The Fondation Sommer is a private grant-making foundation, established under Luxembourg law, with official charitable status. Created in 2016 by Pierre Brahms and governed by the articles and law of the 21st April, 1928, the foundation’s purpose is to support the “empowerment” of children and young people in Luxembourg, through the arts and culture.
Appels à projets
By means of three calls for projects, the Sommer Foundation aims to support several participatory projects that will use culture and the arts as tools for free self-expression, and that will translate its goal of empowering people into concrete activities involving children and young people, thereby having a positive impact on our society.
The next deadlines for sending the applications are:
- February 27, 2024
- June 11, 2024
- October 8, 2024
Prior to submitting your application, do not hesitate to contact us to discuss the project and check its eligibility.
Call1 for projects: Joint projects – CULTURE
Call for projects for:
- cultural and educational structures
-
cultural structures and active structures for citizenship, integration and social action
for the execution of a joint project.
Call2 for projects: EDUCATIONAL Projects
Call for projects for artists, cultural structures and active structures for citizenship, integration and social action, for the development of educational activities as part of an artistic or cultural project.
Call3 for projects: Joint INTERCULTURAL projects
Call for projects for cultural initiatives promoting intercultural exchange in Luxembourg (projects submitted in teams).
Projects supported
Through the projects that it supports, the Sommer Foundation aims to stimulate the minds of children and youngsters and make them more inquisitive so that they can participate in our society through the medium of culture and the arts. It encourages the creation of new forms of cooperation between partners from different communities and with different viewpoints, so that the people and cultures in Luxembourg may understand each other better.
EMoSEE
EMoSEE is a pilot project that aims to develop didactic and artistic materials to support young people in formal and non-formal education contexts, to get them to think about the influence of digital culture on identity and how we can use technological tools to express our emotions and broaden our perception of ourselves and others. The project aims to open up a protected and authentic space in which they can engage in their individuation process and develop their creativity to create participatory artworks of an autobiographical and social nature.
Feedback sensible
Educational project based on the play “Juste un homme, avec un fusil” by Godefroy Gordet (Compagnie Le Barbanchu)
The principle of feedback is defined as “a return of experience”, “a reaction to an event”. It involves giving feedback to a person or a team carrying out an action, while developing critical and analytical thinking.
Over the course of three days of “sensitive feedback”, a first group of young people will be invited to discover the dramaturgical dimension of a spectacular creation, under the guidance of director Godefroy Gordet and actor Romain Ravenel, while a second group will be invited to discover the scenographic dimension of the same creation, under the guidance of visual artist Éric Chapuis and video artist Guillaume Walle.
Each day will be divided into two phases: the first, in the morning, is called the observatory, where the young people will discover a directed rehearsal based on the text and its interpretation. The second phase, in the afternoon, is known as the workshop, where the young people will be invited to put their observations into practice through exercises, during which they will tackle the themes observed in the morning, with a practical approach to the notions of space, interpretation and physicality that are essential on a theatre stage, for the first part, and the notions of the volume of that space, of highlighting the subject and the performer at the centre of a play.
Kanner- a Jugendkonferenz 2024
For the 2nd year running, the Sommer Foundation is supporting the Kanner- a Jugendkonferenz (KaJuKo), which will take place on 9 March at the premises of COOPÉRATIONS Asbl. This support is part of the structuring projects to which the Foundation provides assistance outside of calls for projects.
Organised every year by the Jugendbureau Éislek, KaJuKo is aimed at young people aged 12 and over and adults working in the children and youth sector. At the heart of the 2024 event is the theme of “violence”: what does it mean to the various participants, what do they understand by this term and what do they associate with it? This theme will be explored in a variety of artistic forms through workshops combining music, theatre, dance and set design. The four artistic forms will be brought together after the conference and presented in the form of an overall performance.
Kannermusée Plomm
The Sommer Foundation has decided to become a partner in the new Kannermusée Plomm in Wiltz, which will open its doors in February 2024. Plomm (‘feather’ in Luxembourgish) is unique in Luxembourg in that it is a museum dedicated solely to children. With its programme, the museum tackles different areas of life and themes that children are confronted with intellectually and emotionally. Under the “Hands On!” principle, young visitors are given a playful way of getting to grips with the subjects and finding their own position in relation to them. In the museum context, this means that touching the exhibition installations is not only permitted, but encouraged.
In particular, the Sommer Foundation is supporting the first temporary exhibition to be presented at Plomm, LOVE, which will be unveiled to the public on 14 February 2024. Developed by its educational team in collaboration with three international artists, the exhibition offers children and their families a fun and intuitive experience as they embark on a journey to discover love in all its forms.
Lycée des Arts et Métiers in collaboration with Casino Display
Septembre 18 2023 until March 3 2024
Research residency with exhibition.
Kannercampus Belval in cooperation with Neimënster
January 22 until May 3 2024
Co-creation residency
École Fondamentale Woiwer Differdange in cooperation with Luxembourg Collective of Dance
April 15 until May 24 2024
Research residency in contemporary dance.
LES ATELIERS DE CREATION
On the strength of a general dynamic over many years and the energy of a new ‘wave’ of young people, Zaltimbanq’ decided to set up the ‘Creation Workshops’ project, aimed at children and young people aged between 9 and 13. After several years of practice, some young people are motivated to embark on a new adventure that is more specific, more creative and more artistic. This project is aimed at those young people who want to embark on the adventure of creating their own circus art, and who, through weekly classes, intensive courses, presentations, cultural awareness and encounters, will be given time and space to express themselves without limits, revealing their personalities, potential, creativity and community.
Athénée de Luxembourg in coopération with author Ian de Toffoli
May 13 until May 24 and June 3 until June 14
Research residency and co-writing with students
“Writing as document/ation” (working title).
PREVENTING VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT AT SCHOOL
The parents’ representatives from the Mersch primary school will be organising a project for the 2023-2024 school year on the subject of preventing violence and harassment at school.
This is an extra-curricular project aimed at parents and children attending the Mersch primary school.