Culture of Solidarity

2024 is an exceptional year in modern global history: over 40% of the world’s population will elect new parliaments and leaders, reshaping geopolitical landscapes. European democracies and the culture of open and transnational public debate is being put through a serious test. There is an urgent need to enhance existing democracy and cultural solidarity initiatives with rapid and flexible funding.

In our 11th edition of the Culture of Solidarity Fund we support 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.

In the past months Europeans have been confronted with the aftermath of a global health crisis, massive wars and the ever more apparent impact of climate emergencies on local communities. Regions all over Europe have been facing the painful consequences of a globally unfettered extraction and use of natural resources.

This round of the Culture of Solidarity Fund is developed in partnership with Fondazione Cariplo, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione CRC and Fondazione CRT.

The 9th edition of the Culture of Solidarity Fund welcomed European transnational collaborative initiatives that address the theme of just transition and environmental sustainability from a specific cultural angle.

Following on the success of last year’s edition, the Culture of Solidarity Fund launched another special call looking to promote the visibility and embeddedness of Ukrainian culture across Europe, in partnership with EUNIC (the network of EU National Institutes for Culture), with funding from the Government of Flanders and the European Cultural Foundation and additional contributions from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Czech Centres.

The Culture of Solidarity Fund launched this special call looking to promote the visibility and embeddedness of Ukrainian Culture across Europe, in partnership with EUNIC (the network of EU National Institutes for Culture), with funding from several EUNIC members and with core financing led by the Goethe-Institut (then holding the Presidency of the EUNIC network), and the Institut français and Instituto Cervantes, as well as the grantmaking support of the European Cultural Foundation.

Putin has brought back war to Europe. This war on Ukraine is a war on Europe. As Europeans, initiators and funding partners behind the Culture of Solidarity Fund stand resolutely in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and all those who resist Putin’s attempt to rewrite European borders and European history.

With pooled resources from a group of European co-funders, the Culture of Solidarity Fund was relaunched as a pan-European effort right at the beginning of the war to respond to local cultural emergency needs.

This call was launched together with Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung. The call was open to cultural organisations as well as organisations from other fields of work and public institutions that are based and/or active in Eastern Germany or in European regions similarly affected by deindustrialization, population decline, social dissolution, failing public infrastructure, and ecological crises.

The thematic Culture of Solidarity call to strengthen a European public space searched for projects that contribute to inclusive and democratic European media platforms, networks and infrastructure during the Corona infodemic.

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. This round searched 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.

The grantees of the second round 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 the Culture of Solidarity fund, more than 2,500 applications were received from all corners of Europe and beyond. 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.