The international selection committee convened on 29 November online after evaluating 14 submitted project ideas and selected 11 ambitious cultural relations projects for implementation between January and October 2022.

All projects are awarded in total up to 60,000 euros. The high number of projects selected is made possible by leveraging additional funding for the European Spaces of Culture pilot projects from EUNIC membership to expand and strengthen EUNIC's cultural relations partnerships worldwide. The selected projects involve 22 countries, 83 local partners, 17 EU Delegations and 20 different EUNIC members.

Until October 2022 the projects will focus on - amongst other things - multi-country and multi-continental approaches creating networking, learning and promotion opportunities for young contemporary artists, capacity-building and advocacy activities to make culture more inclusive and accessible, repurposing public spaces to bring visibility to underrepresented groups in contemporary art forms and find innovative and artistic solutions for environmental sustainability. Find out about the projects below and read more about them in detail here.

I am positively surprised by the EUNIC partners working in different areas of the world, listening and giving priority to the local needs and employing their resources and networks to help local communities fulfil these needs. For me this is really important, and this aspect is dominant in this call and in the majority of the projects.

Marijana Cvetković, selection committee member

The final selection followed a shortlisting of 14 project ideas earlier in the process. In the months between the two selections, the project teams reworked their initial idea submitted, conducted additional and in-depth local consultations, worked on their partnership and collaboration processes and, in some cases, prototyped and tested planned initiatives. The process of follow-up applications shifted focus to elaboration of activity plan, feasibility, communication, evaluation. It also included questions on how the UN Sustainable Development Goals and fair collaboration thinking in cultural relations are integrated in their plans.

In September 2021, these shortlisted project teams met in an online Creative Lab, which brought together representatives from the teams as well as external experts to discuss how their proposed idea can be elaborated further to be presented as model of European Spaces of Culture. The Creative Lab was a chance for the project teams to discuss their proposed ideas and receive feedback from experts from the selection committee as well as project representatives from previous projects.

Selected projects

Brazil: Politics of Nature // The Mobile Game
Due to Brazil´s global importance to the climate as the world´s most biodiverse and fith largest country, there is an urgent need to strengthen agency and engagement in the climate cause and environmental issues among Brazilian youth. In a large collaboration including Brazilian youth climate movements, game developers, institutions, NGOs, students, municipalities and specialists, this project proposes to engage and connect Brazilian youth across social borders for the climate and sustainability cause - as well as to connect Brazilian and European youth - by developing, distributing and activating a digital version of the game Politics of Nature: the mobile game “PoN! – A Ilha dos Tatus”.

Cameroon: Cameroonian Cultural Network

How can the Cameroonian cultural scene gain more economic and structural independency? How can the the production of high quality art creation be reinforced? How can the local audience be more engaged in a dialog with contemporary arts? The project, as a pilot, is unifying for the first time European and local stakeholders to develop a digital and physical platform in order to establish a strong network for artists, to tour art productions and to propose a capacity building programme for associated infrastructures. This will be achieved through regular high quality cultural events, which are offering well needed alternative visions and impulses for the growing civil society in Cameroon.

China: "Diverse as We Are" - International Festival of Inclusive Culture

By showcasing and discussing diversity and inclusion in arts, culture, sports, and beyond, “Diverse as We Are” – International Festival of Inclusive Culture (DAWA) brings together artists and creatives with and without disabilities from China, Europe, Asia and the world. The festival builds bridges between disability communities, local audiences and cultural institutions. DAWA believes in the power of people-to-people dialogue and considers dis-ABILITIES as a strength. The festival connects and empowers underrepresented groups of the art scene and society, calls for more access, and inclusion in cultural life through public engagements such as performance, exhibition, film, talk, and others.

India: Moving Kolkata – Kolkata Moving

Moving Kolkata turns the city’s iconic trams into vehicles for inclusive dialogue around climate change and sustainable urban development. Local NGOs gather insights on how Kolkatans experience and deal with these issues in their daily life – inviting learning and sharing of high impact, low tech, community-led solutions. Local artists and artisans turn these insights into SDG-inspired artworks, while Indian and European photographers document the project activities for the project website and SoMe. Finally, an exhibition takes ‘Moving Kolkata’ to Delhi, exploring the potential of collaborative public art in sharing best practices and hacks for living with climate change.

Mexico: Flash ACT - Arte, Ciencia y Tecnología

Flash ACT as a hybrid project aims to explore new pathways in the intersection between art, science and technology to develop innovative tools for scientific communication. By modifying the way in which we perceive and conceive our environment, we may be capable to transform our relationship with it, in a deep and significant way. Work results address real challenges, translate them into experiences, promote systematic thinking and encourage active engagement by creativity and curiosity. Flash ACT is strengthening existing structures of our multidisciplinary network, to promote new initiatives around artistic creation and scientific communication in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

Moldova: MoldArte - making visible a new public culture of the Republic of Moldova

MoldArte aims to grow a new public cultural scene of the Republic of Moldova, capable of addressing the current social and political issues, and increase cultural participation. The digital platform functions both as a networking tool and a resource-bank. The programme addresses challenges faced by the independent scene, and aims to raise awareness of the common interests of independent and institutional stakeholders in Moldova and abroad, with a view of a more democratic and inclusive understanding of public culture. It engages EUNIC partners in cultural relations with hands-on local mediation and international facilitation, and joint ownership for the curatorial direction of the platform.

Peru: AfrOeste

AfrOeste is an exchange, learning and promotion network for the contemporary creative arts of the Afro-descendant people of Latin America that builds a bridge between both sides of the Atlantic. A platform that mixes practice and the re-value of contemporary cultural expressions of one of the largest and more diverse populations in the continent—one with a complicated past and cultural richness—with the networks of international cooperation in existence in European cultural institutions. A work alliance based on the equality between creators and institutions, with a bottom-up approach, and a willingness to bring to the public the artistic expressions of Afro-descendants.

South Africa: Right To Speak. Fostering South-North exchange through poetry on human rights and social issues

"Right To Speak” leverages the power of digital to create spaces enabling young poets across oceans to speak, learn and grow together while supporting and building capacity for local organisations for sustained impact. A catalogue of export-ready local poets will be designed to broker connections with international curators looking to book local talent. Further connections between Europe and SA will be created through various hybrid events and co-productions using poetry as a vehicle to drive conversations around human rights among young people. A series of workshops and masterclasses ensures skills are developed and poets and organisations sustainably acquire key skills and knowledge.

Tajikistan: Sayohati Sabz (‘Green Journey’)

Tajikistan is a mountainous country in Central Asia and home to some of the most enchanting and untarnished natural landscapes on the planet. It is also one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to the impacts of climate change, where landslides and extreme weather have devastating visible consequences for the mostly rural and impoverished population in remote mountainous villages. Sayohati Sabz (GreenJourney)-further GJ is an art project that transcends geographical boundaries, taking remote communities and local and international art activists on a journey together to explore the shared vulnerability of humanity to climate change, and the need to build shared cross-border resilience.

Tanzania: Umoja (Unity in Swahili)

UMOJA embraces the belief that collaboration brings innovation, cultural understanding and uplifts the creative economy. The project will repurpose an abandoned public art space and launch digital platforms to bring visibility to urban and contemporary art in Dar es Salaam, one of the fastest growing cities in Africa. UMOJA encompasses an innovative multidisciplinary art residency that opens up cultural dialogue between East African (EA) and European (EU) artists and promotes gender balance in the arts. The project is managed by a pioneering network of Tanzanian and European cultural institutes, academia and government bodies dedicated to promoting social and cultural cohesion through the arts.

Uruguay: SIN LÍMITES 2022 - Festival Internacional de Artes Escénicas Inclusivas en Uruguay

The UNLIMITED Festival 2022 is the first festival ever in Uruguay which is dedicated to arts and inclusion. UNLIMITED invites inclusive artistic companies from Europe and South America; its program includes performances, art residencies, workshops and research on inclusivity. By doing so, the festival aims to address key challenges that people with disabilities experience in accessing cultural life. From the beginning on, it involves communities to participate in developing all festival policies and structures, with the long term perspective of improving autonomy for people with disabilities. Not to forget celebration as an important part: All festival party events will be barrier-free.

Selection committee

• Joan Álvarez (Creator and director of the Chair of Cultural Diplomacy of the European Institute of Internatonal Studies and Director of the Cultural Diplomacy and International Cultural Relations course at the Ortega y Gasset University Institute)
• Marijana Cvetković (Independent cultural manager and co-founder of the Platform for theory and practice of the commons, University of Arts in Belgrade)
• Natasha Ginwala (Curator and writer, Associate Curator at Gropius Bau, Berlin and Artistic Director of Gwangju Biennale 2020 with Defne Ayas. Artistic Director of Colomboscope)
• Sabine Longin (Counsellor of Cooperation and Culture at the French Embassy in Doha, former Deputy Director, Giacometti Foundation)
• Ayeta Wangusa (Executive Director of Culture and Development East Africa (CDEA), creative thought leader, mentor, writer, researcher)