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The Centre for Performing Arts is responsible for all matters concerning the performing arts within the province of the Danish Arts Agency.

• International activities
  
• Partners
  

The main tasks of the Centre are to manage a number of grant schemes and subsidy programmes for the independent performing arts sector and local and regional theatres as well as the distribution of national lottery funding within this area. All allocations of funding and policy priorities are made by the Committee for the Performing Arts and the Danish Arts Foundation’s Committee for Film and Theatre.

The Centre for Performing Arts is one of four centres within the Danish Arts Agency (DAA) under the umbrella of The Danish Arts Council.

The Danish Arts Agency (Kunststyrelsen)
The Danish Arts Agency is a separate institution under the Danish Ministry of Culture. It administers the financial support provided to artists and artistic activity by the Danish state, mainly through grants made by the Danish Arts Council and the Danish Arts Foundation.

The DAA also operates the international cultural programmes of the Danish Ministry of Culture and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and promotes cultural exchange between Denmark and other countries.

The DAA operates through four centres each refering to the relevant committee:

• The Music Centre
• The Visual Arts Centre
• The Literature Centre
• The Centre for Performing Arts

The Danish Arts Council (Statens Kunstråd)
The Danish Arts Council (DAC) and The Danish Arts Agency were created in 2003 to streamline the national public funding programmes for the arts. The DAC promotes national and international cultural activities through financial support for the production and expression of the arts, while the Danish Arts Foundation, established in 1964, also administered within the Danish Arts Agency, provides support for individual artists within all artistic genres.

The DAC is responsible for visual arts, literature, music and performing arts, as well as for corresponding interdisciplinary arts forms. Each of these four genres has been assigned an expert, arm’s-length committee under the DAC, which in case of the Performing Arts is known as the Committee for Performing Arts.

Committee for Performing Arts (Statens Kunstråds Scenekunstudvalg)
The committee consists of five members elected for a four-year term. The members of the Committee for Performing Arts (2007-2011) are: Mikkel Harder Munck-Hansen (stage director, scriptwriter) (chair), Ellen Nyman (actor), Torsten Schenlaer (actor, producer, scriptwriter), Hans Henrik Clemensen (actor), and Peter Westphael (artistic and managing director of Randers Regional Theatre).

International activities

The Centre for Performing Arts co-ordinates a number of international activities in the field of performing art and also functions as a facilitator of independent initiatives by the Danish Arts Council and the Committee for the Performing Arts in this field.

The current activities of the Centre for Performing Arts include:

• Information
  Providing up-to-date information on the performing arts in Denmark and also providing information and advice to Danish companies and artists wishing to develop an international profile.
  
  
• Representation
  Striving to secure Danish representation and participation at international performing arts fairs, at trade fairs and in appropriate networks, as well as taking an active part of these international meetings.
  
  
• Visitors’ programme
  Setting up a series of individual and group visitors’ programmes for international festivals, directors, theatres and performing arts experts in order to promote knowledge of Danish performing arts. The programmes are tailor-made in accordance with the specific interests of the visitor. These programmes often include attendance at live performances as part of festivals or individual performances.

International cultural exchange
The main aim of the Centre for Performing Arts in the international context is to support and promote contact and cooperation between Danish and international artists and operators.

Support includes funding, information and contact facilitating as well as support and coordination for specific international programmes with specific countries. The centre has a number of support programmes, including visitors’ programmes, subsidy to support Danish artists travelling abroad, support and advice to international partners, funding and supporting of key presentation programmes to bilateral and multilateral programmes involving Danish companies and institutions. All grant applications are considered at the monthly meetings of the Performing Arts Committee.

International projects can both be initiated by the individual centres of the Danish Art Agency for theatre, music, literature, etc., as art form specific programmes, as well as multi-disciplinary programmes which include several art forms initiated by the Danish Arts Council.

Go to the Projects site to learn more about the projects within the cultural exchange programmes.

Partners

The Centre for Performing Arts primarily functions in collaboration with other partners in Denmark and internationally. These include organisations such as ITI Denmark, Assitej Denmark, Unima Denmark, as well as the main operators of international activities and festivals in Denmark, plus the companies and the individual artists themselves.

Our main partners abroad are Danish embassies and consulates, the Danish Cultural Institutes and the three Danish institutes in Athens, Damascus and Rome.

• Danish Embassies and Consulates
  Specific cultural attachés are active in Berlin, London, New York and Paris.
  
  
• The Danish Cultural Institute
  An independent non-profit organisation, funded by the Ministry of Culture, which aims at long-term cultural cooperation and exchange, including social and educational matters. The institute has a head office in Copenhagen and branches in a number of European countries (Benelux, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Scotland) as well as a new institute in China.
  
  
• The Danish Institutes in Damascus, Athens and Rome
  The three institutes are all both academic institutions (research within art and science) and cultural institutes. The institutes in Athens and Rome are primarily devoted to archaeological studies. The three institutes refer, respectively, to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the Danish Ministry of Cultural Affairs. The institutes offer accommodation to scholars, students and artists.
  
  
• DCCD - The Danish Centre for Culture and Development
  The DCCD promotes and supports cultural cooperation between Denmark and developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Founded in 1989 and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the DCCD supports cultural exchange and collaboration and initiates programmes such as the ‘Images’ festival, which was inaugurated in 1991. In 2006, Images of The Middle East focused on the contemporary Middle East and, over the next 3 years, a cultural network programme will be developed with regions in the Middle East.
  
  
• The Nordic Council of Ministers
  Nordic cooperation has been extremely strong in the past and there are plans for a totally new structure of the Nordic Council of Ministers from 2007. The Nordic Council of Ministers is the forum for Nordic governmental cooperation. Programmes are at present under review. It is expected that a new programme for mobility and residencies will start in January 2007 and that other programmes will shortly follow. International cooperation will be an integrated part of the new programmes and funding is expected to be available for international programmes and projects. More information, go to Organisations & Institutions