i-Portunus Houses

I-Portunus is a scheme initiated by the European Commission that supports the mobility of artists and cultural professionals and co-funded by consortium organisations.

‘i-Portunus Houses’ is the third round of i-Portunus pilot schemes and is a call for host organisations from all creative fields offered by the European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam) – Kultura Nova Foundation (Zagreb) – MitOst (Berlin), and funded by the European Union. The second round of this call opened on 23 August. The deadline to apply is 3 October at 24.00 CEST.

As part of the i-Portunus consortium and an organisation working in the cultural mobility field, the European Cultural Foundation and its partners believe in providing efficient and safe residencies and working environments for artists and cultural professionals.

The Corona pandemic challenges mobility in the cultural sector everywhere in Europe. Hosting co-productions and borderless travel that were essential routines in arts and culture until a year ago remain drastically limited. This current reality, together with a global changing vision on mobility in the context of our climate, triggered the interest of the European Cultural Foundation and its partners to focus on this.

While the consortium strongly believes in the value of making real-life contacts across European borders, hybrid forms of cultural mobility and virtual collaboration may provide another form of transnational exchanges. As long as the pandemic lasts, but also in view of a less travel-intense, more equally accessible and greener future of cultural mobility.

i-Portunus Houses pilot phase is open for the 40 Creative Europe countries + UK and offers a specific support scheme for local hosts to team up with up to 5 artists and/or cultural professionals. This scheme puts focus on hosts underlining their value in providing efficient residencies and working environments for creative individuals.

i-Portunus strongly believes in the professional value of making real-life contacts across European borders and collaborating with peers face-to-face. Blending forms of cultural mobility and collaboration via digital platforms may provide another form of transnational exchanges for artists and cultural professionals. Especially also for those who work and live in more remote places of Creative Europe countries. Cultural organisations and the creative professionals working in them urgently need to innovate and prepare for hosting their peers and co-producing also in the digital space. This is particularly important as long as the pandemic lasts, but also in view of a less travel-intense, more equally accessible and greener future of cultural mobility.

Under this new pilot scheme we will launch two similar calls, to enlarge the opportunities for physical mobility:

Round 1: Monday 21 May – Sunday 30 June (Closed)

Round 2: Monday 23 August – Sunday 3 October

Throughout both submission periods, a series of online peer-moderated i-Portunus Market Square events will be offered. The i-Portunus Market Square events are info- and matching sessions for hosts, artists and cultural professionals to identify, form and prepare new teams for successfully co-designing and submitting a joint collaboration proposal. These events are not mandatory.

Info session

We hosted an info session for i-Portunus Houses that included an introduction into the pilot scheme
and a Q&A. You can watch the live-streamed info session below.

i-Portunus Market Square events – round 2

Wednesday 01.09 | 08 | 15 | 22 | 29 September 14:00 – 17:00 CEST
If you are interested in participating in one of i-Portunus Market Square events please register here (registration is open until morning of last event).

A committee of cultural mobility experts from all over Europe will review all incoming proposals. Selected i-Portunus hosts then can proceed with realising their (blended) mobility collaboration projects and individual travel plans between the end of August 2021 (1st round) / beginning of December 2021 (2nd round) at the earliest until the end of May 2022 at the latest.

The i-Portunus Houses pilot project will be implemented by a consortium of organisations that have been pioneers of European cultural mobility programmes themselves. Coordinated by the European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam), this new i-Portunus consortium also involves MitOst (Berlin) as the main mobility implementation hub and the Kultura Nova Foundation (Zagreb) as the lead evaluation and analysis hub.

More information on the project, registration options for the Market Square events and application details will be available on the i-portunus.eu.

Apply here.

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