Commission continues to support pilot scheme giving artists opportunities to work across the EU

Today, i-Portunus is launching its third and final call for applications this year. i-Portunus is a pilot project funded by the European Commission providing financial support for artists to work in another country for a period of 15 to 85 days. 

The first and second calls together received more than 2300 applications from individual artists and cultural professionals. A total of 253 people were selected and funded so far. 

The third i-Portunus call is the last chance this year for those in the performing and visuals arts to apply. Following its investment of €1 million this year, the Commission will invest another €1.5 million in similar trials next year. 

The aim is to prepare for 2021 when the mobility of artists is proposed to be a permanent action under the new Creative Europe programme. 

Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Tibor Navracsics, said: “Creating opportunities for more artists to work abroad and create new projects and partnerships is an important part of our work to boost innovation in our cultural and creative sectors and to make them even more competitive. I am pleased that our pilot to test new formats to support the mobility of European artists is in high demand and welcomed by so many. This means that we are making progress towards a key objective included in ournew European Agenda for Culture: to support an ‘Erasmus' scheme for artists.” The third i-Portunus call will be open until 5 September 14:00 CET. (For more information: Christian Wigand – Tel.: +32 229 62253; Joseph Waldstein – Tel.: +32 229 56184)