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Grants
The Cultural Foundation to support arts with at least a million-euro coronavirus funding
16.9.2020
The Finnish Cultural Foundation, in its October round of applications, is distributing additional funding of at least one million euros to art organisations. The funding is intended for organisations in the field of art to sustain their operations during the state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic. Eligible applicants include registered organisations engaged in regular activities in the art sector that fall outside the Financing Act, such as theatre companies, orchestras, dance groups, visual arts events and festivals, who due to the coronavirus pandemic have temporarily lost their operational capacity and, with it, their income.
– The pandemic has hit organisations active in the cultural and events sector particularly hard, and support is needed. The Cultural Foundation for their part is looking to help high-quality art organisations around Finland to withstand the pandemic and remain operational during the period of uncertainty, explains Jari Sokka, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation.
The additional grants will be distributed in even ten-thousand-euro sums between 20.000 – 50.000 euros. The grants can be used, for example, to pay salaries or to cover the rental expenses of rehearsal spaces. The grant decisions will be announced to applicants in mid-December and the additional grants paid out within the current calendar year, unlike other grants in the October round of applications.
This March already, the Finnish Cultural Foundation provided half a million euros as emergency aid through the Arts Promotion Centre Finland Taike to assist arts and culture professionals adversely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. At that time, the combined funding of Taike, the Ministry of Education and Culture, and a number of Finnish Foundations reached 1,5 million euros. In addition, this spring, the Cultural Foundation through its regional funds distributed a further half a million euros of additional coronavirus funding.
In 2021, the Cultural Foundation will award a total of at least 43 million euros in grants, of which about 26 million euros in the Central Fund October round of applications and 13 million in the regional fund January round. The rest will be awarded e.g. through pools and in the Foundation’s March and August rounds. Including the Art Testers and other projects, the total funding of the Cultural Foundation to culture during the financial year will come up to about 50 million euros.
The Central Fund grant applications are open from 1 to 30 October 2020. Applications can be submitted at the Online Application Service which closes on the deadline date at 4 pm Finnish time (EET).
Guidelines for the million-euro additional funding to art organisations
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