Call for Applications: Grants for Creative and Artistic Practitioners

The Africa-Europe Partnerships for Culture: Southern Africa component invites Creatives and Artistic Practitioners from Southern African countries to collaborate across borders and reimagine cultural heritage narratives through contemporary creative practice.

The programme will select 99 practitioners and place them into 11 interdisciplinary Heritage Narrative Clusters, each led by a heritage organisation.

Over six months, participants will work collaboratively to develop three co-produced creative works that explore the meaning and contemporary relevance of Southern African cultural heritage.

Funding and support

Each selected practitioner will receive a €6,000 stipend for participation over the six-month project period, subject to active participation and reporting requirements.

The programme will additionally cover:

• Travel costs

• Accommodation

• Per diems (meals, incidentals)

• Co-production and presentation costs

  
  

Additional funding may be available for participants requiring support related to family responsibilities or disabilities.

The Heritage Clusters

Selected practitioners will be placed into one of 11 Heritage Narrative Clusters, each led by a partner heritage organisation.

Applicants can review the clusters below and identify the narrative(s) that best align with their artistic practice and interests.

1. ASSITEJ South Africa - South Africa

For: Traditional musicians, dancers, visual artists, educators and creative practitioners interested in cross-border collaboration exploring Southern African heritage through interdisciplinary artistic practice.

2. Babukisi Foundation - Eswatini

For: Artists working in animation, documentary film, and visual arts to reinterpret siSwati cultural heritage, ceremonies, traditions, and knowledge systems for younger generations and wider audiences.

3. The Craft + Design Institute - South Africa

For: Artists, designers, and makers interested in exploring Southern African craft heritage through intergenerational exchange, hybrid making, and collaborative material, visual, and narrative work.

4. Eswatini Theatre Club - Eswatini

For: Photographers, performing artists, and musicians interested in reimagining Swazi life, culture, and identity through contemporary creative practice.

5. GEM Institute - Lesotho

For: Interdisciplinary creatives exploring Basotho heritage, including Botho philosophy, praise poetry, folklore, mokhibo dance, litema murals, sacred sites, traditional diplomacy and community practices.

6. Impact Fund - Botswana

For: Artists and creatives interested in San and Hambukushu cultural heritage, with a focus on ostrich eggshell bead artistry, basket weaving, product design, documentary film and publishing.

7. Phansi Museum - South Africa

For: Creatives interested in heritage, restoration, memory and cultural repair, exploring how heritage can be preserved while generating new relationships and contemporary forms of expression.

8. Poetavango Collective - Botswana

For: Musicians, writers, filmmakers, and visual artists interested in reimagining Southern African folklore, traditional music, and cultural practices through collaborative works including music, literature, film, and exhibition.

9. Sustaining Theatre and Dance (STAND) Foundation - South Africa

For: Interdisciplinary artists exploring Khoi-San living heritage, including identity, land, memory, language, indigenous knowledge and heritage futures through theatre, dance, dialogue and digital archives.

10. Women and Land in Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe

For: Artists and creatives interested in indigenous seed heritage and rural women's cultural knowledge, exploring seeds as expressions of ancestral heritage, cultural identity and collective memory.

11. Youth Advocates - Zimbabwe

For: Artists exploring Southern African intangible cultural heritage through contemporary practice, with themes including ecological knowledge, rites of passage, gendered traditions and communal healing.

Creative Disciplines

Across the 11 clusters, the programme welcomes practitioners working in:

• Performing arts

• Visual arts and design

• Film

• Media and digital arts

• Literary and narrative arts

• Cultural curation and heritage practice

Scope and approach

The programme brings together artists from at least three participating countries within each cluster, encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration and new approaches to heritage storytelling.

Applicants must submit:

• Personal details and proof of identity

• CV and biography

• Portfolio

• A 200-word artist statement describing their practice, motivations and key themes

• A 300-word statement explaining their suitability for the narrative cluster(s) they are applying to

• A 300-word statement explaining how they would contribute to an interdisciplinary and community-centred collaboration

Applicants should review the available Heritage Narrative Clusters and select the narratives that best align with their practice and experience.

Eligibility

Applicants must:

• Be an individual artist or creative practitioner

• Be 18 years or older

• Be legally resident and working in Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa or Zimbabwe

• Have at least three years of professional artistic or creative practice

• Demonstrate relevant experience or potential to contribute to cultural, social or heritage-related narratives

• Be willing and able to collaborate within an interdisciplinary, cross-border group

• Be available to participate fully in programme activities over the six-month period.

  
  

The programme encourages applications from people with family responsibilities and persons with disabilities. Additional support may be available to enable equitable participation.

Application information

Deadline: 5 October 2026

For more information and to apply, click here.

Download and read through the official guidelines carefully before submitting.