A day at Pro Helvetia

The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia promotes artistic and cultural activity from Switzerland at national and international level. This article provides an overview of the Music Division's many and varied tasks.

At Pro Helvetia, the working day of the 70 or so employees at the administrative headquarters in Zurich begins on trains from Basel, Bern, Fribourg, Lausanne or Geneva. These journeys provide an opportunity for fascinating exchanges with people from all regions of Switzerland - a considerable asset for a national foundation! These rail journeys give us time to check e-mails, go through final reports or application files, polish draft concepts and plan meetings - an office on rails, so to speak. When we arrive in Zurich, the first thing we often do is turn on the printer, ejecting resolutions, final reports and other documents for review.

The first meeting of the day is devoted to an interview with a Swiss music festival: presentation of the new program, highlighting the support criteria. As with all our other support measures, we look at the event's supra-regional influence: is the festival well established? Has it succeeded in making a name for itself on the scene? Does the program feature artists from different linguistic regions? Does the event benefit from municipal and cantonal support, thus fulfilling the principle of subsidiarity? Is it an important platform for the Swiss scene? The notes collected during the interview will be used to evaluate the application at a later date.

Sustainable touring

Finally, a new request is being examined: a well-known Swiss group wishes to tour China. Before making a decision, we consult our colleagues in the Chinese office, who are familiar with the local scene and can determine whether the venues for the events are sufficiently well established, and whether the guarantees and contribution to production costs are in line with the local context. Since the destination is far away, we also ensure that the tour is planned sustainably. In addition to concerts, events can include activities such as workshops, networking and research meetings. Pro Helvetia has six offices in different parts of the world, and it goes without saying that our exchanges with these colleagues are particularly interesting.

Our next request is for a small series of local concerts by a young string quartet that has yet to establish itself. Although the works of the participating composers have been performed in their home towns, this is unfortunately not yet a sufficient criterion for Pro Helvetia support.

International networking

The afternoon is devoted to an internal session on planning a networking event as part of a Swiss festival: which international curators do we want to invite? Which festival day lends itself to a maximum of Swiss programming? Which Swiss musicians should we invite to our networking aperitif? Performances abroad are of vital importance to musicians from the small country of Switzerland, and in this context we have a special mandate. Since organizers such as festivals and clubs can also submit requests for our support, we have many contacts that enable us to exert a decisive influence on the export of Swiss music.

The meeting is followed by an e-mail from our "Encounters and Global Initiatives" department. A Bolivian curator wants to familiarize herself with the Swiss electro music scene during a four-week stay. She cultivates an extensive network in South America and organizes an annual festival for club music, including workshops and master classes. In addition to being an exemplary platform, these aspects make a very convincing case for a cultural exchange. In our view, this research trip clearly deserves our support; with the assistance of a coach, the curator will have the opportunity to make the most of the time made available to her. We'll also be giving her the chance to make contacts with DJs, producers, labels and organizers.

Before concluding our day, an invitation to our next retreat is confirmed: indeed, our aim is to better engage hitherto under-represented music scenes. Our new support measures are indeed accompanied by a great deal of discussion! In 2024, we are launching two new support packages, namely Push-it (for up-and-coming musicians and their labels), as well as Feat.(designed for the electro and hip-hop scene).

Now it's time to head back to the station for a concert - a musical theater company's new production, soon to be presented at a foreign festival. We've been supporting the creative process as well as the tour, and can't wait to see the final result.

Facts and figures :

Who benefits from our support: musicians with a Swiss passport or permanent residence in Switzerland who are established at supra-regional level and create their own repertoire, as well as organizers in Switzerland and abroad.

What projects do we support: new productions, international presence (tours, festival performances), album production with promotional tours, internationally renowned festivals

What are our key criteria: supra-regional character, subsidiarity, appropriate guarantees, innovative programs?

Advice on submitting applications

• Check the support criteria on the website and submit the request online.
• Complete the online form with brief texts, avoiding repetition in the texts in the file.
• A detailed budget and realistic financing plan are essential.
• Ensure that an incentive offer from the Music division has been selected.