Nordic Culture Fund’s Annual Report for 2024

2024 was another year that revealed a large and broad interest in Nordic cultural cooperation. We have seen this both in the large quantity and diversity of applications for the Fund’s support programmes, and in the commitment we have experienced in the work with the Fund’s partnerships and development-oriented initiatives. In a time of global challenges and tensions, the Fund has focused on being an active co-creator of new possibilities and long-term solutions for art and culture – both in the Nordic region and in a global context.

Strategic development possibilities and closer cooperation with the field

In the course of the year, we experienced a growing engagement in collaborations and initiatives focusing on developing the structural and organisational conditions in the arts and culture field, and the possibilities for long-term development.

Today, art and cultural life navigates a complex reality that requires strategic development spaces and a focus on building resilient structures capable of supporting the further development of the field. In this work, we see a need to create closer connections between different levels of funding – local, national and international – and a more holistic understanding of the cultural ecosystem. This requires close dialogue and collaboration with the field.

During the year, we entered into close collaborations and partnerships with a number of stakeholders on specific initiatives. This has provided valuable insights and contributed to the development of areas that help shape the future of art and culture.

We see great potential in further developing the Fund’s partnership work as a strategic framework for long-term development and stronger Nordic collaborations.

Globus – New forms of support and avenues for artistic collaboration and knowledge-sharing

2024 was also the year in which the Fund launched a new funding programme, Globus FORWARD, which supports the further development of Nordic-global artistic networks and collaborations. This form of support marks an important shift towards a more structural and sustainable way of working, where dialogue and knowledge exchange play a central role.

One of the highlights of the year was the Globus Hackathon – Co-creating Preferable Futures for Transnational Arts and Cultural Collaboration in June 2024, in which beneficiaries of the Fund’s Globus programme met to explore new models for collaboration and organisation in the field of arts and culture. The event gave rise to numerous visions for the future, pointing to community-driven initiatives, decentralised forms of organisation and the need for cultural policies to be better adapted to practice, to name a few.

The results of the hackathon have been collected at the Fund’s Globus knowledge platform, which also contains insights from previous initiatives under the Fund’s Globus programme.