Deadline: 9-Jul-25
The Art Explora is seeking nominations from all European cultural organizations, artistic sectors for its European Award to support innovative practices in audience access, participation and engagement that can be shared across Europe.
Open to all non-profit European cultural organisations, the European Award encourages new forms of audience engagement and participation in arts and culture, supporting innovative projects, across all art forms, that can be shared, replicated and scaled across Europe. Working against all social, economic and geographic barriers, the Award encourages access to arts and culture for everyone, and champions new dialogues between arts and audiences:
- They believe in stimulating new forms of audience engagement and participation, increasing access to the arts, and supporting projects that will create a meaningful legacy across Europe.
- Innovation comes from all sectors and art forms. They encourage cultural projects that can be shared, replicated and scaled across Europe.
- They believe collaboration is the key to success, and they encourage partnerships within and beyond the cultural and artistic sector.
- To ensure that support is tailored to the scales of different cultural organisations, regardless of theirsector or location, Awards are based on the organisations’ annual expenditure.
Objective
- The objective is to encourage innovation and experimentation to develop, diversify and encourage audience participation within the arts and cultural sector.
Prize Information
- The total amount of the European Award is €180,000, divided into 5 Awards that will support the most innovative practices.
- Applicants are invited to apply to one of these 3 categories based on the organisation’s annual expenditure:
- Category 1: Award of €30,000 (for cultural organisations with up to €500,000 annual expenditure);
- Category 2: Award of €40,000 (for cultural organisations from €500,000 to €2 million annual expenditure );
- Category 3: Award of €50,000 (for cultural organisations with over €2 million annual expenditure).
- By submitting their application, candidates automatically become eligible for the Special Jury Award and the Audience Choice Award, each worth €30,000.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must be registered as non-profit cultural institutions or organisations, from the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Northern Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia).
- The European Award is now also open to Ukraine.
- Only one application is allowed per cultural organisation.
Selection Criteria
- The jury will pay particular attention to the following criteria:
- Innovation & engagement: ability to demonstrate innovative audience engagement, participation and access to arts and culture.
- Partnership: ability to collaborate or develop partnerships within and beyond the cultural and artistic sector, for example education, health, etc.
- Replicability: ability of the project to be shared, replicated and scaled across Europe. A clear methodology may be proposed in the application as a model that may inspire other organisations.
- Impact & reach: ability to assess the project’s impact based on the quality of audience engagement, the number of participants involved, and its effectiveness in reaching underserved communities.
Application Requirements
- Applicants can submit:
- a new project proposal
- an existing project with a new innovative dimension.
- Applications must be submitted in French or English:
- The project manager’s contact details.
- Details of the cultural organisation: organisation type, organisation description, legal entity, number of people working on the project.
- A complete document presenting the project (max. 5 pages) for which the application is made specifying:
- Project objectives and summary
- Priority Target audience
- Project partners
- How the project can be replicated or scaled
- Timeline and delivery schedule
- Photos and videos of the project (if available), which can be used for communications (free of rights), with the associated credits directly in the document caption.
For more information, visit Art Explora.