Announcement
To all BAC grantees, applicants, friends and partners:
Following the closure of ArtAngle in September 2016, the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) has assumed the implementation and the direct management of the Balkan Arts and Culture Fund (BAC), jointly funded by ECF and Swiss Development Agency (SDC), for the already contracted collaboration projects until their successful implementation by the end of 2017.
There will be no future calls for the BAC.
Please note that all of ECF’s grant programmes (like STEP, Tandem, Idea Camp etc.) are open to partners across wider Europe. We hope that you may be able to benefit from these grants.
About the Balkans Arts and Culture Fund
The Balkans Art and Culture Fund (BAC) operated in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. This regional fund has aimed to promote independent cultural scene in the Western Balkans by providing support to socially relevant projects in the field of culture and art, and by encouraging participation and capacity building of cultural workers. At the same time, BAC seeks to facilitate the establishment of a sustainable funding framework for the independent cultural scene.
From 2006 to June 2013, the Balkan Incentive Fund for Culture (BIFC) supported collaborative artistic and cultural projects conceived by organisations within, or cooperating with, the countries of the Western Balkans. The funding stream aimed to strengthen relations across the Western Balkans, as well as strengthening the region’s relations with Europe.
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BIFC received support from the Open Society Foundations, and was supported in particular by the Open Society Arts and Culture Program and the national foundations in the region.
ECF would like to thank Asociacija for running the local BIFC hub between 2010 and 2013 and for providing assistance and advice to many BIFC applicants over the past few years. This hub has offered a local contact point based in Ljubljana and was supported by the Slovenian Ministry of Culture.