Mandate and Legal Regulations
Pro Helvetia promotes Swiss arts and culture with a focus on diversity and high quality. As the Swiss Confederation’s cultural promotion institution, we support projects that are of national interest.
Our autonomously conducted promotion activities comprise:
Artistic creation
We award work grants, production funding and creation grants to cultural practitioners of cross-regional importance. These types of funding support the creation of outstanding art creations, prototypes and productions.
Cultural exchange in Switzerland
We support artistic projects and events that contribute to the dissemination of works and understanding between the regions. Funding is provided for domestic tours, readings, concerts, exhibitions, translations and festivals.
Cultural exchange, dissemination and promotion outside Switzerland
We fund events, projects and translations in order to promote Swiss art and culture outside Switzerland and to foster cultural exchange with other cultural areas. To ensure that Swiss artists can better position themselves in international networks and markets, and to raise awareness of Swiss artists among event organisers abroad, we implement measures for international promotion and fund Switzerland’s appearances as a guest country at international events.
Cultural stimulus
Through specific promotion and research programmes we contribute to identifying major developments and challenges in the area of cultural promotion, develop appropriate measures and create space and impulses that enable innovation.
Emerging artists
We facilitate the launch of a professional career in the arts at national or international level for artists and cultural practitioners who show the appropriate potential. In collaboration with selected partner institutions, we offer residency and coaching programmes, enable opportunities for performances or exhibitions, and grant financial support for networking.
Art mediation
We promote measures that engage audiences in the process of reflecting on the arts and thus bring them closer to artistic works and performances. In particular, new forms of critical reflection on contemporary artistic and cultural creation are promoted.
Detailed information on our tasks is contained in the Culture Promotion Act. It can be accessed in German, French and Italian.
Legal regulations
Pro Helvetia is a public-law foundation. Our mandate, which we perform autonomously, is specified in the Culture Promotion Act (Kulturförderungsgesetz) of 11 December 2009. The law also defines the cooperation between Pro Helvetia and the Federal Office of Culture (BAK) in cultural promotion work on behalf of the Confederation. Government funding for Pro Helvetia is determined by Parliament on the basis of the statement on the financing of cultural promotion by the Confederation (Federal cultural policy statement / Kulturbotschaft).
The key legal and regulatory documents on which our work is based are the following (available in German, French and Italian): |
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Culture Promotion Act (Kulturförderungsgesetz) |
Culture Promotion Ordinance (Kulturförderungsverordnung) |
Strategic objectives of the Federal Council 2021-2024 (Strategische Ziele des Bundesrates für die Stiftung Pro Helvetia 2021-2024) |
Cultural Message 2021–2024 (Botschaft zur Förderung der Kultur in den Jahren 2021–2024 (Kulturbotschaft 2021–2024)) |
Grant Ordinance (Beitragsverordnung ) Pro Helvetia |
Internal Rules of Procedure (Geschäftsordnung) Pro Helvetia |
Further important links in connection with public cultural promotion in Switzerland
(content available in German, French and Italian only):
Federal Office of Culture (Bundesamt für Kultur, BAK) | www.bak.admin.ch |
Swiss conference of cantonal ministers of culture (Konferenz der kantonalen Kulturbeauftragten, KBK) | www.edk.ch |
Municipalities’ culture conference (Städtekonferenz Kultur, SKK) | www.skk-cvc.ch |
Culturalpromotion.ch (Kulturförderung Schweiz) | www.kulturfoerderung.ch |