Cultural Diversity and Cultural Exchange

Programme Summary

Why is the Programme needed? The Programme stimulates the supply of high quality artistic input for children through the school system in Portugal and it promotes a more evenly spread of artistic work for this purpose across the country. This improved access to arts is beneficial in cultural, social and economic terms. Cultural because it offers children meaningful engagement in arts and it helps increase the audience for art. Social because it gives access to art to those who are often deprived of this access, such as children and young people and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Improved access contributes to social inclusion, because it helps children to root in society. The economic benefits of improved access lie in the development of new and wider audiences and the potential this offers for new revenue streams. The European Commission recognizes that across the European Union there is a need for arts and culture to become more accessible, especially for children, young people and the disadvantaged, such as for example the children from migrant families.What will the Programme achieve and who are the beneficiaries? The Programme promotes children’s access to arts. It encourages arts organisations to cooperate with schools and Donor partners from Iceland, Liechtenstein and/or Norway aimed at reaching out to children and young people and involving them in art. The Programme achieves the following: It supports cultural organisations to develop cultural activities specifically designed for children and young people, and stimulates that new professional artistic content is presented across the country. Schools are involved in the supported projects, which helps to open up art and culture to a significant number of children all over the country. Capacity building activities directed at the beneficiaries are implemented and materialized in training initiatives aimed at increasing artists’ capacity to develop educational activities. The Programme achieves the following: •    It supports at least 5 cultural organisations which wish to develop cultural activities specifically for children; •    It supports the capacity development of at least 5 organisations in this area; •    It supports at least 10 new training initiatives aimed at increasing artists’ capacity to develop educational activities; •    It supports at least 5 newly developed and presented cultural events; •    Its support reaches at least 2,500 pupils; •    It stimulates at least 5 schools to participate in activities in this area. For the call for proposals, partnership projects are eligible: Portuguese artistic entities which – for the purpose of this Programme – have a partnership agreement with a school or a group of schools and an artistic entity from one of the Donor States are eligible for support. For the predefined project private Portuguese training entities are eligible. How will the results be achieved? The Programme is implemented by way of a call for proposals “Promoting access to art and culture through collaborative artistic educational projects” and a pre-defined project “Capacity building for arts and education projects” The grant amount provided through a call for proposals is up to €165,000 per project. The grant amount provided through the pre-defined project is up to €134,420.  How will bilateral relations be strengthened? Bilateral relations are supported through a bilateral fund of €92,400 which supports partner search for partnership projects and activities encouraging networking and exchanges and the sharing of knowledge and best practices. The fund is used for projects that envisage the involvement of partners from Iceland, Liechtenstein and/or Norway.  A fund for complementary action stimulates the exchange of experience and best practices among beneficiary states. The Arts Council Norway (ACN) is involved in the Programme as a Donor Programme Partner.What are the partnership opportunities? This Programme involves partnerships between Portuguese cultural players and entities and their counterparts in Iceland, Liechtenstein and/or Norway. The bilateral fund will also specifically focus on stimulating the development of partnership projects.  Donor State entities will be eligible for grant assistance as project partners.