Cultural and Artistic Responses to Environmental Change

The Prince Claus Fund and the Goethe-Institut announce a new joint Call for Proposals: Cultural and Artistic Responses to Environmental Change.

Our environment undergoes rapid and dramatic changes. Our forests and wildlife are disappearing. Our air and oceans are increasingly polluted and sea levels are rising, along with the incidence of extreme weather phenomena. While causes and consequences are being hotly debated by politicians and scientists for decades, the most affected people are often those who are least able to stop the process.

Cultural practitioners, artists, architects and designers in many parts of the world are initiating and exchanging ideas and rethinking responses to environmental change, while actively engaging their communities. But now even more than ever we need the arts and culture to help us respond; to inspire and motivate us by offering new ideas that challenge our perceptions and change our habits through introducing transdisciplinary and multispecies perspectives.

This call for proposals seeks to support initiatives from Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe that enable local communities as well as global institutions to engage with cultural changes caused by anticipated as well as present changes of nature and our environment through contemporary artistic and cultural interventions. We encourage ground-breaking cultural initiatives by individual artists, creative professionals as well as cultural organisations; especially initiatives that express how the arts can propose solutions to environmental issues and create alternatives that support sustainability and the preservation of the environment as well as foster global exchange of new ideas.

We are specifically looking to support initiatives that:

– Employ creativity to re-imagine a more sustainable world, and provide space for different perspectives within the sustainability discussion

– Promote the vital role that arts and culture play in mobilizing communities to raise awareness

– Support concrete cultural initiatives that enable local impact while encouraging a global culture of sustainability

– Encourage out of the box initiatives by artists and cultural practitioners looking to re-imagine conventional approaches to environmental sustainability

– Support the development of artistic and creative initiatives that reinforce and rethink traditional knowledge and methods as a means to promote sustainability

– Stimulate and inspire communities to use sustainable materials and resources within their own contexts and practices

With this call for proposals we would like to invite artists and cultural practitioners to envision the future that is more environmentally friendly for our planet, and to propose their cultural/artistic responses to how we can jointly get there. We would like to challenge all interested in this call to create innovative concepts that link artistic cultural engagement to environmental sustainability.

The Prince Claus Fund and the Goethe-Institut will support initiatives within the financial range of €15.000 – €20.000.

The deadline for the submission of project applications is Tuesday, September 25, 2018 at 17:00h (CET).

Please send filled out application forms with supporting materials to proposals@princeclausfund.nl. Only completed digital applications in the official application form, sent to the email address above and received before the deadline will be considered. Please see below, under downloads, details about the Guidelines and Eligibility as well as the Application Form.

About the Prince Claus Fund

The Prince Claus Fund has a track record of 20 years of excellence in supporting cultural and artistic initiatives in the most challenging spaces. We have been a successful actor and liaison in the arts and culture sectors globally, generating possibilities for critical discussion and boosting creative expression. Because of its track record and autonomy, the Fund is seen as a global leader in supporting independent cultural initiatives of the highest quality with a broad social impact. Additionally, our geographical spread has allowed us to accrue an invaluable, extensive network of local contacts – artists, cultural practitioners, institutions and experts.

About the Goethe Institute

The Goethe-Institut is the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany with a global reach. With our network of 159 institutes around the world we promote knowledge of the German language abroad and foster international cultural cooperation. We convey a comprehensive image of Germany by providing information about cultural, social and political life in our nation. Our cultural and educational programmes encourage intercultural dialogue and enable cultural involvement. They strengthen the development of structures in civil society and foster worldwide mobility.

The complete guidelines and the application form are available here.