Mobility funding granted for 51 projects

Nordic Culture Point, an institution of the Nordic Council of Ministers which works to support Nordic co-operation within the area of culture, received 159 applications requesting a total of EUR 366,280 in 2019. The programme’s expert panel granted funding to the tune of EUR 114,820 split between 51 trips in the Nordic and Baltic regions.

This round of applications was incredibly varied in terms of genres and topics, with a predominance of applications from the field of dance. To give an example, in April the creative team of dance opera “Wasteland” from Lithuania travelled to an arctic town of Hammerfest in Norway to develop a project “Barents meets Baltic”. In order to interact with the local communities, joint contemporary dance practices were organised and workshops/seminars were held for both professionals and amateurs. In 2021 the Barents artists plan to visit the Baltics with creative activities that were developed jointly in 2020.

Among other Lithuanian applicants was a composer Rūta Vitkauskaitė who will be traveling to Copenhagen in the beginning of 2020 to work on a large and exciting project “In Our Time” with CRAS ensemble of 6 guitarists. The project is related to Doomsday Clock which is reset by internationally acknowledged scientists to warn the public about how close we are to destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making. Every time the Doomsday Clock is set, CRAS ensemble commissions a new Chapter by an international composer. During her stay in Copenhagen Rūta Vitkauskaitė will be working on the Chapter 2.

Mobility funding gives applicants – be they individuals or small groups – access to contacts, skills, and knowledge from different parts of the Nordic and Baltic regions. Funding can be used to present art and culture productions, as well as increase interest in Nordic and Baltic art and culture.

Mobility funding is to cover the travel and/or accommodation expenses of professional artists and cultural practitioners in the Nordic Region and/or Baltic countries.