The expert group for mobility funding met on 14 November 2025 to make decisions regarding the final application round of the year. Mobility funding is available for professional artists’ or cultural practitioners’ travel and/or stay within the Nordic and/or Baltic countries.
With an approval rate of 14 percent (grants in relation to total applications), the chair of the expert group, Janne Krogh Hansen, notes that the group placed great emphasis on ensuring good geographical balance across the Nordic and Baltic regions. It was also encouraging to see so many strong applications from both larger and smaller communities. This round showed a wide variety of artistic disciplines, backgrounds and voices, reflecting the diversity of cultural work in the region.
Mobility funding fosters artistic development and Nordic co-operation
Janne Krogh Hansen points out that mobility funding plays a very important role in promoting artistic development. It facilitates short, flexible trips and stays that open doors to new networks and methods as well as the exchange of knowledge.
“The grants do more than to fund individual activities – they help to create long-term connections, new partnerships, and the cross-border exchange of perspectives. By reducing practical and financial barriers, the programme gives more artists and cultural practitioners access to opportunities they might otherwise never have had,” Krogh Hansen explains.
“At the same time, mobility contributes to increased understanding and co-operation within the region, which feels particularly valuable at a time when cultural dialogue and cross-border co-operation are strained in many areas,” she adds.
Examples of projects granted funding
Among the artists who received travel funding is the pianist, composer, and interdisciplinary artist Luis Rubio Gil-Orozco. Gil-Orozco will travel from Iceland to Nuuk in Greenland to co-operate with Varna Marianne Nielsen and Center Qilaat. Together, they will record soundscapes from the Arctic, exchange methods, and create the first material for the sound installation Sound Dialogue Between Cultures.
The male choir Huutajat, a choir which, in their own words, does not sing a single note but instead screams, bellows and shouts, also received funding. Huutajat will travel from Finland to Denmark to prepare, develop, and rehearse material from Weeping Men, and test it with audiences ahead of their performances in Oulu, the European Capital of Culture, in September 2026.
“We appreciate the many thoughtful and ambitious applications we received and look forward to following the projects, meetings, and new collaborations that will emerge from this funding round. We also look forward to seeing how they will give back to society through new perspectives, shared experiences, and a love of art that brings us together, with or without words, in ways we may not fully understand but can always feel,” concludes Janne Krogh Hansen.
There will be three application rounds for mobility funding in 2026.