APEXchanges Arts Mobility for Central and Eastern Europe
What is APEXchanges?
APEXchanges is a fund for young artists and art organizers from Central and Eastern Europe, initiated and coordinated by the European Cultural Foundation. It supports joint cross-border projects emerging in the sectors of visual arts (painting, sculpture, photography, media arts) and performing arts (theatre, dance, music) by financing travel costs.
The term "APEX" is borrowed from the travel industry, where it refers to less expensive tickets. In this spirit, APEXchanges aims to support practical, inexpensive solutions to mobility for young individual artists and art organizers from Central and Eastern Europe.
APEXchanges consists of two types of grants
- the link-up travel grant
- the KPN project travel grant
Why APEXchanges?
Cultural contacts between Central, East and West European countries during the communist era were controlled, centralized and very exclusive. Most artists and art organizers did not have the opportunity to meet colleagues and engage in artistic exchanges in an open, informal atmosphere, and collaboration on a voluntary basis was virtually impossible. Currently, the cultural sector in Central and Eastern Europe faces other barriers. High travel costs -in relation to most salaries- are an important factor that make cultural exchanges on a non-institutional level still very difficult. This leaves little room for initiatives to develop from this region, and most travel and exchange is largely dependent upon invitations by Western-based initiatives. The APEXchanges link-up travel grant and the KPN project travel grant aim to fill this gap.
The Link-up Travel Grant
The link-up travel grant supports travel costs for young individual artists and art organizers from Central and Eastern Europe to make contacts and to work with colleagues from other European countries in exploring and planning projects based on cooperation and exchange. Grants could be awarded to projects related to:
- meetings for planning joint cross-border projects
- cross-border partnership projects
- network activities and meetings
- training programmes and workshops
KPN Project Travel Grant
The KPN project travel grant is geared to artistic projects initiated and carried out by young artists and arts organizers, working and living in Central and Eastern Europe. Projects should be in the visual or performing arts sector, cover a limited time span, involve artists or art organizers from Europe and take place in Central or Eastern Europe. The KPN project travel grant combines two types of support:
- travel support, covering travel costs of invited colleagues from Central, Eastern or Western Europe
- start-up support, covering a part of the preparatory costs (salaries and overheads excluded).
The largest part of the grant has to be used to cover travel costs, up to one-third of the grant can be used
to cover start-up costs.
Grants vary between US$ 1500 and 2500 and could be awarded to projects related to:
- artistic co-productions
- workshops and training
How to apply to the APEXchanges Link-up Travel Grant and the KPN Project Travel Grant?
An application form for either grant can be obtained from the APEXchanges coordinator and should be returned at least two months before the start of the project.
For the application we request the following information (in French or English):
1 About yourself
- curriculum vitae, including your personal details, address, telephone, fax, E-mail, date of birth, studies and working experiences
2 Financial information
- the budget of your project, including travel(s), accommodation, visa(s), per diems and other project costs, and an explanation of how other expenses are covered
- the price (in US$) of the cheapest ticket(s) possible and an explanation of the chosen type of transport
- banking details with name, address and swiftcode of the bank and the name, address and account number of the account holder
- an explanation of why it is financially necessary to receive an APEXchanges grant
3 Background of the project
- date of the project
- an outline of the project and its anticipated results
- for a link-up travel grant: name and address of the partner abroad
- for a KPN project travel grant: a description of the organization, the curricula vitae of the invited colleagues including an explanation why it is important to invite them
4 Information on APEXchanges
- the name, address, telephone and fax number of the person or organization from which you received information on APEXchanges
The procedure of APEXchanges
All applications will be reviewed by the APEXchanges evaluation committee. If this committee awards you a grant, you will receive the reimbursement of the (travel) expenses after your trip. In order to be able to transfer the money, we must receive by mail a written request for payment, the original ticket(s) and a final report describing the project and indicating its major achievements and its potential future developments. In the case of a project travel grant we must also receive copies of the receipts and a final financial report. Any printed matter resulting from the project should contain the APEXchanges logo.
No support for:
- travel costs related to postdoctoral study or long-term study
- research projects
- touring expenses
Send your applications to:
APEXchanges Coordinator (Madelon Cabooter)
European Cultural Foundation
Jan van Goyenkade 5
1075 HN Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Telephone: +31.20.676.02.22
Fax: +31.20.675.22.31
E-mail: apexchanges@eurocult.org
Application Form
