Deadline: 22 October 2018
Culture Resource has launched a program entitled “Wasl” to support independent cultural organizations against the backdrop of political, social, economic and cultural challenges that hamper the ability of organizations, initiatives and individuals engaged in culture and the arts in the Arab region.
The new program is inspired by the desire to create new spaces for addressing the commonly shared difficulties that obstruct the development of such organizations, initiatives and individuals while remaining sensitive for their particular contextual properties and open to new individual or multilateral experiences.
Wasl aspires to empower the cultural sector in the Arab region and to build bonds between cultural organizations across this region. Towards these ends, the program promotes networking between independent cultural organizations, strengthens the culture of collaboration and mutual learning between them by supporting collaborative projects, and organizes training workshops that engage the principles and methods of “peer learning.” A more general end is to help generate a critical and effective cultural force to press for the values of freedom of creativity and social justice.
Funding Information
- The program offers a seed Funding of 7,000USD to support a collaborative cultural project between two organizations.
- A participatory training workshop.
- A one-week working visit for each partner in the city in which the other partner’s organization is located.
- Professional accompaniment of the collaboration progress through its various phases.
- A set of tools to support the professional and institutional development and the management of the collaborations.
- Becoming part of a network of cultural organizations, and a closing networking event in one Arab city.
Eligibility Criteria
- This program is open to cultural and artistic organizations funded and directed by artists and/or cultural actors based in Arab countries (regardless of ethnicity and citizenship).
- One of the applicant organizations must be a legally registered, mid-size organization. The partner must be an independent cultural and artistic organization and/or initiative, regardless of its size and budget.
- The applicant organizations proposing the collaborative project must be from two different countries or two different regions of the same country separated by borders (created, for example, by foreign occupation or political partition) regardless of whether these borders are internationally recognized.
- The applicant partner organizations must propose a concept for a joint project that is both original and feasible. It is preferable if the proposed projects are interdisciplinary and aspire to be sustainable.
- The application must be signed by the directors of each of the applicant organizations even if the directors, themselves, are not to be the actual participants in the program. Each director is expected to endorse the participation of a member of his/her organization and must commit to supporting that participant through the duration of the program which lasts 15 months.
- Note: organizations that are currently benefiting or have previously benefited from the Abbara and Tandem/Shaml programs are encouraged to apply to Wasl program.
How to Apply
Applicants must fill the application form in Arabic and send it via e-mail at the address given on the website.
For more information, please visit WASL.