This Cultural Mobility Funding Guide is part of On the Move’s recent endeavour to focus on a topic with a complementary geographical scope. This guide’s focus for this 2026 edition is on ‘inclusion and gender equality in international cultural work’.
Engaging internationally can create opportunities for artistic development, professional exchange and collaboration. However, those opportunities are not equally accessible to everyone. An international mobility programme may encourage applications from diverse practitioners while conditions to participate exclude particular communities. For example, a travel grant may not consider parents and leave childcare uncovered, or a flat-rate travel contribution leaves people at greater distances at a disadvantage, and likely those from low- and middle-income countries.
This Cultural Mobility Funding Guide brings together opportunities intended for particular underrepresented groups, and it includes additional support within wider programmes, funding for work addressing social justice themes and programmes supporting audience access and community participation.
Gender equality is highlighted in the title as a specific focus within the guide’s wider concern with inclusion. The research examines opportunities for women, trans and gender-diverse practitioners, alongside measures addressing the gendered effects of barriers to participation. Caring responsibilities are a significant example: women undertake a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work, which can restrict the time, income and flexibility available for international work. Support for parents and carers can therefore help address gender inequalities while benefiting practitioners of all genders.
The guide considers these connections alongside other barriers and forms of discrimination that can overlap with gender. The purpose of this guide is both practical and reflective: 1) to help artists and cultural professionals identify relevant support, the form it takes and questions to ask, as well as 2) to give funders and organisers examples they can draw on when developing their own programmes.
You can read this guide while using different entry points:
- Part 1 examines open calls, outlining the data collection process and presenting the outcomes and analysis of the research. It explores how open calls operate and what the collected data reveals about the opportunities available.
- Part 2 focuses on OTM mobility funding guides, describing the data collection process and comparing the different guides. It also identifies the organisations and institutions that provide this support, offering an overview of the funding landscape for cultural mobility.
- Part 3 provides an overview of mobility opportunities, including initiatives designed for particular groups and support for participation in wider programmes. It also explores residencies addressing social justice themes, approaches to improving audience access and community participation, and additional networks and practical resources that promote inclusive mobility.
- Part 4 presents five case studies illustrating different approaches to cultural mobility and participation. Together, they highlight a range of practices and models for supporting mobility, inclusion and international cultural exchange.
Coordination: Yohann Floch, Marie Le Sourd (On the Move)
Researcher: Sophie Dowden
Graphic design and layout: Marine Domec
This Cultural Mobility Funding Guide is co-funded by the European Union.