Call for Projects: VIII Culture & Ruralities Forum
We are looking for the creators of cultural projects that want to participate and make themselves known at the next Culture and Ruralities Forum!
VIII Culture and Ruralities Forum
Estella-Lizarra, Navarre (Spain), from the 10th to 12th June 2025.
Organized by: Ministry of Culture, Spain
Deadline: 12th February 2025
Click here to visit the original posting of this open call.
Call for projects
Objective
In the framework of the 8th Culture and Ruralities Forum, the Directorate General for Cultural Rights, through the Subdirectorate General for Cultural Cooperation with the Autonomous Communities, is launching a public call for projects. The aim of this call is to select cultural projects promoted in/from rural environments that wish to participate and make themselves known at the next Culture and Ruralities Forum, and become part of its collaborative ecosystem.
This edition of the Forum is also part of the actions leading up to MONDIACULT 2025, the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development, which will take place in Barcelona from the 29th September to the 1st October 2025. In this sense, the Forum is part of the logic ‘on the road to MONDIACULT 2025’, with the aim of linking the debates on culture in and from rural areas to the constitution and development of a global agenda for culture and the monitoring of progress in the field of cultural rights and the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda.
Forum Topics
The 8th Culture and Ruralities Forum will devote a large part of its program to addressing the idea of cultural diversity present in today’s rural environment, from different perspectives and taking into account its multiple dimensions and realities, as well as its transformative potential and its capacity for updating and adaptation.
This edition aims to analyze the plurality, complexity and cultural, social and territorial richness that characterizes non-urban areas, thus underlining the importance of recognizing this diversity and its capacity to improve well-being and social cohesion, within a framework of recognition and exercise of cultural rights.
In this context, the Culture and Ruralities Forum seeks to shed light on cultural projects that include in their structure and approaches different notions of diversity, thus advocating for: the cultural construction of new narratives and ways of being in the world; the (re)knowledge and (re)configuration of identities from the perspective of cultural and linguistic diversity; the preservation, transmission and updating of intangible heritage, knowledge and practices; civic participation and empowerment; the generation of spaces for meeting and exchange between different generations; and the creation of a more sustainable, diverse, inclusive and multicultural rural environment.
Categories
Specifically, this call seeks to identify projects developed in/from the rural environment that fall into one of the following categories:
Projects that value the territorial diversity (landscape, environment, biodiversity, endogenous resources…) and/or heritage (knowledge, traditions, languages…) of the rural environment. These include innovative strategies and proposing a contemporary perspective, as well as those that promote crossings and intersections with other knowledge and productive, social and economic activities.
- Projects that work from an inter- or trans-generational perspective, seeking to ensure the right to participate in cultural life through the different stages of life and/or generate spaces for recognition, exchanges and transmission between generations.
- Projects promoted by or that work with groups of migrant/racialized people for building spaces for dialogue and representation of these cultural communities in rural areas.
- Projects that promote the recognition and visibility of affective, social and gender diversity in rural areas, as well as inclusive communities open to both old and new settlers.
- Projects developed by or working with groups of people with disabilities or functional diversity or at risk of social or cultural exclusion, increasing their access to culture and their role as creators or active agents.
- Within the plurality of agents operating in the rural environment, projects that advocate the recognition of diversity, in its broadest sense, promoted, and not only financed, from the local public sector (provinces, islands councils, municipalities, grouping of municipalities, regions or smaller local entities such as neighborhood councils, rural parishes, districts…) or from Local Action Groups (LAGs) or Rural Development Groups (RDGs).
Key concepts
The call is addressed to projects developed in/from the rural environment that fall into one of the categories listed above and that work in line with one or more of the following key concepts:
Cultural rights / Universal access / Cultural democracy / Diverse and inclusive culture / Cultural and symbolic diversity / Culture as a space for empathy and dialogue with otherness / Ethnic-racial diversity / Interculturality / Multiculturality / New citizenships / Migrant culture
Youth and social participation / Culture and education / Youth as a cultural agent / Youth creation / Young audiences / Culture and social cohesion / Culture as a generator of well-being, care and affection / Culture as a factor of territorial (re)equilibrium
Intergenerational dialogue / Preservation, transmission and updating of knowledge and practices / Local culture / Culture as a space for meeting, exchanges and transmission
Rural-urban dialogue / Culture and the environment / Sustainability / Transformative culture / New narratives and imaginaries / Culture and (re)construction of identities / Revisited and open traditions / Spaces of experimentation / Transmission – Experimentation
Networking / Cultural ecosystems / Rhizomatic culture / Informal collaborations and synergies / Trans-inter-disciplinarity / Sectoral connections and exchanges
Participation requirements
The call is aimed at initiatives and projects, whether public, private or mixed, implemented in/from rural areas (preferably municipalities with a population of less than 30,000 inhabitants), and which are aligned with the themes, categories and key concepts that articulate this edition of the Forum.
Any person, collective or public or private entity leading a project developed in – or promoted from – Spain, as well as any other country belonging to the European Union or associated with the Creative Europe, CESR, Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ programmes, may participate.
Application form and deadlines
All those interested in participating in the call for proposals must fill out the application form. Click here for the application form.
The deadline for receipt of projects is the 12th February 2025.
The selected projects will be published on the Culture and Citizenship website from the 1st March 2025.
Selection of projects
The team of the Culture and Ruralities program of the Ministry of Culture will select those projects considered to be of greatest interest in accordance with the themes, categories and key concepts of this edition and the nature, objectives and programmatic lines of the Culture and Ruralities program . The appropriate territorial balance will be taken into account.
In addition, priority will be given to the selection of:
- A minimum of 5 projects that are promoted by young cultural agents or groups (under 35 years).
- A minimum of 5 projects developed in other European countries.
Number and form of presentation of projects
The presentation of projects at the 8th Culture and Ruralities Forum will take the form of an oral presentation. A maximum of 20 projects will be selected.
The selected projects will be presented by their leaders during the Forum, in person or virtually, in a collective panel with interventions of approximately 10 minutes per project. Subsequently, it is foreseen the development of thematic discussion groups in which to participate, depending on the content of the project.
Travel and accommodation costs and fees
The organization will directly cover the travel to/from Spain and accommodation expenses for two or three nights for one responsible person per selected project (except in cases where participation is online), as well as a fee of €375 (including taxes) for their participation.
Database
All projects will be submitted to be included in a database of the Ministry of Culture. Selected projects may be published on the Forum website and in videos or publications produced as a result of the Forum.
Participation in this call for entries implies full acceptance of its terms and conditions and authorization to the Ministry of Culture to use the data collected in the application form for the purposes expressly defined in this call for entries and in accordance with current data protection regulations.
