About the Fund
The voice of the Nordic region on a global stage
At the Nordic Culture Fund, we work to set the direction for the cultural co-operation of the future. In a time of upheaval, when nations draw in to themselves, art and culture can act as a focal point that opens up, creates links and offers new perspectives – both towards ourselves and towards the world we live in. With our funding programmes, partnerships and cultural policy work, we therefore aim to bring arts and culture into new forms of dialogue, and provide a flexible frameworks for developing new collaborations and initiatives.
Strategy 2019-2025
We emphasise artistic and cultural co-operation as an essential key to the future. The aim of our strategy is therefore to engage even more actors in cultural co-operation, both in the Nordic region and globally.
The strategy has three overall goals:
- We wish to promote production, innovation and communication in art and culture in the Nordic region and globally.
- We wish to promote artistic and cultural networks at all levels of Nordic cultural co-operation.
- We wish to develop and disseminate knowledge of the arts and cultural life, with a view to stimulating the development of cultural policy in the Nordic region.
Part of the Nordic co-operation since 1966
The Nordic Culture Fund has been working with cultural co-operation since 1966, based on an agreement between the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Åland. The Nordic Culture Fund is an independent legal entity associated with the Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers.
We catch trends while they are still new
Since its inception in 1966, the Fund’s main mission has been to grant financial support. Like few others, we have experienced the continuous motion of cultural life, and we know that no two applications are the same.
We currently offer the funding programmes Opstart, Project Funding, Globus Opstart+ and Globus Call. We are constantly learning more about artistic and cultural life, and the possibilities for practitioners to apply for support. In this way, we ensure that our support is both relevant and targeted.
As a Fund, we are willing to take risks and often support the inception and development phases of new artistic and cultural initiatives and networks. Through our various programmes, we currently provide annual support to around 340 cultural projects that build on and develop international and Nordic co-operation.
Facilitator of new networks and knowledge
As a Nordic organisation, we are anchored in both the political system and in the field of performing arts and culture. We therefore have the opportunity to take an active role in facilitating new networks and acting as a link between different actors.
For several years now, we have also worked to create new contexts for the development of cultural policy at Nordic level. We recognise that the role of art and culture in the welfare society has changed and that there is a need to rethink some of the institutional premises and concepts that have long functioned as the self-evident grammar of cultural policy in the Nordic countries.
When, for example, we enter into partnerships across the boundaries of disciplines, interests and national borders, it is all about making visible, developing and disseminating knowledge of arts and culture so that more people can see and understand the vital role that the arts play in our society.
The voice of the Nordic region on a global stage
Our global perspective is not new. The Fund was established as an autonomous organisation shortly after the Second World War, with the aim of working internationally in the Nordic region and beyond.
One of the greatest strengths of art and culture is its limitless potential. We believe that art and culture are capable of taking the lead in building international and global networks that can help us to understand and develop our societies. Through our thematic initiative Globus and our collaborations with global actors, we wish to go beyond the national arena and look at artistic and cultural milieux that are created both locally and globally at the same time.
As part of the 2019-2025 strategy, we have joined forces with a number of actors and organisations on development projects and initiatives that can contribute to new knowledge about the arts and culture field and stimulate policy development in various areas.
Globus is the Nordic Culture Fund’s thematic initiative for 2020-2024, which will provide artists and cultural practitioners with new opportunities to apply for funding for projects that extend beyond the Nordic region.
With Globus, we want to focus on artistic and cultural environments and collaborations that are created locally and globally at the same time.
Reflections – art culture politics society is a cultural policy anthology that builds on the Nordic Culture Fund’s ambition to broaden the perspective on art and cultural policy and develop an understanding of the importance of art and culture in society.
Puls is the Nordic Culture Fund’s music initiative for the years 2017-2022. The initiative has created a network of around 50 Nordic venues and festivals and aims to provide music experiences of high artistic quality to a wider Nordic audience.
Through Handmade, the Fund supported 32 collaborative projects and the development of new project ideas with handcrafts in focus in 2016-2018.
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