a safer future to improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable and the least protected - both within and beyond the Jewish community in Ukraine. Through ‘Ukrainian Outsider Art Initiative: Art for Life’ they aim to foster and enhance collaboration between inclusive art groups and professional art therapists, and promote cultural inclusion and inclusive artistic practices.

Based on the premise that practising human rights protection equals to democratic rule of law, Symbiosis works on education, freedom of expression, documentation and analysis, public debate and active civic participation. Their new project, launched in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, focuses on the ongoing war ‘infodemic’ and on countering multiple threads of disinformation, misinformation, propaganda filter bubbles and fake news in Greece promoted through media.

In a series of stories we portray our Culture of Solidarity Fund grantees. The grantee featured here successfully applied to round 4: Culture of Solidarity in times of an infodemic.

Created by Ariam Tekle and Emmanuelle Maréchal, #Blackcoffee_pdc is an Italian podcast on racial issues in Italy launched in April 2020. The podcast is a platform for Afro-Italian voices and narratives. In the context of the social and racial unrest that the pandemic has enhanced, #Blackcoffee_pdc aims to enrich the conversations around black identities, highlighting their work and initiatives. To this end, #Blackcoffee_pdc conducts interviews and facilitates collaborations. The topics discussed range from media language to music, from art to mental health, particularly in the context of racism, starting from the way it is embedded in Italy on a cultural and institutional level by challenging the white gaze and Eurocentric perspectives.   

‘Dear,’ is a postal publishing art project founded at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative publishes a letter per month by poets, artists and authors worldwide. These letters are sent by posts to readers around the globe. In response to the war in Ukraine, 'Dear,' will produce a series of letters with all subscription benefits going to an artist relief fund in Ukraine. The team will work with four poets & artists who will compose a letter each and reflect in their own way, upon the destruction that is taking place in Ukraine. These letters will be printed and distributed.

Within the scope of the Culture of Solidarity Fund, Project for Democratic Union [PDU] is leading the proposal titled ‘European exit strategy from private platforms to common digital space’ with the help of partners Public Spaces, Netwerk Democratie and the Citizen Toolbox for Digital Empowerment. The project consists of four digital sessions building up to a physical hackathon in Brussels.

In pursuit of an intersectional, feminist, and ecological impetus, ‘A Transversal Network of Feminist Servers’ (ATNOFS) is a collaborative project that aims to explore alternative engagements with digital tools and platforms. A travelling ‘feminist server’ will equip 2-day live events that will be taking place at each respective node, and will function as a tool and a witness to the activities. The events will culminate in a printed publication.

ECB2.0 will start a federated network of European civil society media platforms including leading players. They'll create a set of tools and practices to exchange metadata and content between existing platforms and linking to open speech recognition and search pipelines. Launching for an European digital public and democratic infrastructure, empowering civil society media to share audiences and promote a culture of solidarity across Europe.

IrpiMedia is an independent, non-profit online publication of investigative journalism based in Italy. Beyond national and continental borders, they report on issues including corruption, environmental issues, surveillance, migration and the judicial system. IrpiMedia’s mission to lead a more informed public debate for a fairer society motivates them to prioritise long-term investigations and thorough fact-checking.

Eurozine is a network of cultural journals based in Vienna, bringing together over 90 partner journals, associations, and institutions from across Europe. Additionally, Eurozine is also an online magazine, translating and publishing selected articles from its partner journals. ‘Eurozine is dedicated to covering issues of culture and society on a wider scale, going beyond usual headline and with a special focus on marginalised social groups and up-and-coming genres.'

More than ever, it is vital that European citizens have access to media that is independent, reliable, and capable of decoding the larger, shared challenges. The dissemination of debates, ideas, information and knowledge in a healthy environment is essential. To this end, COS grantee Voxeurop offers its audience analyses, feature and photo stories, and investigations, by giving the floor to writers, thinkers and civil society actors.

‘Technologically,’ Autonomic Cooperative elucidates, ‘Co-op Cloud is 3 things: abra, a command-line tool to manage local and remote deployments of applications; a catalogue of “recipes”, shared configurations for (currently over 80) libre applications; and a set of best practises and helper utilities, including a backup system, deployment tools, and automatic update management infrastructure.’ In other words, Co-op Cloud is a packaging format, i.e. an archive of programmes that catalogues apps, vouches for their credibility, and gives easy access to them.'

"The digital rights field is dominated by complex language, jargon and policy-focused dialogue, which makes it more difficult for individuals from non-digital or policy backgrounds to understand and relate to these everyday threats to our digital rights. That is why we would like to use stories and a hope-based approach to reinforce a narrative with inspiring ideas to regain control against power imbalances and promote healthy alternatives to toxic technology uses."

Together with Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung we present a new round of #CultureofSolidarity Fund grantees: In their Summer Camp the European School Templin send adolescents from France, Poland, and Germany in small mixed-national teams on a 14-day expedition from West Pomerania (Poland) through unique natural landscapes to Templin (Germany), giving them a great adventure and a great European experience.

Rehearsing The Revolution is a hybrid collaborative storytelling project which develops alternative future scenarios for Europe combining research, artivism, theatre and a digital platform. The storytelling creates room for all kinds of emotions, expectations, disappointments and reflections on being European. “When we think of the future, it can only be based on memories. So we need to clarify misunderstandings of the past.”

How did the Covid-19 crisis impact and fuel our work in 2020 and the years to come? In our Annual Report, we look back and ahead and asked 20 grantees, partners and other friends to reflect with us. We asked them about their experiences, lessons and hopes for the future. You can find their ’20 voices on 2020’ throughout the report, which also gives an overview of our activities allowing people to share, imagine and experience Europe.

With the Culture of Solidarity Fund, we continue to support imaginative cultural initiatives that reinforce solidarity and deal with the aftermaths of the pandemic for European societies. With the thematic Culture of Solidarity call to strengthen a European public space we were looking for projects that contribute to inclusive and democratic European media platforms, networks and infrastructure during the Corona infodemic. 

Collective beliefs it is time for a new kind of media within the European media landscape. Collective curates the best under reported stories from around Europe, adding a personal touch.

Amsterdam based institution de Waag published their report European Digital Public Spaces in August 2020.

In our series of interviews with Culture of Solidarity Fund grantees, Mophradat - an international multi-disciplinary arts organisation, that creates opportunities and invents possibilities for artists from the Arab world - extend on their collective retreats.

After focusing on migrants’ deaths at sea Forensic Oceanography launches Border Forensics (BF) a new investigative project that directs novel arts-based strategies for visual and spatial analysis to lesser documented areas of mobility conflict in and at the borders of Europe.

In our series of interviews with Culture of Solidarity Fund grantees, meet the organisations behind CareStoriesWalks: Teatro Popolare Europeo, Teatr Brama and Omma Studio who collaboratively work on overcoming the isolation and fear of social relations after lockdowns amongst Europe's elderly.

Clubture, one of our Culture of Solidarity grantees, explain how their project - an exchange of practices and experiences with various European experts that work in the fields of democratization of public and common goods on the topic of cultural and spatial policies - will contribute to more shared practises in their hometown, and beyond.

In our series of interviews with Culture of Solidarity Fund grantees, meet CEPS! They and their partners Trànsit Projectes develop a tool to draw maps and cartographies of values. Users of the tool will gain a better understanding of their own role in building our futures.

In our series of interviews with our Culture of Solidarity Fund grantees Serena Anastasi introduces us to the work of the Nuto Revelli Onlus Foundation. The key goal of their project W-Echo is to stimulate a new digital community of care by activating international networks of women living in rural areas to co-create a new aesthetic of change.

In our series of interviews with our Culture of Solidarity Fund grantees Gabriele Pappalardo of Ratatoj shares their plans of giving young people experiences of artistic and cultural production, organisation and promotion, from a theater in a small town in northern Italy. They hope the project gives young participants cultural tools, and to activate them as European citizens.

In our series of interviews with our Culture of Solidarity Fund grantees, welcome to our conversation with Sol Trumbo Vila of Transnational Institute, an international research and advocacy institute committed to building a just, democratic and sustainable planet. Sol tells us more about the Municipal to Municipal (M2M) proces, which will advance the creation of a much needed shared notion of European solidarity.

In our series of interviews with Culture of Solidarity Fund grantees, Turismo in Langa explain how their local heritage and European cultural management ideas connect. 

Through its 2020 Culture of Solidarity Fund, the European Cultural Foundation granted a number of cultural initiatives whose work resonates with the ambitions and visions of the European Pavilion and gave us much food for thoughts. On this page, you will find updates on these initiatives.

Common Waves is an international collective that produced a series of radio programmes to critically examine the role of shared spaces and solidarity in our society. The collective did evolve during the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial (October-November 2020), which focused on the question "What Do We Have in Common?". The collective is formed by community and artist radios as well as podcasters from various areas like architecture, urbanism, politics and humanities to represent diverse voices.

In our interview series with Culture of Solidarity Fund grantees FNAS explain their project Arts are a restart area: "Mobility today is the engine most questioned by the pandemic crisis. Knowledge, exchange of good practices, sharing of ideas, the creation of partnerships develop above all within that environment, both formal and informal, that is called networking. We all try to fill this void through digital tools."

Music may be a relief, a cure and an escape, but words are necessary as well to process this period. Hence, Culture of Solidarity grantee Futur Festival envisioned a webseries where artists from the electronic music industry discuss a topic with prominent figures of the cultural, scientific community and the civil society.

In our series of interviews with Culture of Solidarity Fund grantees, meet Ilaria Gadenz of Radio Papesse who gives us an insight on their project "You are so sound!" 

Giulia Avataneo of Hypercritic - a third round Culture of Solidarity Fund grantee - presents an overview of Hypercritic dreams and plans. 

Elisa Peirone of Slow Food Italy answered some of our questions in our series of interviews with Culture of Solidarity Fund grantees. "Food is a universal need and key pathway to connectedness. Cooks, producers and artisans, including many migrants and youths, in Europe have launched new initiatives related to food production, distribution and consumption to tackle the pandemic. The project aims to encourage and celebrate the virtuous initiatives in the food world that are reacting to the emergency with ideas that may inspire others."

In our series of interviews with Culture of Solidarity Fund grantees, here is EUPavilion, a laboratory of research on the relationship between architecture and the EU. It is a collaborative effort that brings tighter architects, scholars, photographers, designers.

In an interview with George Blaustein, one of the initiators of the forthcoming European Review of Books, we touch on the art of translation, hyperlocalism and supra-nationalism and why European intellectual life needs more writers, why it needs more critique, more intelligent dissent, disharmony, even cacophony. The European Review of Books is a Culture of Solidarity Fund grantee.

Each edition of ‘Disruptive Fridays’ - the event series Disruption Network Lab applied with to our Culture of Solidarity Fund - covers a topic like grassroots data analysis, leaking and whistleblowing, legal and human rights mobilisation, anticorruption, health promotion interventions, or the effects of information technology on civil society, politics, culture and the arts. Their goal is to continue the dialogue among curators, programme participants, researchers, experts and practitioners interested in media culture and social justice, as well as to foster the understanding of the impact of technology and politics on society.

Read an interview with Culture of Solidarity grantee Mobile Open Culture and Innovation Hub. "The idea of the MOCI initiative emerged in late 2019 after reflecting on our journey in Albania so far with the numerous community meetings we had in different regions as well as our pilot project with three villages in central Albania and its very productive ideation phase."

Fine Acts Foundation launches their project to foster a creative space to produce emotional, compelling visuals that bring to life a common vision for a better future.They have already commissioned 27 artists (one representing each EU member state) to create new works on European Solidarity. In January 2021 they are opening a call to the European creative community, for previously created works that reinforce solidarity and deal with the aftermath of the pandemic in European societies.

Tereza Swadoschová, Head of the Inspiration Forum at Ji-Hlava explains us why an Inspiration Forum is needed: "Is it the lack of imagination that seems to be the reason why we are only filling in the urgent gaps that open up in the public sphere? What if artists were also involved in searching for possible solutions?"

Meet the third round Culture of Solidarity Fund grantee Turismo in Langa

Meet the third round Culture of Solidarity Fund grantee Social Community Theatre Centre

Meet the third round Culture of Solidarity Fund grantee Slow Food

Meet the third round Culture of Solidarity Fund grantee RATATOJ

Meet the third round Culture of Solidarity Fund grantee Hypercritic

Meet the third round Culture of Solidarity Fund grantee Fondazione Nuto Revelli Onlus

Meet the third round Culture of Solidarity Fund grantee FNAS

Meet the third round Culture of Solidarity Fund grantee Talking Futur

European Cultural Foundation, Fondazione CRC and Fondazione CRT invited organisations from the Piedmont (Cuneo province in particular) and the Aosta Valley to apply for the third round of the European Culture of Solidarity Fund. This special round of the Fund sought to support imaginative cultural initiatives that reinforce pan-European solidarity and the idea of Europe as a shared public space from a regional and cross-border perspective. We were looking for project ideas and proposals that connect local work with a real pan-European dimension.Set up at the beginning of the pandemic crisis, the fund continues to support imaginative cultural initiatives that reinforce European solidarity and the idea of Europe as a shared public space.

Recognizing the importance of the continued support in order for the CLE initiatives to be further developed and strengthened, the European Cultural Foundation created the CLE Development Grants. Cultural activists and mediators who participated in the June Idea Camp were invited to apply for a grant of up to 12.500 euro for the period between December 2020 and July 2021. The four CLE grantees were chosen in mid-November. All five initiatives that have received the Development Grant are involved with the creation of spaces for solidarity and public debate and are motivated to collaborate on the European level.

This project wants to promote ‘Solidarity in diversity’, by assembling many wines for a single bottle. Documentaries filmed by European awarded filmmakers will capture this journey into the creation of a new European wine, meeting the winemakers throughout Europe and tell the difficulties they are facing.

Modern Poetry in Translation [MPT] will publish a special issue of their magazine featuring poetry from across Europe that has been written during or in response to the COVID19 crisis. In addition to the print magazine, they plan to produce a programme of associated digital content with additional artistic content, a free digital translation workshop, an online launch event and, travel restrictions permitting, a live launch event in London.

The European Green Deal is Europe’s roadmap for making the EU’s economy sustainable. By 2050, the EU wants to be climate neutral. For this to happen, societies have to believe in the power of green initiatives. Our Culture of Solidarity grantee NOOR images aims to create iconic work documenting the recovery of Europe from one of the biggest economic crisis of our times.

We interviewed Weronika Koralewska and Joanna Doyu of our Culture for Solidarity grantee Agro Perma Lab on their project ‘The Supermarket Museum. Living together within limits’. Agro-Perma-Lab is an educational initiative working in the fields of agroecology, permaculture, deep ecology and food sovereignty in Poland. It is part of the global food sovereignty movement.

Studio Rizoma's first public action is Pandemos, a one-day exhibition-performance which will take place online on October 27. The exhibition has been conceived as an artistic initiative entirely usable online, and all the works have been produced imagining a situation of lockdown and closure of public spaces.

By bringing together artists, creators, and heritage experts in inclusive activities the foundation wants to help in making the city of Gjirokastra accessible. The project offers a rediscovery of traditional themes as inspiration and drive for young artists in the multicultural context of European identity.

We welcome the grantees of the second round that specifically grow immediate crisis responses into more future-oriented solutions and extend from local levels to building cross-national alliances and initiatives of pan-European solidarity. These projects range from a Europe-wide campaign on the topic of European solidarity, seen through the lenses of the enduring global pandemic to grants that focus on groups who are directly affected by legislative or financial adversities stemming from the collapse of solidarity across Europe.

In the first application round of our Culture of Solidarity call, we received more than 2,500 applications from all corners of Europe and beyond. Out of it, we welcome the first 29 new grantees and their projects into our network! Their imaginative projects range from new international institutes for artists, virtual learning platforms for creatives engaging Black and African communities in Europe to digital handbooks that offer support during COVID-19. Meet them here.

The project “activism for solidarity” aims to inspire the civil society to communicate and act in solidarity in creative and artistic ways to bring attention to social and ecological problems. The project has its focus in Eastern Europe and Russia. We interviewed Vera Goshkoderia and Alina Minkova, to better understand where their idea comes from and to have an in-depth look at their project.

Busy Being Black is the podcast exploring how we live in the fullness of our queer Black lives. It is a growing compendium of queer Black voices, an oral history project and conversations with those who have learned – and are learning – to thrive at the intersections of their identities.

Good Chance Theatre embarks on The Walk. It is the story of one girl, Amal, but also of so many other unaccompanied minors throughout Europe. Good Chance Theatre will journey with Amal from the Turkey/Syria border, through Europe, to the UK, to both walk alongside her and discover her story and the story of the people she meets along the way. If Amal has a message, it might be simply: Don’t forget about us.

In the social environment diminished by the pandemic and economic crises, the new project “Communities of Learning, Bridging the Gap of Isolation” by What, How and for Whom/WHW reclaims the inclusive role of education and art while rethinking the future of cross-border European collaborations. Through exhibitions, educational and discursive programs in online formats and in physical spaces, the project initiates recurring encounters between the international partners, their local communities and a high number of pan-European cultural workers.

The European POC Climate Justice Network will revive a culture of solidarity to unite, create and build a vibrant network of European POC (people of colour) activists, groups and changemakers who focus/work on climate justice. This network will facilitate training, collaboration, mentoring, and capacity-building support, including education around democracy, democratic participation, and democratic change. They will also help encourage networking through a digital platform, campaigns, events and outreach work. They will run a mentorship scheme for budding activists from across Europe. The network will also guide members through their projects from conception to completion, amplify their ideas and campaigns, and celebrate their achievements and wins.

Unhack Democracy is a pro-democracy and election watchdog group that facilitates the project "Election Health Check". Election Health Check is a transnational project that sets out to produce a series of interrelated short films inspired by Unhack and other election watchdogs' investigations on election irregularities & fraud in Hungary, Romania, and North Macedonia. By exposing the exploitations of disenfranchised voters, the videos advocate for solidarity and systematic change; they inform viewers of their civic rights and empower them to take part in the democratic process actively.We interviewed Zsofia Banuta, co-founder of Unhack Democracy, on the background, the need for the project, the project's contribution to Europe post corona and a European public space.

The school embraces 'economy' as the daily basis of how we give (or get) space to act on our terms. The Rural School of Economics sets up its nomadic classrooms in European barns, on fields and in village halls. The learning key is to listen to and act in solidarity with rural communities that face (and have faced) major challenges in their economic and cultural survival; from forced migration to climate crisis, from industrialization to abruptly changing governance.

FundAction is a participatory grant making fund for social transformation, it started with 30 activists from key European movements and it now counts over 250 members based in Europe. Their newest round of Resist grants were originally developed for grassroots activists in FundAction’s extended family to access small amounts of money rapidly and to meet a sudden change - whether that was reacting to an emerging political situation or other unforeseen developments.

In the current situation, femProcomuns believes it is vital for communities and grassroots groups to share experiences, practices and thoughts across Europe. Knowledge should not remain enclosed in linguistic, cultural and communicative echo-chambers created by individualising and centralising data tracking technologies and algorithms of discourse and control, threatening technological sovereignty. Their project ‘Weaving deabtes’ aims to find better technical solutions (semantic wiki, templates, bots, machine learning, etc.) for multilingual exchanges and to continue testing them in events and meetings that take place in the coming months. Users will be able to browse, view and add content in a chosen language and connect it with content in other languages.

Voices of Iberia in the Black Europe (VIBE) is a project by La Rampa magazine and EducAR that connects stories and legacies to racial issues, intersectional discourse and artistic production by placing Iberia within a broader cultural structure linked to the Atlantic.

The project by the Disability Arts Cymru titled NI Chawn Ein Dileu/We Shall Not Be Erased, wishes to come together in solidarity to dialogue and learn from each other’s contexts, to share lived experience and identify opportunities and conceive our futures.

'Drawn to solidarity' is a joint project of the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN), an alliance of grassroots organisations working along the Greek-Balkan route, filmmakers, journalists and artists from Broga Doite Film and Brush&Bow. Through a campaign of 12 short films with animation clips, the above organisations will campaign to showcase solidarity initiatives at Europe's borders, building civic consciousness around migration and a tangible space of exchange for refugees, activists and the broader public.We interviewed Simon Campbell, field coordinator in the border violence monitoring network.

The Fellowship of Questions project will create an online public space made entirely of questions. It is an open-source tool that can be used to encourage critical thinking. Once the restrictions are lifted, this will lead to offline workshops and encounters. The Fellowship of Questions is a pan-European partnership, created at the Culture Lab Europe. The Fellowship of Questions hopes to counter the self-reinforcing bubbles of certainty and beliefs by building a space that celebrates the power and liberation of asking a question when we have no idea of the answer.

Amateo's project 'Postcards from Home' uses the simple device of exchanging on postcards what home, what place means to each of us, at a time when many have lived in isolation in recent months. This is a rich means of sharing our commonality while recognising our diversity. Amateo’s project spans the generations. The relevance of bridging generations is now more relevant than ever as Coronavirus widened generational divides.

The project ‘Stories from the balcony, Stories from the Balkans’ by ATAK (Alternative Theatre Active Company) plans to organize, through a public call, a competition for unemployed, independent and all interested writers, primary playwrights from the Balkans, in the form of a short play. We interviewed Vasko Raicevic from ATAK to have an in-depth look at their project ‘Stories from the balcony, Stories from the Balkans’ and what topics these plays will touch on.

We interviewed our Culture of Solidarity grantee Csilla Hódi on her project Fair-y Circles and how it will provide practical knowledge of working with mushrooms (local food production, habitat restoration, eco-architecture) and mentoring for community and network development.

“We have always been inspired by the idea of a network based on cities or towns rather than nations, connecting different territories with the same concerns as opposed to constructing relationships built only on the basis of the nation state,” say Aurora Adalid Núñez and Luis Galán of ZuloArk’s project ‘Universal Declaration of Urban Rights’.

“I do this trajectory almost daily, but now the uncanniness of the situation - this stranger that I just ‘met’, made me hyper-attentive of the public realm and the bizarre moment we’re all in. What struck me is the consciousness of my personal character, my social identity that is evoked by the other’s presence,” recalled a participant of silent walk in Brussels.

“….the perception of the public space can be altered very rapidly, and the dynamics of mobility and accessibility in public spaces can be all of a sudden questioned at political, economical and environmental levels. Those are the layers we would like to touch upon while walking and listening during the festivals to come,” says Jacek Smolicki of Walking Festival of Sound.

Art Workers Italia is an autonomous non-partisan group of contemporary art workers focused on cognitive work rights in the field of contemporary art, in Italy and Europe. We met members of AWI to tell us more about ‘Hyper Unionisation’.

“It is in the process of mutual recognition, a growing sense of belonging, and in mutual support that we believe the European public space is really built,” says Almudena Caso of Thriving Regardless.

We spoke with Márton Szarvas from Szovetkezetiseget Tamogato Egyesulet about the initiative Boosting the European culture of solidarity and how it will boost existing solidarity solutions into a broader sphere of cultural imagination in a time of crisis.

Arianna Petrosino, responsible for the project SOL.MAP, explained to us how living the corona lockdown in Italy had an impact on her decision to apply to our call Culture of Solidarity fund. They realized that many activists and organizations had to reinvent their traditional activities to face social distancing and the restrictions imposed by the lockdown.

We spoke with Joon Lynn Goh from Asia Art Activism on their initiative Tools to Transform: Workbook for Asian Diasporic Organising in Europe and what it means in terms of European public space and solidarity and Asian diaspora in Europe and beyond.

The project “incubator for the young” aims to support young people to realize a small project for the local communities: they develop their skills and in the meantime, do something for the community.We spoke to Zuzana Palová, responsible for the project, and Petr Kantor, coordinator, about their first project supporting young people at the Centrum Propodnikani.

We interviewed Cultureghem on how they responded quickly to the crisis by adapting its activities fast and being efficient in reacting to the current situation with their project Recup'art: adding art to their food aid parcels to help people in need and artists. Adding some culture to the food package connects two different sectors: the social and artistic sector.

The idea for the title Symptoms of the Future comes from the work of Dušica Dražić on Hallstatt civilization in Austria, says one of the project leaders Mirjana Dragosavljević. Dražić is researching “civilization through time”, starting from prehistoric times, when goods were distributed equally. The focus of this project is looking into the future, having in mind experiences from the past.

We spoke to Tina Sauerlaender from Germany, Julia Hartman from Austria, Ágnes-Karolina Bakk from Hungary, Gleb Divov from the independent Republic of Užupis (Vilnius, Lithuania), Nikita Khudiakov from Ukraine and Mara-Johanna Kolmel from the UK. The curators from KARA AGORA about the goal of their project and what it means when it comes to European solidarity and public space.

We sat down with Zoe Greenfield, Operations Manager at The International Network of Street Papers (INSP) to dive into their project “Supporting marginalized people through solidarity of culture, experiences and knowledge”. And what the project means when it comes to European solidarity and how street papers have adapted to COVID 19 and life in lockdown.

We talked to Leutrim Fishekqiu of Autostrada Biennale, one of the grantees of the first round of our Culture of Solidarity call.

“I wanted to do something to help people stop and reflect and not just run with their lives without understanding what happened to them and how this experience affected them,” says Maria Nekrasova.

“Another issue is the political isolation”, says Kenneth, “the sense of isolation across Europe has affected people in such a way that they are afraid to share their European experiences.”

We spoke with Craig, Feven and Michelle of The Black and African Solidarity Show (B.A.S.S.) on what does a European pubic space mean for their project and solidarity.

In the interview series with Courageous Citizen grantees here is the story of Khaled Barakeh, a Berlin-based Syrian artist and cultural activist whose work often revolves around power structures in context of identity, culture and history. He and his team are working on realising the Syrian Biennale, the first mobile exhibition showcasing Syrian and international artists within the framework of a biennale.

In the interview series with Courageous Citizen grantees here is the story of Adriana Radu, who, being a social media influencer, decided to produce a theatre play on her own and other Romanian feminists’ experiences: Portrait of the artist as a young influencer, which premieres February 29 in Bucarest.

In the interview series with Courageous Citizen grantees here’s Clara Nchama who established the ‘Connecting Africa’ project in Spain, going beyond stereotypes, but presenting contemporary African arts and culture.

With only a few more days remaining until Brexit we are happy to share some quotes from the book by our #DemocracyNeedsImagination grantee Madeleina Kay, aka #EUsupergirl.

With only a few more days remaining until Brexit we are happy to share some quotes from the book by our #DemocracyNeedsImagination grantee Madeleina Kay, aka #EUsupergirl.

In the interview series with Courageous Citizen grantees here’s Ivo Krug, who together with his team, turned Tek Bunkeri into a social innovation initiative and digital network platform in Tirana.

Courageous Citizens grantee Levent Duran searched for creative ways of talking about the social knot around the mandatory army service in Turkey.

In our series of interviews with our 2018 Courageous Citizens research and development grantees we introduce you to Mio Lindner. He developed a format for an intensive exchange between international marginalised queer participants in a one-week book laboratory, resulting in a printed book at the end of the week. The two labs took place at Akademie Waldschlösschen.

Raluca’s and Elena’s idea aimed to change the mindset of people in Bucharest. They hoped to offer small, sustainable solutions and eco-conscious attitudes to the inhabitants of the city, by introducing the concept of repairing and buying directly from small producers, and thereby help save the numerous small repair workshops in the city.

Numu believes radio can be used as a tool for expression, to promote social inclusion and to unlock the talent of marginalised and young people. He also believes radio speaking requires a lot of skills that should be developed through a safe learning environment. He took his idea to Marseille.

In our series of interviews with our 2018 Courageous Citizens research and development grantees we introduce you to Vonne Hemels and her project Boomboomtales. Boomboomtales wanted to open a small cross-cultural printing house where locals and migrants in Lesvos could work together to create books. Using a risograph printer they intended to offer a space for creativity, learning and co-creation. Together with migrants they published books, stories, zines, postcards, maps, comic books and posters.

In our series of interviews with our 2018 Courageous Citizens research and development grantees we introduce you to Nour Abofarraj. With her project ‘Trace’ she wanted to invite youngsters to real-time events and enable real time encounters between audiences from different religious and regional backgrounds, in Damascus, Syria. This is important, as she wrote in the application because “Many Syrian youngsters are growing up in a challenging and isolated environment, forcing large segments of Syrian youth to live in virtual realities of social media.”

We launched our grant call ‘Courageous Citizens’ in 2018. We received more than 500 applications from all corners of Europe and beyond. As a result, we welcomed 31 new grantees and their projects into our network! Their bold and daring projects range from raising eco-consciousness in the city, being decolonial detectives, empowering people with physical disabilities, to re-inventing one's heritage in the context of migration and displacement.

On 11 March 2017, Courageous Citizens grantee artist Alessio Mazzaro reopened Edinost, a Slovenian newspaper printed in Trieste, Italy that gave voice to the first anti-fascist movement in Europe. It was shut down by fascists in 1928. He reopened it as a multicultural space of dialogue and collective writing journal that he directs to investigate borders, fascisms, politics of memory and the role of arts in re-discussing unresolved conflicts.

Thomas Diafas, one of the 2018 Courageous Citizens grantees, talks to us on the Thessaloniki Queer Arts Festival.

Initiator Cherelle Harding tells us how a Courageous Citizens grant helped her start training decolonial detectives in a community-engaged history project: Windrush Strikes Back: Decolonising Global Warwickshire.

In our series of Courageous Citizens grantee interviews, Framer Framed tells us about their “The City is Ours” project.

Geraldine Lavelle, one of our 2018 Courageous Citizens grantees, tells us about her project on disablism.

In the run up to the European Parliament election we ran a first round of our ‘Democracy Needs Imagination’ grants call. ‘Another Europe is possible’, represented by Luke Cooper, answers some questions on what the grant allowed them to do.

In a series of interviews with grantees of our 2018 Courageous Citizens call, here is Simeon Vasilev of the Bulgarian GLAS foundation. Since 2014 the ‘Gays and Lesbians Accepted in Society’ foundation works for a positive change to the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Bulgaria.

In a series of interviews with grantees of our 2018 Courageous Citizens call, we start with Sana Murrani. She applied with her project proposal “Creative Recovery: Mapping Refugees’ Memories of Home as Heritage”. Now that the exhibition is over we asked her to share some thoughts with you.

Our #DemocracyNeedsImagination Action Grants support campaigns that defend the future of an open and democratic Europe and get Europeans to vote. In this overview we present a few of them.

Is it possible to hold a debate across Europe, despite language barriers and national borders? Thousands did as part of Europe Talks, which kicked off in Brussels.

With our annual theme ‘Democracy Needs Imagination’ it is no wonder we soon ran into Giuseppe Porcaro. He published the book ‘Disco sour’ and is the man behind the 'Europarama’ podcast series. An interview.

Each week we highlight the work of Democracy Needs Imagination grantees: music, art and European life!

In our series of Courageous Citizens grantee reporting, here’s Sarah Story representing Refugee Info Bus, an organisation whose mission is to assist refugees in having access to the rights that people with European passports take for granted.

Find out all about the second round of selected projects of our new Action Grants!

Find out all about the first round of selected projects of our new Action Grants!

The 2017 Idea Camp brought together 50 Idea Makers from 24 countries across Europe and its neighbouring regions. During three days, participants nurtured and up-skilled the ideas that they have developed with the ambition to counteract anti-democratic practices and bring forward voices excluded from public debate and decision-making. They worked with the support of a group of guest Idea Feeders, and Facilitators- the Hubs in the Connected Action for the Commons.

For the 2017 Idea Camp, the Idea Camp team has drawn on the rich social fabric of the city of Madrid, working hand in hand with local organisations and collectives on the ground not just to plan the programme for this year’s Idea Camp but also to design the space for the event and to shape the communications around it. We are delighted that 2017 Idea Makers will have the chance to meet some of these inspiring local organisations and collectives, to exchange experiences with them and to share the visions and challenges that inform their work.

Idea Feeders are professionals interested in collective learning, who have been invited to share their expertise and knowledge around this year's theme "Moving Communities". They will support the 50 Idea Makers throughout the three-day programme by offering feedback on their ideas.

Meet the fifty Idea Makers who have been selected to participate in the Idea Camp: read their short biographies and have a glance at the ideas they will be working on during the Idea Camp.