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Celebrating Europe Day: Commitment to European Collaboration at Every Level
Industry News
On Europe Day, we celebrate the union that makes extraordinary art possible, the network of stages, artists, and cultural institutions all over Europe, and the belief that culture is the truest language of Europe.
This 9 May, Europe marks the anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, the founding vision of a continent united in peace, shared values, and common ambition. At FEDORA, this date resonates with particular force. Since 2013, our mission has been to embody that vision in the most vivid way we know: through the living arts of opera and dance.
FEDORA is not simply a funding body. We are a European ecosystem, a quality label, a community of believers, and an engine for artistic collaboration across borders. Today, on Europe Day, we reflect on what that network has become and what it continues to make possible.
A European Network at Every Level
Today, FEDORA brings together:
- 130 member institutions across Europe
- A network spanning 26 European countries
- More than 75 co-productions supported
- Over €9.3 million raised for new European creations
Behind these numbers is a dynamic network of opera houses, festivals, dance companies, philanthropists, audiences, artists, and cultural leaders working together to make ambitious artistic projects possible.
Since 2017, the European Commission’s Creative Europe Programme has been a cornerstone of FEDORA’s development. Through this partnership, FEDORA has received more than €7 million in cumulative support, reinforcing a shared conviction: that opera and dance, in their most innovative, inclusive, and boundary-pushing forms, are a European public good worth investing in.
Across more than 26 European countries, FEDORA’s network unites opera houses, festivals, and dance companies that actively collaborate to support new artistic creation on a European scale. These cultural organisations create the conditions for innovative works to move beyond national borders and reach diverse audiences across Europe. Together, they form a uniquely interconnected cultural infrastructure that strengthens artistic exchange and reinforces Europe’s shared cultural landscape.
The FEDORA Prizes Biennale: A European Engine for Creation
At the heart of this collaboration is the FEDORA Prizes Biennale, a platform designed to encourage artistic innovation and international cooperation.
Through four categories, Opera, Dance, Education, and Digital, FEDORA, along with prize sponsors, awards up to €300,000 per cycle to visionary projects that bring together emerging artists and European cultural organisations to co-create and co-produce new works.
To date, more than 2,000 artists and creatives have participated in FEDORA Prize-winning projects, contributing to a new generation of European artistic exchange.
Culture as a European Language
At a time when Europe continues to navigate social, technological, and political transformation, culture remains one of its strongest forces for connection.
Opera and dance transcend language while creating dialogue. They allow artists and audiences to explore shared questions, emotions, and futures across borders and generations.
On Europe Day, FEDORA celebrates the people and partnerships that continue to make this possible: the institutions that invest in artistic risk, the creators who imagine new forms, and the audiences who keep European culture alive through participation and support.
Together, they demonstrate that European collaboration is not an abstract idea. It is something lived, created, performed, and shared on stages across the continent every day.
About Europe Day
On 9 May 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman delivered a historic speech and plan for deeper cooperation in Europe. Known as the Schuman Declaration, it paved the way for a new era of peace, integration and cooperation across the continent – laying the foundations for the European Union as we know it today.
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