The Nordic Culture Fund grants DKK 5 million in Globus funding and extends the initiative through 2025

This year’s Globus Call deadline on September 15th received 128 valid applications. The Fund has decided to grant support to 13 projects, amounting to a total of DKK 4.95 million. The funded projects share the ambition of developing transnational collaborations and networks that create new connections between the Nordics and different parts of the world. The Call has a special focus on projects that work with new and experimental approaches and strive to explore interactions between the local and the global. 

As last year, the Fund has collaborated with an international panel of experts who have provided their recommendations for the selection of projects: 

Offering our international perspectives to the Globus Call and contributing to the final selection of projects has been enriching. On this second edition of Globus, it is very exciting to witness the span of creativity and complexity of the projects that are being developed, as well as the unique and unexpected connections with the Nordic region and wider regions. The submissions have been of high-quality and the number and diversity of applications mirror the commitment that the creators throughout the world have with pressing global matters, such as migration, environmental emergency, as well as deeply local sociocultural aspects of each region. We are certain that Globus will continue fostering opportunities for developing balanced exchanges, networks and creative cooperations, that further develop the interaction between the Nordic and the global, the group states.  

In 2023, the expert panel consisted of Jimena Lara, Chief Officer of Arts and Social Impact, The Anglo Foundation in Mexico; Pooja Sood, Director of Khoj International Artists’ Association in India; Farai Mpfunya, co-founding Executive Director of the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust; Hild Borchgrevink artist, editor and critic; Ouafa Belgacem, Founder and CEO, Culture Funding Watch; and Steven Loft, Vice-President, Indigenous Ways and Decolonization at the National Gallery of Canada. 

More information on the funded projects can be found further down in this news item. 

New phase in Globus in 2024-2025

Globus was launched as the Nordic Culture Fund’s thematic funding initiative in 2020 with a 5-year framework. The initiative has aimed at creating more inclusive and balanced approaches to Nordic and international cultural collaboration and given artists and cultural practitioners new opportunities to obtain funding for projects that extend beyond the Nordic region. The Fund’s board has now decided to extend the initiative for another year, so that work with the funding programmes will continue until 2025. 

Globus is a very central initiative for the Nordic Culture Fund and for our strategic work in developing future pathways for artistic and cultural cooperation. We are experiencing a growing interest towards the programme among a wide range of actors, which shows that Globus meets current needs in the artistic and cultural field, while contributing to important knowledge and to establishment of new international networks. We are pleased that we can now develop the programme further and continue this important work, says Maria Mediaas Jørstad, Director of the Nordic Culture Fund. 

From next year, Globus funding will aim at creating more lasting and sustainable artistic networks and collaboration platforms with Nordic/global relevance. The aim is to support the building of long-term capacity in new and existing collaboration platforms and initiatives that work in a global framework.  

More specifically, the development will mean an adjustment of existing forms of support in the initiative. In the Globus Opstart programme, which supports the early development phases of new international collaboration projects, the criteria will be adjusted at the beginning of the new year to meet the need for greater flexibility and the opportunity to apply for support for the continuation of previously supported initiatives.  

There is often a great deal of uncertainty associated with international artistic and cultural collaborations and network-based organisations that are agile in nature and rooted in environments where there are limited funding opportunities and institutional support. In the next phase, we therefore want to explore possibilities beyond the traditional project funding framework and develop ways to support the long-term ambitions and capacities of the collaborations, which has also been in the DNA of the Globus initiative since its inception, says Anni Syrjäläinen, Senior Advisor at the Nordic Culture Fund and project manager for Globus. 

The annual application rounds, which for the past two years have gone under the name Globus Call, will have a greater focus on supporting the further development of initiatives that have received support before and/or that already have an established or emerging organizational structure and mission, as well as an articulated need to develop their work in a long-term perspective.

Information about the specific criteria and application deadlines will be announced on the Fund’s website in the spring 2024.

Strengthened focus on knowledge and dissemination

In the future, Globus will also include a clearer knowledge track that can contribute to the overall impression and understanding of the initiative. The aim is to provide insights that can support a renewed and nuanced understanding of international cultural cooperation and cultural policy and provide inspiration for new models for international cultural cooperation – also in national contexts.  

As a starting point for this work, the Fund has during the current year facilitated conversations with previously supported projects in Globus to learn more about the projects’ work and to gain insight into both the potentials and challenges associated with global artistic practices and collaborations. The insights gained from this work will be published in an online catalogue on the Fund’s website in early 2024. 

Funded projects in Globus Call 2023

Pedagogies of the Rural, by Laboratorium for Æstetik og Økologi– 400 000 DKK

Pedagogies of the Rural facilitates experimental knowledge sharing across localities and communities in a global network with focus on peripheral art practices, rural community building, land care and alternative pedagogies. The project sees a collaboration between the exhibition project Hosting Lands, and self-organized art-and-community projects situated in the Global South: Harvest School (IN), The Tatsuniya Art Collective (NG), The Rice Brewing Sisters Club (KR) and Escuela de Oficios (PR). 

Sápmi to Aotearoa: Indigenous architecture across the ocean, over the mountain – Considering how Indigenous knowledge systems are embedded deeply in all aspects of how wisdom is shared, by Objectspace – 600 000 DKK

The project looks to create extended opportunities for Sámi and Māori practitioners working within craft and architecture fields to connect, share, and learn. Beginning with learning spaces, the project considers the different iterations of where and how knowledge is exchanged within Indigenous worldviews.

Expanding Theatre Landscapes (ETL), by Para Film & Teater AS – 200 000 DKK

The project Expanding Theatre Landscapes brings together theater artists from Norway, Italy, and Bosnia to create their respective performances under the question: How can we talk about refugees from a European theatre stage today? The theatre artists, along with refugees, will develop, stage and perform the three performances on both sides of the EU’s border wall.

How can craft & design shape the future & social landscape in the African continent, by Nonkululeko Mlangeni – 165 000 DKK

The Craft & Design pop up academy prototype will address how experimentation with ancient techniques, new materials and disruptive approaches can improve the peri-urban environment and sharpen our social consciousness. The aim of the project is to create interest among young people in rural communities by demonstrating to them the possibilities and opportunities that exist within the design and craft space, as well as approaches they can use as a guide to become part of the creative economy.

Sustaining the Otherwise, by The Global Art Project – 400 000 DKK

A research and artistic project about restitution, reparation and transformation, which will take place in multiple locations in Europe and Africa over the next few years, the project offers a space for artists, activists, scholars and writers. Exploring the topic of restitution in relation to both material and immaterial culture, the project focuses on artistic practices, with residencies, talks, conferences, publications, performances and exhibitions on the programme.

The Oven, by Tenthaus – 500 000 DKK

The Oven is a collaborative workspace generated by gathering people and it was born from the curatorial concept of Momentum12. A shared sense of urgency drives the collaboration, pooling knowledge and resources from our experiences in very different contexts. The aim is to explore the lasting impact of gatherings and their effects on global cultural ecosystems through five distinct projects.

The Southeast Asian (SEA) Arts Censorship Database, Phase Two, by ArtsEquator Ltd – 400 000 DKK

A regional project to monitor arts censorship in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam from 1 Jan 2023 – 31 Dec 2024. It is the only monitoring system designed to fit local needs, run by local experts. The findings, reports, and research process will be used to activate meaningful exchanges and dialogues about artistic freedom between artist rights organisations, advocates and international policy makers via an online forum, reports, and other engagements.

GET – (The Good Enough Transformation) Global grassroots cultural organizations for the Green Transition, by Trans Europe Halles – 600 000 DKK

GET is a community of practice bringing together grassroots cultural organizations, an arts and design university and architecture studios from 9 countries, who advocate for the art sector to better integrate traditional wisdom, community engagement, socially and ecologically conscious protocols in the way art spaces are (re)built, designed, and landscaped. GET aims to research, document and develop low cost, low impact, immediately accessible green transformations for art communities worldwide.

Ecologists at Risk (ER)-Residency Cluster Pilot, Helsinki-Tulum (encompassing Caribbean, Central & South America), by Perpetuum Mobile – 500 000 DKK

Building on Artists at Risk (AR), a global residency-network, Perpetuum Mobile opens the first independent Ecologists at Risk (ER)-Residency at Aki Aora, a unique residency in a UNESCO-protected biotope in Tulum, Mexico. Ecologists at Risk (ER) is being developed at the intersection of environmental activism and art/culture, and through exchange and capacity-building at AR/ER-Helsinki, ER-Aki Aora is positioned as the future centre of a first regional ER-Residency Cluster.

Fix+foxy: Global Interactions, by The Association Fix&Foxy – 400 000 DKK

FF’s main vision is to develop conversations about identity and existence in a complex world. Our method is to literally invite the world onto the stage rather than using representation as in much theatre.This requires relationships with partners who can challenge the social, structural and ethical boundaries of our Nordic point of view.

Para-Pedagogies of Resistance, by Erin Manning – 235 000 DKK

The aim of the project is to reorient living and learning in the mode of the para-institutional. In this ethos of “alongsideness”, we develop techniques for research-creation at the intersection of the environmental, conceptual and social ecologies. With a concerted focus on neurodiversity and other ways of knowing, this project is built on the figure of the emissary to develop para-pedagogical experimentation.

Law Shifters in Chile, by Stine Marie Jacobsen – 200 000 DKK

‘Law Shifters’, an art exhibition and project that creates public conversations about democracy, collective emotions and notions of community. Via role-plays and a law machine, the art project engages children and adults in writing their own law proposals. With a team of young lawyers, the project trains the public in future law making. The plan is now to bring this project to more cities and institutions around Chile and to produce a publication and conference with all partners involved.

Mirroring Places – An Archeology of Memorabilia, by Til Vægs – 350 000 DKK

A collaboration between the Brazilian artist Rodrigo Andreolli and the exhibition platform Til Vægs, that works in and for the public housing area AKB Lundtoftegade, Copenhagen, and the performance theatre Teatro Oficina located in Bixiga, Sao Paulo, to realize a site-specific art project that creates a mirroring of the two local areas and their residents – areas pressured by gentrification. And a conference in collaboration with Performative Urbanism – Roskilde University (DK), Concordia University (CAN).