Poland: 24 cultural diversity projects supported

Aiming to promote diversity in culture and arts and boost cultural cooperation between Polish and donor state cultural institutions, 24 projects have been allocated €5 million in grants.

Poland's cultural diversity is supported by the Grants

Under the EEA and Norway Grants 2009-2014, €10 million support the promotion of diversity in arts and culture in Poland. The Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the programme operator, has selected 24 projects in this field out of 135 applications submitted by Polish cultural institutions. The Arts Council Norway is the donor programme partner. Acting in close cooperation with the cultural sector in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, the Arts Council Norway ensures the participation of cultural players from the three donor states within the programme.

The 24 selected projects vary in size and area of activity and cover music, performing arts, visual arts, cultural heritage and cooperation between educational institutions in the field of arts and culture. All the projects have Norwegian and/or Icelandic partners.

“Both large and small projects have received support, and 37 entities from the Norwegian cultural sector are represented. It will be interesting to follow the projects,” said Anne Aasheim, director of the Arts Council Norway.

Funds were allocated to 13 small projects, with grants of between €50 000 and €150 000, and 11 larger projects, supported by grants ranging from €150 000 to €1 million.

Promoting cultural partnerships

This marks the first round of distribution of grants to Poland-based projects promoting diversity in culture and arts in the current funding period. This year, funds allocated to similar programmes are also to be distributed in other beneficiary states by the donor countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. There will also be another open call under the Polish cultural programme.

Project partnerships are strongly encouraged by the Grants, and the programme has a strong focus on strengthening bilateral relations. This is to be achieved through supporting partner search for donor partnership projects prior to the preparation of a project application, and through support for networking, exchange, sharing and transfer of knowledge, technology, experience and best practices.

You can find out more about open calls for project proposals in all the 15 beneficiary states here.

Supporting art, music, theatre and cultural heritage

One of the larger projects, financed by a grant of about €315 000, will enable collaboration between the Jewish cultural festival, Oslo Jewish Museum and the Bente Kahan Foundation to promote the Yiddish language and culture in Poland and Norway.

Music and theatre-related projects are also strongly represented among the selected projects. The works of Polish pianist Fryderyk Chopin and Norwegian pianist Thomas Tellefsen will be promoted by a €780 000 project developed by the Polish Fryderyk Chopin Institute in partnership with Norway’s Ringve Museum, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Centre for Folk Music and Folk Dance, and the Polish Association in Fredrikstad.

Norway’s Jo Strømgren company, the Polish Dance Theatre in Poznan and the Association of Independent Theatres in Iceland will cooperate on a dance and education project, supported by a €500 000 grant.

A further €165 000 was allocated to a project by the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and the Bergen School of Architecture. The project will highlight the role of architect Oscar Hansen in Polish and Norwegian architecture and visual arts, and it will, amongst others, result in an exhibition shown in the Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona.

Smaller projects will also play an important element of promoting diversity in culture and arts.

A project to foster exchange of knowledge on boat building is supported by a €165 000 grant. The project will be performed by the Maritime Museum in Gdansk and the Hardanger and Voss Museum.

Another project, developed by the Norwegian Center for Technology in Music and the Arts (NOTAM) and the Polish foundation 4.99, will support a Polish-Norwegian electronic music project Eastern Waves: Warsaw-Oslo, funded by a €70 000 grant.

Blues music festivals in Poland’s Suwalki and Norway’s Notodden will collaborate to promote cultural and artistic diversity through blues music under a €120 000 project.