Ballet and opera have held a special place in the hearts of many for generations, but these artforms are now in need of renewal and rejuvenation, not just for the audience, but for artists and the work produced.

“We wanted to encourage opera houses to not be risk-averse and to give emerging artists the chance to develop new work that reflects today’s society, today’s challenges as a human being, and to encourage the exploration of new ways of artistic expression.”

Creativity should be celebrated, and FEDORA certainly believes in this ethos. And what better way to capture the hearts and minds of talented performers and creators than with the opportunity to showcase their work? Gänz says, “Our President Jérôme-François Zieseniss had the brilliant idea of developing a prize competition – the now established FEDORA – VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Prize for Ballet (€100,000) and FEDORA – GENERALI Prize for Opera (€150,000).

“Our major sponsors and trusted partners share this vision of encouraging innovation and creativity in the field of opera and ballet. And since these are fields that live and breathe these elements, it was about harnessing that potential and giving them the chance and funding needed to bring new projects to life. That’s what makes this competition so unique, as the projects we receive aren’t projects that have been realized yet.”

FEDORA is also about advocating philanthropy in Europe and beyond. Traditionally, opera houses and ballet companies’ key resources came from government support, but, unfortunately, culture is one of the first things to go with budget cuts.

Gänz says, “One of the new key pillars to contribute to the sustainability of these artforms is philanthropy and private giving.

“In Anglo-Saxon countries, especially in the US, private giving is more advanced and more integrated in the culture, because the government pulled out much earlier.

“Whereas in Scandinavian or Germanic countries, where government support is extremely active, you still have a mentality and cultural approach of, ‘I’m paying taxes, why should I make donations, too?’

 “So, it’s important to speak with the audience. We need an audience, and they should be pulled in to see what it takes to create an opera or ballet, that there are people and departments working together to reach the goal of the curtain rising every night.”

Although not always the main goal within an organization, receiving commendation for hard work and determination can be the icing on the cake, particularly when it helps with fundraising.

Gänz says, “So far we’ve invested one million euros in 10 new innovative artistic projects, co-produced by 64 cultural institutions, in 15 countries. We’re delighted that over 200 opera and ballet performances have taken place that were attended by more than 100,000 young people. This is possible through the generous support of our prize sponsors Generali and Van Cleef & Arpels. The European Union saw the novel approach of the privately funded prize competition, giving artistic creation a stage and a chance to develop new ideas.

“The Creative Europe funding program of the EU selected our organization to help scale our activities and build a unique European platform that showcases new operas and ballets that haven’t been staged yet. While harnessing the digital shift, the audience will discover what it takes to build a new opera or ballet, who is involved in this creation process and how a project is brought to life starting with a strong creative idea.”

FEDORA turns five in 2019, and Gänz beams with excitement at how the organization has progressed. She says, “It’s a big milestone. Over the past four years we built a network of 80 opera houses, festivals, ballet companies and friends associations in 20 countries.

“Moreover, we built partnerships with major donors from the private sector and we’re very grateful for the support and trust of Docteur Léone Noëlle Meyer, Gianmarco Monsellato, the King Baudouin Foundation, the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation, Mangopay, the AVL Cultural Foundation, Carlara International, Drieux-Combalouzier, Drooms and Graf von Faber-Castell.”

“Our goal now is to scale the competition and build new prize categories. There will be an education prize next year, and a digital prize the following year.”

“In the fourth year, we’re going to launch in collaboration with our expert partner Transnational Giving Europe, an online transnational giving app which allows international donors to make donations to a cause close to their heart – and they’ll receive a tax receipt valid in their country automatically. We want to harness this digital shift to take away borders of giving which are administrative.”

“Thanks to the co-funding of the Creative Europe program of the EU, FEDORA will be the first non-profit organization to test-launch this innovative app and the idea is to make it scalable to all non-profit sectors in Europe. Therefore, we are sharing best practices and are in constant dialogue with other organizations in other fields such as Common Goal. We’re really excited about this and are already working on launching this by 2020.”