Call for applications: Thoulathy Cross Border Collaboration Projects

Co-funded by the European Union, All-Around Culture aims to foster a vital cultural ecosystem as an enabling environment for social and economic inclusion of young people in seven countries across the Arab region, including Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia, and Libyan and Syrian communities in these countries.

The Thoulathy Cross Border Collaboration Projects programme is looking for 20 cultural organisations from the South and 10 cultural organisations from the North to work together in trios (two South organisations and one North organisation) on a 15-month collaboration project funded up to €40 000 (about $45 000). Throughout the project period, selected participants will receive mentoring and peer support, participate in three international group meetings and join a growing network.

As part of All-Around Culture, Thoulathy initiates and supports collaborations of cultural organisations between the following group of countries which were divided geographically between South and North:

South Countries

Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Western Sahara, and Libyan and Syrian diaspora in these countries.

North Countries

Albania, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Serbia and Turkey, and Libyan and Syrian diaspora in these countries.

Thoulathy aims to:

• Hold a space to create partnerships and exchange knowledge.
• Support building needed capacities to enable cultural organisations to collaborate regionally/internationally using mentorship and peer learning.
• Increase competences for knowledge transfer and intercultural dialogue among cultural organisations.
• Support the mobility of cultural managers and programmers across the Arab region and internationally.
• Support regional and international networking of organisations working with youth, remote areas, and communities in underserved areas.
• Offer further learning activities in coordination with our Ecosystems Academy.

Application process

Interested applicants should apply here before 8 May at 11.59pm CET.

Each trio submits a concept for their collaboration project, both supporting their own organisations’ and communities’ needs, as well as contributing to the programme’s goals as listed above. They will work together for 15 months, developing and implementing their collaboration project.

The collaboration proposal includes:

• A cross-organisational exchange that supports the strategic development and sustainability of the three partners.
• A project concept that serves as a vehicle or space for the learning-by-doing, through which the strategic targets can be met.

The project can include:

• Artistic and cultural productions.
• Festivals, conferences, events etc.
• Mobilities and residencies.
• Toolkits, handbooks etc.
• Any other innovative formats that address the programme goals

How does it work?

After the selection, 10 collaboration trios will join a kick-off meeting by the end of July exact dates TBC in Jordan. With the support of tools and formats facilitating everyone’s participation, the first meeting will focus on the design and planning of the collaboration, including: the cross-organisational exchange through placements to each other's cities or regions, and the collaboration project, which serves as a space for mutual learning and engagement.

Throughout the 15-month project period, participants will meet for networking, workshops and peer-to-peer exchange within their collaborations but also in events facilitated by the Thoulathy team, such as:

• A mid-term reflection of their journeys.
• A final meeting at the end of the programme, to share the outcomes and reflect on the process and share the learnings.

Thoulathy acts on different levels, offering professional development to individuals, as well as supporting organisational change processes and creating a space to experiment with innovative collaboration project ideas or scale proven cross-border initiatives.

Thoulathy is looking for:

Independent cultural NGOs, registered collectives, non-commercial companies, non- hierarchical public institutions, or any other civil society initiative working through culture that:

• Are based in one of the listed South countries or North countries.
• Are well rooted in a local community.
• Have an established professional network.
• Have relevant organisational and financial capacity.
• Have ambition and motivation for international cooperation.
• Have experience and know-how for international cooperation.
• Are ready to commit to providing sufficient working time of a cultural professional with minimum two years of work experience.

“Our main working language is English. Applications in other languages than English will not be accepted,” the organisers said. “We don’t want language to be a barrier and therefore recommend that you join the online calls in order to find a partner who may have more experience applying in English. We are also not judging the applications based on language but on the content. Selection of applicants and invitations to the kick-off meeting will be announced by e- mail to all applicants by the beginning of June 2022.”

View the original call here.