Creative Europe projects: Paradiso & Re-Imagine Europe

The publication Creative Europe 2014 - 2020 gives an overview of the Dutch participation in the Creative Europe programme during this period. It not only shows the relevant statistics but also offers background information to the projects that were funded under this initiative. Re-Imagine Europe is one of these successful projects. Annette Wolfsberger coordinates this project on behalf of Paradiso.

“We collaborate with ten European organisations as part of the Re-Imagine Europe project. Our partners are diverse with regard to scale and activities but we share the same interest in interdisciplinary, experimental art. The goal of this project is to produce contemporary art and to create opportunities for artists, makers and thinkers. I think we’ve been very successful at this. At the end of the project, it will have resulted in fifty artist residencies, eighty commissioned works across Europe, twenty pilot projects about audience development, eighty workshops for artists and the public, and the production of more than 230 digital releases such as podcasts, essays, articles and video documentation of artworks."

"Besides developing new international works through residencies and commissions and promoting knowledge and talent through workshops and symposiums, this project also has a strong focus on audience development, to which we have given our own spin. For instance, we experimented with projects such as performances and workshops aimed at specific target groups. As an example, our Croatian partner organised an improvised music workshop for Croatian children and Syrian refugee children. We always look at the local context, what are we responding to? The partners subsequently discuss their different approaches.

The fact that we are locally embedded is another advantage of this project. Take the curator working for our Norwegian partner, Bergen Kunsthall, for example. He wanted to find out how to make the institute more accessible to a new audience and in response, the Kunsthall’s youth organisation set up a collaboration project with an association for the blind. Through Re-Imagine Europe, the curator was put in touch with the British partner Lighthouse to develop this idea further, geared towards local needs. One of the results is a podcast."

"Anyone who is familiar with Creative Europe is aware of the administrative side of this programme, once you have been selected. This is one of the challenges of such a programme, since you need financial clout and administrative and organisational capability to realise such a project. So your project application had better include a fair amount of money and time for this. But it is absolutely worth it, also if you look at other European countries with a very different public infrastructure. Once you have been selected by Creative Europe, it can create a leverage effect on other funds that will be more likely to support your project. For Paradiso, Re-Imagine Europe provides an opportunity for more collaboration across Europe and to be an international driving force for research and development."

"The project is nearly completed but we are planning to submit a new application to Creative Europe. This project has resulted in so many wonderful joint productions and many very special exchanges between partners in these past four years, and the feedback from both artists and the public has been extremely positive.
I would advise other organisations to invest a lot of time in getting to know your partners. We lost two partners during the period this project was running but we also gained two. You have to be aware that this is something that can happen. Make sure you have a network of trust given that you have to collaborate with your partners for periods lasting from two to four years, even when things may be difficult.
Our collaboration works because it is based on a shared interest with mutual respect between the partners, plus the conviction that the collaboration is worthwhile. The commitment of our partners and how much they have invested in this project is just incredible.”

Project: Re-Imagine Europe
Project manager: Stichting Paradiso Amsterdam
Dutch partners: Stichting Paradiso Amsterdam; Stichting Sonic Acts, Amsterdam
Participating countries: Netherlands, Austria, Slovakia, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Croatia, Norway, Spain.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary
Duration: 1 November 2017 – 30 September 2021
Scheme: Large scale collaboration projects
Allocation Creative Europe: €2,000,000

Are you interested in participating in the Creative Europe Culture programme? Please contact our advisor Albert Meijer.

Read this article in Dutch