Second round of Culture of Solidarity Fund closed
21 Jun 2020
We are living in truly transformative times. The coronavirus crisis has brought along profound global challenges with an outcome yet unknown. Will we remember this time as the starting point for drifting away from each other along national divides, into fragmented societies and conflicted communities? Or will this turn out to be a historical moment that makes us realise how much better Europe solves its problems through cooperation and solidarity?
The past months have seriously contested our public health systems and economies. Social cohesion has been severely shaken all over Europe. As the sounds of spontaneous balcony choirs and collective applause fade away, the coronavirus crisis continues to challenge our perception of ‘normality’. Europeans take to the streets again in solidarity with the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement, and global questions of climate justice, shifting power systems and inequality further push us to reconsider our entire way of life.
The way Europeans deal with this situation after the immediate emergencies and lockdowns are over will have deep implications on how we build the future of Europe. We will only successfully resurface from this crisis by nourishing a European sentiment of care and support across borders. We need to make a European culture of solidarity tangible and real.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, courageous local initiatives and rapid crisis responses established strong roots for what could grow into much larger alliances of thinking and acting in European solidarity. They provided immediate hope to people while tangible answers from the EU still needed to gain momentum.
This is yet another attest to the power of local communities. Their issues, institutions and cultural expressions are key public domains where people experience their daily lives and imagine their futures as locals and Europeans. But now is the time for local initiatives to join forces, to unite across reopening borders, for the benefit of all Europeans and for finding solutions collaboratively. On their own, they can and do have an effect in their local contexts, but if they work together, build strong coalitions and pull resources, they can reach a collective impact at a European level.
What were we looking for?
The Fund continues to support imaginative cultural initiatives – big or small – that reinforce solidarity and deal with the aftermaths of the pandemic for European societies.
This second round also looks to re-unite Europe and its people in solidarity through supporting local cultural players in building alliances across nations, borders and differences with a broader European idea in mind. It specifically welcomes proposals that 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.
The Fund is open to individuals, collectives and organisations from all sectors and civil society at large and supports short- or long-term actions that either/or:
» preserve and expand a European Culture of Solidarity as the key element for keeping Europe an open and shared public space for everyone;
» envision the future of making cultural experiences and people-to-people interaction possible across European borders after inward-looking times of social distancing and national crisis response;
» imagine, tell stories and prepare the ground for a culture-driven revival of a united Europe during and after the crisis.
What we offered:
The Fund has grants available in three amounts:
Small: up to €12.500
Medium: €12.500 – 25.000
Large: €25.000 – 40.000
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 closed on Monday, 27 April 2020, 12.00 CEST. This second opened June 22 2020 and closed on July 14 2020, 13.00 CEST.