Some stories are too important to stay boxed up
25 Jun 2025
That’s why we’re moving the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) archive to Florence.
On 16 June, the first 113 boxes of ECF’s archive arrived at the Historical Archives of the European Union. Over 150 more will follow. For the first time, over 70 years of cultural cooperation, diplomacy, and imagination will be publicly accessible to researchers, artists, policymakers, and anyone invested in Europe’s shared future.
This is a record of the past and a resource for what comes next.
Inside the archive are traces of some of the most significant cultural initiatives to shape post-war Europe, from early exchanges that paved the way for ERASMUS to the founding of the European Foundation Centre. Alongside these are notes, letters, and proposals that reflect ECF’s long-standing knowledge that culture can build trust where politics fall short.
In a new article for Philea, our Programme Manager Lore Gablier reflects on what the archive reveals: a Europe that didn’t emerge from certainty, but from questions about how to stay relevant, responsive, and generous in times of change.
As she writes: “The archive doesn’t just document our work for a better Europe. It opens a window onto how foundations think, act, evolve and, sometimes, fail.”
Read the article on why the archive matters, for the future as much as the past.
