To commemorate its 20th anniversary in 2017, the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) builds upon its support to cultural mobility over the past 2 decades by launching Mobility First! – ASEF Cultural Mobility Initiative, a new fund that supports the movement of Asian and European artists and cultural professionals in Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) partner countries. UNESCO reiterates that limited availability and access to funding remains a huge challenge for cultural mobility, and ASEF continues its efforts to narrow this gap through its Mobility First! grant.
In its pilot year, Mobility First! has supported the participation of a total of 73 artists and cultural practitioners in the ASEM region for a wide range of capacity building activities, including from networking and pre-creation of artworks (training, study visits, partnership meetings) and artwork creation (artists’ and writers’ residencies) to public presentations (festivals, biennales, conferences).
An equal number of males and females were supported as well as a balanced selection of fields including film, visual arts, contemporary dance, and theatre. In addition, trainings for museum professionals and different kinds of arts managers, including heritage professionals, were also supported. In terms of mobility routes, Asia-to-Europe and intra-Asia routes were prioritised.
In January 2018, ASEF will launch the open call for the 2nd year of Mobility First!. More details will be published on this page.
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