At the Prince Claus Fund, we believe that culture is a catalyst for change and the artists who challenge the status quo are often at risk. They are at the forefront of urgent changes, and their voices need to be heard.
Our thematic focus
At the Prince Claus Fund we focus on three areas of impact informed and inspired by our community of global changemakers.
Our three themes
CLIMATE
Culture can play its part in the fight to avert or limit climate disaster by raising awareness of, and creating insight into, the experiences of people, communities and ecosystems that are suffering the effects of climate change.
FREEDOM
People and communities should be able to act, live and express themselves as they choose, without impeding the freedom of other people or communities. Meaningful freedom requires both absence of constraints but also the capability to exercise agency and actively pursue goals.
EQUITY
We need to rectify the unequal division of resources, opportunities, representation and justice between different communities, including racial, gender, class, caste, nationality, or disability-based inequalities. We believe that to achieve fairness we need to begin with a recognition of the diverse needs of individuals and groups as well as the complex intersections of different categories of oppression.
The impact of our work
The change must commence with a comprehensive understanding of the diverse needs derived from the communities we work with. The artists in our network drive the impact showing us the potential of the transformative power of culture. Discover Sunday Ozgebe's story.
Prince Claus Fund Seed Awardee 2021 Sunday Ozgebe is a dancer, activist, and creative from Nigeria. He is a founder and artistic director of Ennovate Dance House, a collective of dancers and movement artists based in Lagos, Nigeria who are addressing social issues with their work. Focusing on amalgamating performance with community development, Sunday brings the style of dance activism to the fore.
Living in the small community of Oworo and constantly being overlooked by their local government has caused a lot of issues - from the lack of water and electricity - to gang violence or poor road conditions. Sunday uses his dance as the focal point to tell the stories of his community. One of Sunday's dance campaigns went viral forcing the local government to fix the roads and improve connections between neighboring communities.
"What we do with dance is that we make our home a better place to live. Dance is our answer. Dance is our weapon."
Sunday performed at the 2022 Prince Claus Impact Awards Ceremony in Amsterdam and travels globally to showcase his work: "I could have left a hundred times. But this is my home. This is where I want to grow old. So I decide to stay and be a beacon of hope for my people."
See Sunday's story on AlJazeera
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