Deadline: 15-May-25
The Regional Youth Cooperation Office is seeking applications for the Youth Cultural Fund to bring together the cultural scenes from across the region by supporting grass-roots cultural initiatives which will serve as a valuable contribution to foster regional cooperation and mutual understanding of intercultural dialogue, peacebuilding and reconciliation process.
Aligned with the RYCO Strategic Plan 2024-2027, the Western Balkans Youth Cultural Fund is set to make a direct and impactful contribution acrossthree strategic priority domain:
- fostering youth opportunities,
- supporting multipliers, and
- advocating and raising awareness.
Objectives
- Operating through a targeted approach that encompasses cultural practitioners and civil society organizations active in the cultural realm, the Fund aims to achieve two primary objectives:
- elevate the scope of opportunities available to young individuals within the cultural and creative sector of the Western Balkans; and
- reinforce cultural cooperation within the region, particularly among youth-oriented CSOs in the cultural field and cultural practitioners.
- The general objective of the WB Youth Cultural Fund Call for Proposals is to support individuals (cultural practitioners, artists, etc.) and civil society sector (NGOs) in the Western Balkans to foster reconciliation, peacebuilding, regional cooperation, and intercultural learning by providing young people with opportunities that create space for increased understanding, dialogue and mutual learning, across communities and RYCO Contracting Parties.
Lots
- LOT 1
- Artists and cultural practitioners holding legal residence in the Western Balkans/within one of the RYCO Contracting Parties.
- LOT 2
- CSOs registered in the Western Balkans/within one of the RYCO Contracting Parties.
Thematic Areas
- The thematic areas under this call are presented below:
- Thematic Area 1: Peacebuilding and Reconciliation
- RYCO believes that building true and enduring reconciliation involves processes that bring together individuals, groups, and societies burdened by past or present conflicts. It also aims to address negative representations and perceptions of ‘the other’ through shared experience, cooperation, and ongoing exchange, new pathways can be built to reconcile people who would otherwise remain trapped in the past.
- Through projects focused on this thematic area, they are looking to support projects that tackle topics of region’s past and (mis)interpretation of past and challenge inherited narratives through guided processes, in a safe environment, that allows for constructive dealing with the past, intercultural learning and dialogue between individuals from diverse communities within their Contracting Parties and across the Western Balkan region.
- Under this thematic area, RYCO acknowledges the following sub-areas that applicants can incorporate in their project proposals: intercultural learning and dialogue, constructively dealing with the past, and countering hate speech.
- Thematic area 2: Youth empowerment and engagement in society
- This thematic area aims to empower youth and their civic engagement in society. The development of social capital among young people and the facilitation of their awareness, ability, and motivation to participate actively in society is a major RYCO commitment. RYCO believes that youth should be among the drivers of democratic development, social and economic prosperity, and European integration in an increasingly open Western Balkans region.
- They are especially interested in supporting projects that amplify youth voices, allow them to openly discuss their grievances, and search for common ground and issues that young people share across communities and RYCO’s Contracting Parties. They encourage applicants to engage their target group beyond the role of participants and invite or allow them to actively contribute to all stages of the project, including project design. They welcome ideas that build sustainable platforms and opportunities for youth participation which will outlast the implementation of their specific projects.
- Other cross-cutting thematic areas that RYCO expects project applicants to incorporate in their proposals are social inclusion, social cohesion and youth policy.
- Thematic Area 1: Peacebuilding and Reconciliation
Main Sectors
- Architecture
- Cultural Heritage
- Design and Fashion Design
- Creative industry
- Literary
- Music
- Performing arts
- Visual arts
Funding Information
- Cultural practitioners can apply for grants of up to 3,000 EUR, while CSOs can apply for grants of up to 6,000 EUR.
Eligible Activities
- Examples of the activities that will be supported through this open call, are the following:
- Arts, theater, film, music, photography, poetry festivals and exhibitions;
- Networking and exchange, artistic and cultural events;
- Mobility exchange art events;
- Educational activities, seminars, trainings and capacity-building opportunities for artists;
- Vocational art, pottery, ceramics, woodworking, fashion;
- Art colonies;
- Street performance, Music, Dancing, drawing, painting, photography, animation, etc.
Eligibility Criteria
- LOT 1 is dedicated to young cultural practitioners and cultural practitioners that work with youth or youth cultural practitioners.
- It is aimed to support creative artistic solutions for social and political issues in Western Balkans which are identified to have a negative impact on the local community. Only legal residents of the listed RYCO CPs (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia) are eligible to take part in the project.
- This LOT does not require establishing partnership, although cooperation with other cultural practitioners and their involvement as collaborators presents an added value to the project proposal.
- Applicants:
- Young cultural practitioners (young people from 18 to 30)
- Cultural practitioners that work with youth or youth cultural practitioners (cultural practitioners who don’t belong to the category of youth (can be 30+ years old), but who work with youth, aged 14-30 in the field of culture)
- LOT 2 is dedicated to civil society organizations working with youth/youth organizations working in the field of culture in amounts up to 6000 EUR per project, supporting creative artistic solutions for social issues in Western Balkans.
- Applicants:
- Youth CSOs that work in the field of culture
- CSOs working with young people in the field of culture
- Partners:
- The focus of this LOT 2 is on sharing best practices and networking, organization of events and festivals of wider regional scope, etc. CSOs (non-profit making organizations) from Western Balkans are eligible to take part in project implementation as PARTNERS and contribute to the implementation of the project supported within the LOT 2.
- Minimum number of partners is 1 and partners should be from different RYCO Contracting Party.
- Applicants:
For more information, visit Regional Youth Cooperation Office.