NATIONAL CULTURE FUND
National and international mobility programmes facilitate the contacts between cultural operators and artists from Bulgaria and abroad, participation in international cultural exchanges, as well as foreign artists who would like to work in Bulgaria for a short period of time, thus contributing to the strengthening of cultural diversity.
The main source of national support is the programme for cultural contacts – "Mobility" – of the National Culture Fund, which began in 2003. The main objectives of this programme are:
• dissemination of Bulgarian culture and art in the country and abroad;
• support for the integration of Bulgarian authors and artefacts in the European and global cultural exchange;
• acquiring and adopting successful foreign practices and models related to the development of art and culture;
• supporting training and development of Bulgarian authors and experts in the field of culture; and
• promoting cultural cooperation and participation of Bulgarian artists in international cultural networks and initiatives.
The National Culture Fund is a Bulgarian organization that supports national creation, development and distribution of Bulgarian art and culture at home and abroad.
To achieve these objectives, the "Mobility" programme supports participation in international, national and local cultural forums of representatives of Bulgarian culture and art; visits of foreign managers and producers in the field of culture and arts in Bulgaria.
For the period 2014-2016 the programme has supported a total of 360 projects amounting to BGN 486, 724.
In 2008, the Fund declared the session entitled "Bulgarian crafts - ancient and modern." Support was received by projects that offer sustainable programme that provides training of young people in traditional Bulgarian crafts practiced by prominent masters in their field. The submitted projects were for the preservation and promotion of crafts blacksmithing, weaving, woodcarving, pottery, embroidering, etc. A total of 43 projects applied in the competition, out of which 17 projects totalling BGN 43,632 were supported.
Besides the Programme for Cultural Contacts "Mobility", the Fund also supports (on a competitive basis) projects aimed at both young artists, new names and/or formations and at established artists and/or cultural institutions under its other programmes, namely under the programmes "Debuts", "Translations", "Audiences", "Critical Literature" and "Short Films".
The information is contained in item b.
In 2014 under the "Mobility" Programme 57 out of 104 proposals were successful and the financing was in the amount of BGN 69,964. In 2015 104 proposals were submitted and the successful projects received financing in the amount of BGN 59,991. In 2016 the three sessions of the "Mobility" Programme for cultural contacts and creative participation received 210 applications, out of which 111 projects in the total amount of BGN 155,003 were approved for financing. In 2016 the other Programmes of the Fund supported projects as follows: Programme "Debut" / received 16 applications of which 12 were funded totalling 48,600 BGN. / "Translations" / 4 projects were received and 4 were financed the total value of financing was 15,700 BGN/ "Audiences" / 45 projects received of which 18 were funded totalling 39,996 BGN. / "Critical Literature" / 31 projects received of which 18 were funded totalling 30,000 BGN. / and "Short Films" / 25 received, 8 funded totalling 50,000 BGN /.