Connect & Create - Strengthening cultural ties between Africa and Europe
From 19 September 2025 to 14 December 2025
Performing arts / Music
Connect & Create is the Sub-Saharan Africa component of the European Union-funded Africa-Europe Partnerships for Culture program. This ambitious project, led by the Goethe-Institut and Expertise France, in partnership with the Institut français, aims to renew and strengthen cultural ties between sub-Saharan Africa and the European Union in a spirit of equity, inclusion and sustainability.
Connect & Create exemplifies the Team Europe spirit: a partnership between 3 institutions, the Institut français, Expertise France and the Goethe-Institut, combining their expertise for a common ambition.
Launched in 2025 in Addis Ababa and then Zanzibar, the program is based on a collaborative approach, nourished by exchanges with artists and cultural players in the territories.
With Connect & Create, culture is not just a tool for outreach: it becomes a force for transformation and authentic cooperation, founded on shared creativity, mutual respect and reciprocal recognition.
Many support schemes for performing arts players in Africa and Europe
The Institut français and Expertise France are joining forces and playing a key role in the implementation of Connect & Create, in particular in the field of performing arts and music by piloting mobility, international co-production and exchange actions for artists and professionals based in one of the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa or in one of the 27 member countries of the European Union.
Connect and Create is part of a renewed multilateral dynamic, capitalizing on past experience to build sustainable, interconnected cultural ecosystems.
Between 2025 and 2028, several calls for projects will be published to encourage and support:
- The development of cooperation projects led by Euro-African tandems ;
- The organization of professional meetings bringing together players from both continents ;
- The dissemination and touring of African artistic creations ;
- The skills enhancement of cultural professionals based in Africa.
In three years, Connect & Create will support several hundred artists and professionals in the performing arts (theater, dance, music, circus, street arts, puppetry, etc.) through four strategic axes:
Connect and Create #Creative tandems aims to support cooperation and co-production projects in the field of performing arts conceived and implemented by tandems made up of a partner based in sub-Saharan Africa and a partner based in a European Union country.
This scheme aims to promote and support lasting collaborations between performing arts players brought together in tandems.
Call deadline: 14 December 2025
Connect and Create #Professional mobility aims to support international organizations and events (festivals, professional meetings, markets, trade fairs, conventions...), in Africa or Europe, that welcome delegations made up of professionals (non-artists) from the 2 continents.
This scheme aims to strengthen exchanges between performing arts professionals living by supporting mobility between Africa and Europe, as well as within the African continent.
Call deadline: 30 November 2025
Connect and Create #Circulation of performing arts aims to support the dissemination and circulation of African artistic crations in Africa and Europe, through financial support for the organization of tours or programming at major international events.
This scheme aims to support the structuring of the live performance sector on the African continent, via the opening up to new distribution opportunities and new professional networks and enforce the visibility of African artistic creations in Africa and Europe.
Call deadline: 30 November 2025
Connect and Create #Skills enhancement is a training and mentoring program for 20 intermediary cultural professionals based in sub-Saharan Africa (tour operators, agents, producers, administrators, presenters, production offices...). It is aimed at professionals who provide the link between artistic creation and its distribution in markets.
This scheme aims to offer a individualized support program that is based on transmission, peer exchanges, co-construction and intergenerational dialogue.
A focus on youth
With over 60% of the African population under the age of 25, Connect & Create relies on the creativity, energy and leadership of young people to shape the Africa-Europe cultural relations of tomorrow.
For all schemes, particular attention will be paid:
- To projects highlighting younger generations, emerging scenes and new artistic practices in the field of contemporary creation.
- Projects promoting an eco-responsible approach in their implementation.
- Projects attentive to issues of inclusion (gender, disability...).
