Thomassen Fund

The Thomassen Fund is a mobility fund aimed at enhancing the participation of central and eastern European cultural management education and training institutions, enabling them to cooperate and develop projects by joining in ENCATC networking. The Fund was officially launched in May 1999 following a Board proposal approved by the General Assembly in Uppsala, Sweden in 1998. It was named in honour of Arild Thomassen, a former Board member who had died in a tragic accident several years earlier.

About the ENCATC Thomassen Fund

The Thomassen Fund is a mobility fund launched by ENCATC in May 1999 following a proposal of the ENCATC Board gathered in Uppsala, Sweden in May 1998. It was named in honour of Arild Thomassen, a former Board member who died in a tragic accident several years earlier. 

The objective of the Thomassen Fund is to support and encourage mobility of cultural management educators from Central and Eastern European, and to create conditions for better collaboration and partnerships between individuals and/or organizations. It allows colleagues to work together, to learn from each other and to improve their respective skills and competences i.e. participation in training the trainers seminars, development of new educational tools, participation in thematic conferences, etc. 

The Thomassen Fund provides two types of grants: Travel grants to attend ENCATC meetings (for support of member institutions only, to facilitate the development of projects and to attend network meetings, workshops and working groups) and Matching grants towards membership fees (open only to full member institutions), especially those who have early financial difficulty in meeting their obligations as members.

A Thomassen Grant Committee is responsible for the allocation of the Thomassen Fund grants, and it makes recommendations to the ENCATC Board. 

From 1999 to 2003 the Thomassen Fund was supported by the Council of Europe, the European Cultural Foundation, the Open Society Institute and KulturKontakt Austria. From 2004 onwards ENCATC was the unique source of income for the Fund. 

In 2005, following a decision of the ENCATC General Assembly gathered in Potsdam in June the Thomassen Fund was set up as an iindependent asbl under the Belgium law. In November 2011, the asbl was finally closed and the Fund transformed in a project of the organization financed by ENCATC members.


Learn more on the impact of the Thomassen Fund on the 1999-2018 Activity Report.