Partners & Funders

Stiftung Mercator

Stiftung Mercator is a private foundation, which fosters science and the humanities, education and international understanding. It specifically initiates, develops and funds projects and partner organisations in the thematic fields to which it is committed: it wants to strengthen Europe, improve integration through equal educational opportunities for everyone, drive forward the energy transition as a trigger for global climate change mitigation and firmly anchor cultural education in schools. Stiftung Mercator feels a strong sense of loyalty to the Ruhr region, the home of the founding family and the foundation’s headquarters.

Fondazione Cariplo

Fondazione Cariplo is a private foundation of banking origin officially established in 1991. The Foundation is based in Milan and operates prevailingly as a grant making organization within four main sectors: Arts and Culture, Environment, Social Welfare and Scientific Research.

Stavros Niarchos Foundation

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation is one of the world’s leading private international philanthropic organizations, making grants in the areas of arts and culture, education, health and sports, and social welfare. The Foundation funds organizations and projects that are expected to achieve a broad, lasting and positive impact for society at large, and exhibit strong leadership and sound management.

Landelijk Kennisinstituut Cultuureducatie en Amateurkunst

The National Centre of Expertise for Cultural Education and Amateur Arts (LKCA) is the Dutch knowledge platform for professionals and policymakers in cultural education and amateur arts. The centre contributes to the quality of both cultural practice and policy through knowledge exchange and research.

British Council

The British Council  is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. British Council is on the ground in six continents and over 100 countries, bringing international opportunity to life. Arts is a cornerstone of the British Council’s mission to build bridges of trust and understanding between peoples of the world.

Mimeta

Mimeta is a fund based in Kristiansand (Norway) and has been working within culture and development since 2006. Mimeta is involved in culture sector development in more than twenty countries in Africa, Asia and South-America and coordinates international co-productions and promotion of art and design towards Nordic audiences.

Auswärtiges Amt

With headquarters in Berlin and a network of 229 missions abroad, the Federal Foreign Office maintains Germany’s relations with other countries as well as with international and supra-national organizations. This work concerns much more than just political contacts among governments and parliaments. Because Germany and German society are enmeshed in ever-growing international networks, the Federal Foreign Office promotes intensive interaction and exchange with the world in the fields of business, culture, science and technology, the environment and development issues.

Leeuwarden-Fryslân 2028

In 2018, Leeuwarden (and Friesland) was European Capital of Culture. With a versatile programme of performances, exhibitions, festivals and projects, carried out by professionals and citizens, they are rightly proud of what has been achieved. No surprises there, the team wants to continue to offer the region a diverse cultural programme in the upcoming years, to further strengthen the Frisian culture, and their connections to Europe.

Rijeka 2020 LLC

In 2020, the city of Rijeka will be the first Croatian city to be European Capital of Culture. Organiser Rijeka 2020 LLC aims to reimagine the city of Rijeka, looking back at its industrial heritage to create an energetic and innovative future. The diverse programme of Rijeka 2020 will give the inhabitants of the city a common project to collaborate on.

Galway 2020

Galway 2020 represents the legacy of decades of artistic endeavour and investment in the culture of this place. It is a climax of everything that has gone before and a stepping-stone to a future that will leave an improved cultural infrastructure and heightened awareness of the role of culture in society; a society that appreciates the role of its artists and the possibilities that they bring. This exciting year provides extraordinary opportunities for local people to create and participate in something beyond their wildest expectations.

Eleusis 2021

Year 2021 marks the 200th anniversary of the Hellenic Revolution, which led to the establishment of the modern Greek state. Revolutions are times of transformation and transition. Eleusis and Europe touch on the two great transitions that radically transformed human living conditions and created new forms of organization and co-existence: the Agricultural and the Industrial Revolution. Today, both are faced with the challenge of a new transition, the need to redefine concepts such as development, social cohesion and, eventually, prosperity. The role of art and culture in this process is decisive, precisely because that is the function of the artist: to dress fantasy with shape and form, to transubstantiate possibility, to operate beyond the obvious. Art opens new roads and offers new prospects for the future.

Novi Sad 2021 is a platform for development of creative potentials of Novi Sad. This project should, above else, motivate and inspire both cultural workers and all citizens to re-examine current values and set new goals towards democratic cultural development of the city. Re-examination of modern identity of Novi Sad, revitalisation of cultural heritage, reconstruction of the existing and opening new spaces intended for culture, developing cultural participation of citizens, are just some of the principles of cultural development that will be adopted in following seven years.

Esch-zur-Alzette 2022

The goal of making our Capital of Culture year into a project where everyone gets involved does not stand in isolation. Quite the opposite. It includes embedding the still recent University in its regional context. It includes us developing concepts which link the past with the future for these old industrial lands which so characterise our region. It includes liberating culture from its confinement in institutions and giving it greater prominence in public spaces. It includes making positive use of the digitisation of our society. It includes driving forward professionalisation in the cultural sector. It includes having many dreams – and sharing them.

Kaunas 2022

At the beginning of 2017, Kaunas was awarded the title of the European Capital of Culture for 2022. Together with various cultural organisations, artists and creatives, we develop a vast, endless and borderless programme that we call the Contemporary Capital. The entire time remaining until 2022 is a common journey of Kaunas and Kaunas District from temporary to contemporary!

Veszprém-Balaton 2023

The joint bid of Veszprém Municipal City and the Balaton Region for European Capital of Culture 2023 aims to widen the selection of our cultural programmes, enhance their diversity, and highlight its specifically European nature, partly through international cooperation. We strive to provide better access to culture, create and invigorate culturally embedded communities in addition to boosting the performance of the cultural sector and  strengthening its ties to other spheres of life. A major target of ours is to further improve the international image of the city through culture.

Open Society Foundations

The Open Society Foundations, founded by George Soros, are the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights. George Soros opened his first international foundation in Hungary in 1984. Today, the Open Society Foundations support a vast array of projects in more than 120 countries, providing thousands of grants every year through a network of national and regional foundations and offices.

CZKD

Center for Cultural Decontamination is a non-profit cultural institution, opened at the “First Decontamination” in 1995, with the firm belief that nationalism, xenophobia, and any kind of violence can be questioned in the same way that they are developed – through culture, art and public speech. Through cultural and social engagement, which has included thousands of people, CZKD articulates initiatives of politicisation and re-politicisation of public space, culture and art. The production process is based on collectivity and cooperation in the community that consists of artists, activists, theoreticians, international and local cultural, artistic and human rights initiatives.

Balkan Museum Network (BMN)

Balkan Museum Network (BMN) is a platform for museum professionals to learn, share, and support each other. BMN is membership-based organisation with 200 members (museums, NGOs and individuals) in 13 countries of the Balkan region. BMN exists to celebrate, preserve and share the complex common heritage of the Balkans and to create, through cooperation, a strong, collective voice for Balkan heritage and the museum profession. BMN is a unique structure that welcomes and works for all museums in the Balkans, finding ways for cooperation and exchange in difficult contexts. BMN connect museums with broader heritage sectors and establishes international ties.

JADRO

JADRO – the association of the independent cultural scene is a non-profit, inclusive, participatory and advocacy platform that strives to strengthen the independent cultural sector and its impact on the creation and implementation of cultural policies, in order to foster democratic and cultural processes, in the society and the civil sector. Our strategy of creative and constructive resistance is to be vigilant, clear and bold in trying to point out the need for a critical rethinking of the socio-cultural context.
We have over 40 organisations and individuals that are our members from all over the country.

Balkans, let’s get up

The Balkans, let’s get up! organisation believes in the better Balkans. Since 2009 this Balkan based organization is gathering and inspiring young people from the region to become active changemakers in their communities and make the Balkans a better place for all its people. By involving participants from all over the Balkans, the association fosters not just common understanding and dialogue but active cooperation among them. While providing tools for personal development of its fellows to unlock their different potentials, the association is trying to create positive change striving for more responsible and more sustainable societies at the Balkan Peninsula.

LUMBARDHI

Lumbardhi encourages interaction, engagement and collective learning. It invites discourse and research that respond to changing conditions of the local, regional and planetary. Programs include film, performance, conversation, exhibition and archive development.
Lumbardhi Foundation was established in 2015 to utilise Lumbardhi Cinema, after it was saved from demolition following more than a decade of civic activism that made it a cultural heritage site. Lumbardhi presents its programs in the indoor and outdoor cinemas and other areas used for public programming. It is currently developing the programs, infrastructure, resources and attitudes of the institution towards its 70th anniversary in 2022.

Insha Osvita

Insha Osvita a Ukrainian Network for Adult Education and Development of Innovations) is an NGO that operates across Ukraine and is involved in the management of the quality of non-formal education and adult education. The mission of Insha Osvita is to enhance approaches to non-formal education and adult education for a variety of target groups and to create a favorable environment for the development of innovations for a democratic society.

Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo (FCSP)

Created in 1563, FCSP’s mission is to foster the civil, cultural and economic development in the communities it operates in, pursuing goals of public interest and social usefulness. The income derived from its assets has been saved for centuries and is used for these institutional aims. The Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation is active in research and higher education, social policies, health, artistic heritage and cultural activities. It is a member of European Foundation Centre (EFC) and ACRI, the Italian Association of Foundations of Banking Origin and Saving Banks.