The fund Cultura Face Bine, a national funding mechanism for cultural projects backed by private-sector financing, will begin supporting local cultural organizations in 2026.

The fund aims to support grassroots cultural initiatives with a proven impact in their communities and which need resources to continue, develop, or transform their activities.

The funding mechanism has been developed by the cultural organizations and companies affiliated to the program Cultura Face Bine (CFB), which brings together the business and cultural sectors "for better collaboration and increased collective impact in Romania."

Cluj Cultural Center, an NGO that gathers 150 institutions and organizations that manage various cultural development programs and the city's cultural strategy, is the organization coordinating the program Cultura Face Bine.

At present, the companies affiliated with Cultura Face Bine contribute EUR 2,500 annually to the fund. Any interested company can join the project and support the fund's further development, the initiators said.

For the 2026 pilot edition of the funding mechanism, the affiliated cultural organizations will propose the projects. The fund will offer micro-grants of EUR 2,000, within the budget available at the date of selection, as well as access to CFB events, communication support, and other networking opportunities. Projects in visual arts, music, theater, heritage, literature, film, design, new media, community cultural activations, and interdisciplinary ones are among those eligible.

The selection will be made by a technical secretariat, with support from the CFB board. Criteria such as relevance, feasibility, and impact potential will be taken into account.

The members of the CFB board are Sergiu Mircea, executive director for marketing & communication at Banca Transilvania; Liviu Jicman, president of the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR); Gilda Lazăr, communication director of the George Enescu Festival; and Dana Pîrțoc, executive director of the Community Relations Association.

CFB will allow organizations to access funding quickly and without bureaucracy, Ștefan Teișanu, the executive director of Cluj Cultural Center, explained at the fund's launch event. Applicants will be able to use the funding including for their organizations' operational expenses, not exclusively for program-related ones as is required in most publicly-funded mechanisms.

"To conceive this fund, we established, together with other colleagues in cultural organizations in the country, a movement called Cultura Face Bine, where the business and culture sectors come together at several debate and networking events, which we organize in Bucharest, Cluj, and, starting next year in Timișoara and Iași. At these events, we try to facilitate this constant framework for meeting and discussing so that business and culture can understand each other better and establish deeper collaborations," Teișanu said.

The pilot edition will also be an opportunity to fine-tune it and to work on the program's governing mechanisms, he explained.

"We are getting involved in this initiative because ICR is convinced that, even more so in difficult times, solidarity is not only needed but essential. The meeting between the business and cultural sectors is very important because it means more than a simple funding mechanism; it is a better connection with the community," ICR president Liviu Jicman said.

The first members affiliated to CFB are the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR), Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF), The Institute (Romanian Design Week), Fapte (Jazz in the Park), Arobs, Cărturești, DeLonghi, Komiti, MHP - A Porsche Company, PPC, and Wincon, alongside initiators Cluj Cultural Center and Banca Transilvania.

The deadline for registering funding requests is February 1. The selection of projects will be announced on March 1. Further details are available on the CFB website.

(Photo left to right: Gilda Lazăr, Liviu Jicman, and Ștefan Teișanu at the fund's launch event, courtesy of ICR)

simona@romania-insider.com