In response to the continuing restrictions on travel and physical gatherings due to Covid-19, Mobility First! is offering virtual collaboration grants to artists and arts managers from Asia and Europe to jointly create new works or texts. The aim is to create opportunities for international cultural exchange and professional connections at a time of very limited face-to-face encounters.

Activities should focus on the following areas:

• The role and value of artists/arts in a time of crisis: Activities that raise awareness of the significance and contribution of artists and the arts in bringing people together and nurturing positive social change in times of uncertainty.

• The arts in crisis: Activities that respond to challenges in the arts in the time of Covid-19, particularly the loss of livelihood of many artists and cultural practitioners, disruption of traditional business models of arts organisations, unequal opportunities, and the current debates on the arts as ‘non-essential’ services in a crisis.

• International cultural collaborations in the new normal: Activities that inspire new and innovative approaches to international collaborations in the time of physical distancing and restricted mobility. International collaborations that involve cross-sectional themes between arts/culture and sustainability and climate change, technology, economy, public health are welcome.

• Art and well-being: Activities that contribute to the growing body of knowledge on the intersection between art and mental health. Activities that demonstrate improving health and well-being through the arts.

Types of collaborations
Artists and arts managers will be supported through the following types of virtual or hybrid (virtual + on-site) collaborations:

1. Artmaking (e.g. digital art, performances, literature/storytelling, etc.)
2. Practice-led research
3. Mentorship programmes
4. Online workshops or trainings (for applications from arts organisations)
5. Virtual or hybrid conferences or forums (for applications from arts organisations)
6. Artists’ or writers’ residencies (for applications from arts organisations)
    

Eligible applicants

1. Individual: artists and arts managers, citizens of any ASEM partner country, forming a team of 2 or 3 collaborators;
2. Organisations: arts organisations based and operating in any ASEM partner country, applying on behalf of 3 to 6 collaborators.

Grant
Each selected participant will be awarded a grant of SGD 500 (~310 EUR). The total grant amount depends on the number of participants in the collaboration.
 

Deadline: from 1 April 2021, applications are accepted on rolling basis.

Read more here.