European subsidies
Culture is an important theme within the European Union and a diverse range of European funding instruments is available for cultural and creative projects. This can feel like a labyrinth of possibilities in which you can’t immediately find your way back. We’ve compiled an overview here to help you find the right match and discover which organisations might be of interest if you want to work at European level.
The EU’s main cultural funding programme is Creative Europe:
- Creative Europe (2021 – 2027) is the European funding programme for promoting and supporting international cooperation in the cultural, creative and audiovisual sectors. The Creative Europe programme is explained in this short information video by Vleva.
- Culture Moves Europe regularly issues calls for cultural mobility grants within the 40 Creative Europe countries.
There are also many other interesting subsidy programmes within Europe for culture:
- Erasmus+ is the European funding programme for education, youth and sport. Flanders Arts Institute organised an online information session about Erasmus+ for the arts sector. There are 2 points of contact for Erasmus+ programmes. Jint provides information about youth and Epos about adult education.
- Europe is strongly committed to the so-called Structural and Investment Funds, which aim to eliminate economic and social inequalities within the Union. Horizon Europe is the European programme for funding research and innovation. Art and culture sometimes – increasingly – find a place in such programmes.
If you would like help in finding the right subsidies within Europe, you can contact these organisations or services:
- VLEVA (Flemish-European liaison agency) guides you through the subsidy options in the EU programmes. The VLEVA subsidy guide offers support to those seeking grant opportunities under existing EU programmes. Watch the VLEVA video ‘European subsidies for dummies’ here to get an idea.
- The European Commission has published a financing guide that identifies all available funding at EU level for the cultural and creative sectors. It also includes programmes that are not immediately associated with the cultural or creative sectors. The guide consists of various funding opportunities from 21 different EU programmes.
- The Creative Europe Desk Vlaanderen contains information about cultural policy in the European Union and assists you when applying for a subsidy.
- On The Move provides a comprehensive and international overview of possible fundings for cultural mobility through various national and regional funding guides.
To get started with European subsidies, it’s important to develop a European network. This Cultuurloket link contains an extensive overview of organisations, platforms and projects that are active in Europe. We have also listed some of them here:
- Culture Action Europe is an advocacy organisation that aims to promote the place of arts and culture within European policy.
- IETM (International network for contemporary performing arts) is an international cultural network representing the voices of over 500 performing arts organisations and individual professionals working in contemporary performing arts worldwide.
- European Music Council is a non-profit organisation committed to the development and promotion of all genres and types of music in Europe.
- On The Move is a network that spans 24 countries and 50 organisations. It offers free, clear and up-to-date information on cultural mobility.
