When young people's mental illness and school absence increase, the cultural schools respond with new methods. This year's development grants largely go to initiatives that lower the thresholds, build trust and reach children who were previously excluded from the cultural school.
This year, the Swedish Arts Council is allocating approximately SEK 95 million to development initiatives within the cultural school. The grant will strengthen the cultural schools' opportunities to develop their activities and reach more children and young people. It is distributed to individual municipalities to strengthen their own operations, but also to larger joint initiatives with other municipalities.
A total of 348 applications have been received from municipalities in all counties in the country. The total amount applied for amounts to approximately SEK 242 million, which means that the grant has been heavily overapplied for this year as well. All applicant municipalities are granted funding, but to a reduced extent