29 Dec 2014

Mobility Funding Guides for 49 countries of Asia and Europe launched!

The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) and On the Move are jointly presenting for the first time, the Mobility Funding Guides for International Cultural Exchange in 49 countries of Asia and Europe.

In addition to the 3rd edition of the Mapping of Funding Opportunities for International Cultural Exchange in Asia, which presents mobility funding resources for 19 Asian countries, this edition also includes the updated guides for 27 countries of the European Union, as well as Norway, Switzerland and the Russian Federation. These guides follow the methodology used in the online ‘Guide for International Funding Opportunities for the Mobility of European artists and culture professionals’, produced in 2011 by the Interarts Foundation, On The Move within the scope of the EU funded project PRACTICS.

The launch of this comprehensive list of resources on mobility in Asia and Europe follows a series of important meetings that have happened in 2013 and 2014. Initiated in 2013 by ASEF with the Platform meeting of Asian and European cultural mobility funders in Prague, Czech Republic (5-6 June 2013) co-organised with the Arts and Theatre Institute-Prague and the Kelola Foundation, the conversation among funders and policy makers has further developed in 2014, with the brainstorming meeting on Access and Reciprocity organised by On the Move in partnership with Asialink and ResArtis in Melbourne, Australia (12 May 2014). The meeting supported by ASEF was part of the Inaugural Meeting of the Asia-Europe-Australia Creative Residency Network (AAECRN) and in conjunction with the IETM Asia Satellite Meeting co-organised by IETM (International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts) and the Australia Council for the Arts.

Among the key findings of the Melbourne meeting was that multiple types of partnerships are necessary at different levels: international, national, regional but also between public and private funders and cultural organisations and artists and cultural professionals. National and international agencies funding mobility should consider the benefits of investing not only on ‘their’ national artists and ‘their’ country but go beyond the idea of “export” and define how to build long-lasting collaborations with different partners at different levels.

Over 50 cultural mobility funders, stakeholders and professionals from Asia, Australia and Europe agreed on the need to reinforce and diversify networks through the support of new types of networks’ initiatives and their potential for connections within the region Australia-Asia-Europe. In this context, the international approach of the mobility funding guides is crucial, as it positions the discourse on the funding of cultural mobility in a global perspective in order to better respond to local needs and interests from the cultural sector.

ASEF and On the Move will continue to work together with the cultural sector and other partner organisations to promote the mobility of artists and cultural professionals in Asia and Europe, in line with the recommendations of Asian and European Culture Ministers (in the framework of the Asia-Europe Meeting/ASEM) also reinforced at the last 6th ASEM Culture Ministers Meeting (Netherlands, October 2014). ASEF and On the Move wish to thank for their information and data support: Arts Network Asia, Japan Center Pacific Basin Arts Communication (PARC), Tokyo Performing Arts Market (TPAM), Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS), Japan Foundation, Australia Council for the Arts, Luxembourg Agency for Cultural Affairs and the following On the Move members – ITI-Germany and IGBK (through their website touring-artists.info), DutchCulture/TransArtists, Arts and Theatre Institute-Czech Republic, Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute-Poland and the Theatre Union of the Russian Federation. The 3rd edition of the Mapping of Funding Opportunities for International Cultural Exchange in Asia is available at http://culture360.asef.org/asef-news/mobility/ All European Guides are downloadable at http://on-the-move.org/funding/europe