Through our funding programmes, partnerships and cultural policy work, we aim to stimulate the development of art and cultural life and ensure flexible frameworks for new transnational collaborations.
Opstart is the Nordic Culture Fund’s investment in the initial phases of artistic and cultural projects. The programme supports the joint development of new and promising project ideas, with a view to strengthening the Nordic ambitions of the projects. You can apply for up to DKK 25,000, and there is no requirement for co-financing. Opstart has a rolling application deadline, and you will receive a reply within 20 working days.
Opstart accepts applications until November 17 2023.
In 2024 Opstart accepts applications Jan. 8 – May 24, and Aug. 12 – Nov. 15.
Globus is our major thematic initiative towards 2024. With Globus, we are turning our gaze outwards, bringing art and culture into global arenas, and giving artists and cultural practitioners new opportunities to seek support. The focus is on collaborations that simultaneously embrace both the local and the global.
The Nordic Culture Fund continues the cooperation with Göteborg Book Fair in 2023. This year, the fund is involved both as a co-host of the Nordic Summit on Literary Policy on the 27th of September, as well as hosting a seminar on the Future of International Cultural Cooperation on the opening day of the fair. Göteborg Book Fair is one of the largest cultural events in the Nordics, lasting four days, from September 28 through October 1.
As Director of the Nordic Culture Fund, Maria Mediaas Jørstad will contribute to the further development of the Fund’s forward-looking efforts to strengthen Nordic cultural cooperation. She will be responsible for managing the day-to-day operations and the secretariat in Copenhagen.
On the 6th of October, the WHO Regional Office for Europe held an international conference on art and health in Copenhagen. Through specific efforts and projects, the one day conference explored the possibility for membership countries in all of Europe to implement art based interventions in health care. The Nordic Culture Fund participated in the conference as part of an ongoing partnership with WHO.
Thursday the 31st of August the Nordic Culture Fund hosted a “Future seminar” about the Nordic cultural cooperation, together with the Swedish Embassy in Copenhagen. The program of the evening featured musical and literary performances, conversations, and speeches. The circumstance of the event is the departure of Benny Marcel, the Fund’s Director for the past 8 years, and his passing of the responsibility to the new Director, Maria Mediaas Jørstad.
Reflections – art culture politics society has come into being as a result of the Nordic Culture Fund’s ambition to expand the view of art and culture policy and develop an understanding of art and the importance of culture in society. The book was published in June 2021.
Contemporary puppetry network Nordic-UA will support Ukrainian puppetry artists by bringing together puppeteers from the Nordic region and Ukraine for a series of workshops that will focus on artistic exchange and common European values such as democracy in the arts and artistic diversity.
The newsletter brings you for example news about the Fund's funding programmes and other initiatives.
The Nordic Culture Fund awards grants worth approximately DKK 29 million every year.
The Fund receives 1,400 applications every year.
Every year approximately 180 receive Project Funding, 105 receive Opstart and about 57 receive Puls funding.