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European Cultural Foundation wins ‘European Cultural Investor of the Year 2021’ award Back

European Cultural Foundation wins ‘European Cultural Investor of the Year 2021’ award

29 Nov 2021

We won the “European Cultural Investor of the Year 2021” award. Our Culture of Solidarity Fund, established during the Corona crisis, was the impetus for the decision of the 40-member expert jury, represented by Causales juror Andrea Joras.

The ceremony took place on November 30, #GivingTuesday.

In the category “European Cultural Investor of the Year 2021”, the jury chose the European Cultural Foundation from Amsterdam and its cultural investment via the “Culture of Solidarity Fund”. Established in March 2020 in response to the coronavirus crisis, the fund supports innovative cultural initiatives that cross European borders, professional sectors, and artistic disciplines to provide collaborative solutions to pandemic house challenges and solidarity support.

The Aurica! photo by Constanze Flamme

The Berlin club TRESOR was chosen as the location for the presentation of the award to the European Cultural Foundation. The TRESOR Foundation has been a grantee of the Culture of Solidarity Fund since the beginning of November. Dimitri Hegemann, founder and operator of the legendary techno club Tresor, will be present on behalf of the TRESOR Foundation and will present a new project, which will be implemented in cooperation with the European Cultural Foundation within the next year to promote culture in Eastern Europe.

We firstly see the award as a public endorsement of all the work done by grantees of the Culture of Solidarity Fund. More than hundred grantees, all over Europe, are working on their projects therewith showcasing that collaborating across borders is our future.

These grantees embody – each in their own way – the vital importance of culture for Europe: it is the space in which we reflect on who want to be and in which we design our futures. We therefore see the award as support for our Cultural Deal for Europe campaign, with which we aim to make culture a stuctural and systemic part of any European agenda of change. See our opinion piece in Parliament Magazine.

Lastly we see the award as a call out to Europeans of all backgrounds. For our fund is not very big with 1.6 million euro, but our message is: We Europeans need each other.

That is exactly why the Culture of Solidarity Fund has from the beginning onwards  been a pulled fund. Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung, Stiftung Mercator, Fondazione CRT, Fondazione CRC, Allianz Kulturstiftung für Europa, Open Society Foundation and Beisheim Stiftung did already contribute.

Next year we will launch new rounds of the Culture of Solidarity Fund. At least one of them will be open for projects which touch on ways to deal with climate change.

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