The ECF Princess Margriet Award for Culture was initiated in 2008 as an annual award to acknowledge and amplify the work of individuals and collectives living and working in Europe whose creative practice can help construct social horizons of hope and sustainability.

Over the last ten years the wider repercussions of global changes have posed numerous social and political challenges. The decade has been marked by economic, environmental, and democratic crises; by tragedy, conflict, and an ever-increasing acceleration of movement—ideas, goods, and people constantly in motion, intersecting and, all too often, colliding. In the face of these upheavals, ECF has sought to highlight the courage of cultural changemakers who engage with culture as a critical space for renegotiating our ways of understanding the world and tracing the contours of a more democratic future. Since its inception, the Award has honoured laureates as diverse as the cultural fields in which they work. They come from performing and visual arts, literature, music, film, cultural activism, architecture, digital and media culture. Previous laureates include the late cultural theorist Stuart Hall; theatre makers Krétakör; citizen laboratory Medialab-Prado; foundation for the commons Teatro Valle Occupato; artists Lia and Dan Perjovschi and writers Navid Kermani and Aslı Erdoğan.

For more than 60 years, the European Cultural Foundation has been catalyzing change and connecting people through culture. From grassroots to policymakers, the ECF has been connecting cultural changemakers across Europe and beyond.

Visit the ECF website for more information.