AEC is proud to announce that it secured the new Creative Europe grant for European networks that will provide financial support to the association for the period 2025-2028 following the ARTEMIS project.

Creative Europe is the European Union’s framework programme aimed at supporting the cultural and creative sectors. It seeks to safeguard and promote Europe’s cultural diversity and to enhance the competitiveness of these sectors, contributing to sustainable economic growth and job creation. AEC has benefitted previously from this programme, and in particular from its strand “Support to European Networks” to complete the AEC-SMS project (Strengthening Music in Society, 2017-2021) and the ARTEMIS project (AEC – Empowering Artists as Makers in Society, 2022-2025), which is soon coming to an end. 

For this new grant, the AEC office team and the AEC Council produced a project proposal in line with both the priorities of the European Commission and AEC’s strategic focuses for the next few years. 

The funded activities will address the following priorities (like all other European Cultural and Creative Networks granted under the call):

  • Artists as cultural professionals
  • Culture for the people
  • Culture for the planet
  • Culture for co-creative partnerships
  • Culture for digital transformation

AEC will receive financial support from 1st February 2025 to 31st January 2029.

More information about the activities planned in this period will be shared progressively once the grant agreement is signed.

How can you get involved in the new scheme?

AEC Active and Associate members will have the possibility of actively participating by taking part in new Working Groups, Task Forces and Stakeholder Networks (information about these will be shared in the autumn). AEC will appoint representatives from AEC institutions following calls for applications which will be sent to the entire membership early next year.

For now, the mandate of the current Working Groups’ members continues until the end of January 2025.

Which activities will take place?

Activities conceived within the new grant will include the collection of knowledge and data on a large range of topics, and the subsequent production and development of guidelines, policy papers, recommendations, and data tools. 

As in previous years, delegates from AEC member institutions will be able to participate in the four annual events organised by the association – which will feature the work achieved thanks to the EU financial support. Members with fewer resources will (once again) have the possibility to benefit from a solidarity fund scheme in the form of travel bursaries, to participate in some of the events and activities.

Moreover, activities will include a wide set of training, courses, workshops, mentorship programmes, and other learning and teaching activities providing capacity building, new skills, inspiration and experiences, motivating participants to take new actions in their fields of profession respectively. 

Some examples, out of the long list of planned activities:

  • A mentorship programme for emerging female and non-binary professionals;
  • Series of Artists as Teachers courses and peer-learning webinars;
  • On-site workshops by the DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) Panel of Experts;
  • On-site workshops by the PRIhME (Power Relations) Panel of Experts;
  • Online webinars with industry experts on creative digital skills;
  • Climate salon workshop at one of the AEC Congresses;
  • Capacity-building sessions to enhance cooperation outside the EU.

Want to know more?

The Office Team is actively engaged in preparing for this next funding period. We are here to provide you with all the information you may need and to ensure our members have a clear understanding of how they can be involved and benefit from this new initiative. 

Please contact us at info@aec-music.eu and stay tuned for more details to be published soon on our communication channels.