Rich Mama Poor Mama presented at the Tandem Europe Final Meeting. Photo by Constanze Flamme RICH MAMA POOR MAMA: an Alternative Look at Funding the Arts and Culture Funding is a pressing topic for many cultural organisations. The current political and economic conditions offer little support for cultural activity, and the instability in funding for arts across Europe has left many independent cultural actors looking for immediate survival strategies. With this in mind, Tandem Europe participants Zala Velkavrh and Mirja Koponen have focused their Tandem collaboration on finding out about alternative funding tactics for European cultural actors. The result is the Rich Mama Poor Mama cards and guidelines. Rich Mama Poor Mama presented at the Tandem Europe Final Meeting. Photo by Constanze Flamme When two cultural managers, Zala from Ljubljana and Mirja from Edinburgh, got together and started to brainstorm on how to secure space, time and money for their beloved projects, they realised there was grassroots knowledge to be discovered. Disappointed by the official, formal funding guides, they decided to ask other cultural managers around Europe how they manage to survive in hard times. With fewer grants available to arts and cultural organisations, Zala and Mirja were curious to know what their colleagues and peers think about alternative funding tactics such as crowdfunding, fundraisers, selling merchandise, donations and on-going contributions. They wanted to collect as many tips on best and worst funding tactics as they could. The result was The Placeholder survey, which collected the opinions of 57 cultural managers from around Europe. The gathered material was so rich it needed to be shared with the wider public. Rich Mama Poor Mama presented at the Tandem Europe Final Meeting. Photo by Constanze Flamme However, Zala and Mirja are no experts on the funding topic. They realised the gap between the haves and have-nots could not be bridged as easily as they’d wish. Many of the alternative funding tactics were advised against as much as advised for. No new grant opportunities appeared. But despite the fact that now, they have a good idea of the available funding options, and have paid attention to all the advice they have received, making their projects survive remains a challenge. Rich Mama Poor Mama presented at the Tandem Europe Final Meeting. Photo by Constanze Flamme Zala and Mirja’s explorations have led to the creation of the “Rich mama poor mama – selfless self-help cards”, and they have presented them for the first time at the Tandem Europe meeting in Athens at the end of January 2017. The cards are full of useful information for those who want to get first-hand advice on alternative funding in the arts and culture in Europe. They also give a pretty realistic picture of the funding landscape out there, and the level of effort needed to hope for any kind of results. You can download the Rich Mama Poor Mama cards now. Good luck with your funding! Rich Mama Poor Mama card. Design by Nina Savič Rich Mama Poor Mama card. Design by Nina Savič