The Fondation Sommer is a private grant-making foundation under Luxembourg law, recognized as being of public utility. Created in 2016 by Pierre Brahms and governed by statutes and the law of August 7, 2023, as amended, on non-profit associations and foundations (the “2023 law”), the foundation aims to support the “empowerment” of children and young people in Luxembourg through arts and culture.
Appels à projets
By means of three calls for projects, the Sommer Foundation aims to support several participatory projects that will use culture and the arts as tools for free self-expression, and that will translate its goal of empowering people into concrete activities involving children and young people, thereby having a positive impact on our society.
The next deadlines for sending the applications are:
- January 26, 2026 (jury decision: February 24, 2026)
- May 11, 2026 (jury decision: June 09, 2026)
- September 28, 2026 (jury decision: October 27, 2026)
Prior to submitting your application, do not hesitate to contact us to discuss the project and check its eligibility.
Call1 for projects: Cultural projects in pairs
Call for projects for:
- cultural and educational structures
-
cultural structures and active structures for citizenship, integration and social action
for the execution of a joint project.
Call2 for projects: Educational projects
Call for projects for artists, cultural structures and active structures for citizenship, integration and social action, for the development of educational activities as part of an artistic or cultural project.
Call3 for projects: Joint intercultural projects
Call for projects for cultural initiatives promoting intercultural exchange in Luxembourg (projects submitted in teams).
Projects supported
Through the projects that it supports, the Sommer Foundation aims to stimulate the minds of children and youngsters and make them more inquisitive so that they can participate in our society through the medium of culture and the arts. It encourages the creation of new forms of cooperation between partners from different communities and with different viewpoints, so that the people and cultures in Luxembourg may understand each other better.
Vibrations Jeunes
What if music became a way of learning about oneself? This is the challenge that the Réidener Jugendtreff took up, running regular music workshops for young people aged 12 to 20 from March 2025 to June 2026. The workshops covered singing, songwriting, performance and stage presence. The young participants were mentored by instructors such as Pascal Gualandris, Don Gio and Claudio Borri, and received constant support from the Jugendtreff’s educational team. The project quickly expanded beyond music, with rehearsals providing an opportunity to discuss topics such as self-confidence, stress management, and emotional expression. The team tailored the workshops to the participants’ needs. After more than fifty sessions, around sixty young people had participated in the project, including twenty-five who were involved from start to finish, right through to the group recording and production of a music video.
Nikki Ninja - Educational Project
What if hip-hop became a space for learning how to fall, and how to get back up? That is the aim of the Nikki Ninja project, which, over the course of twelve workshops from January to March 2026, brought together two classes with very different backgrounds, where fifteen nationalities came together in the same room. Guided by Nicole Bausch and Gilles Seyler, the thirty students explored the world of Nikki Ninja by writing their first rap lyrics, whilst tackling, in a light-hearted way, issues that affect them closely: the right to make mistakes, what they dream of becoming, and what their lives will be like in twenty years’ time.
The project wasn’t limited to writing: the students from Mersch designed their own costumes alongside costume designer Alexandra Lichtenberger, whilst those from Eich learnt the basics of graffiti with graphic designer Sascha di Giambattista. A guided tour of Neimënster, where the stage and its technical backstage areas were revealed to them, rounded off this journey ahead of the album’s release in early June.
©Ben Wagner, Mierscher TheaterLocker Room Talk
What does it mean to be a man today? It is this question, born of a very personal reflection by the actor Jan Jaroszek following the birth of his son, that the Mierscher Theater has chosen to bring to the stage. Not as a thesis, but as an act of listening. Even before opening the stage’s ‘locker room’, the creative team, led by Jan Jaroszek, Therese Lösch and Romy Weyrauch, visited seven classes in five secondary schools across the country, where, in an atmosphere of trust, they gathered the young people’s views, doubts and lived experiences regarding masculinity and gender norms. It is these very voices, recorded and sometimes recognised by their own speakers in the audience, that form the raw material of the show, structured as a news feed made up of fragments and situations that echo one another.
Objets Migrateurs
From October 2025 to July 2026, 17 students from class S5L2 at the École Internationale de Differdange, guided by the director and actor Serge Wolfsperger, delved into their own family histories of exile and migration. Drawing on personal objects, photographs and home films, they wrote autobiographical stories in their mother tongue, which were translated into French, before developing them further through theatre and film work inspired by Laurent Gaudé’s play ‘Caillasses‘. From writing to staging, via filming and commenting on their own footage, the students became narrators and spokespeople for family stories that had often remained hidden.
These intimate narratives, developed through a series of discussions, took shape in the exhibition ‘Objets Migrateurs’, which run for several months at the Centre de Documentation sur les Migrations Humaines (CDMH) in Dudelange, from the opening on 4 July until the closing at the end of October 2026.
Artelier
Artelier is a project conceived and organized by the youth collective F.O.M.O. (Friends Who Organize Magical Occasions), in partnership with Stayfou asbl. Designed by young people for young people, the project aimed to make local culture more accessible, highlight local artists and initiatives, and strengthen community ties during the winter months. The program was a huge success: more than 190 participants took part in the event.
AWA Platform — Vol. 4
Bringing together the amateur and professional worlds of dance: this has been the mission of the AWA Platform since its creation in 2018 by choreographers Baptiste Hilbert and Catarina Barbosa. For its fourth edition, running from February 16 to March 1, 2026, the biennial brought together dancers from across the country and beyond, with workshops held at TROIS C-L and performances at Kinneksbond. The highlight of this year’s festival was a new work by choreographer Anne-Mareike Hess with the CND Luxembourg Junior Company, which gave young aspiring dancers the chance to experience a professional creative process from the inside. Both the opening and closing nights, which featured eight pieces by emerging choreographers, were sold out.
Eloquentia - Je porte donc je suis
Public speaking, debating, persuading: these are just some of the skills that the Eloquentia programme helps Luxembourg secondary school students develop each year. For this second edition, held from 17 to 21 November 2025, ten groups from six secondary schools across the country came together for five days, guided by trainers from the Eloquentia association, to practise public speaking techniques. The novelty of this edition lay in its central theme: fair trade textiles. By partnering with the ‘Rethink Your Clothes’ campaign run by the NGO Fairtrade Lëtzebuerg, the competition, renamed for the occasion ‘I wear, therefore I think’, invited students to transform their questions about fashion and consumption into committed speeches. One hundred secondary school students learned how to deliver a message close to their hearts in front of an audience, culminating in the grand final organised on 8 December 2025 at Neimënster by the Institut français du Luxembourg, in front of 120 spectators.
Zempia, pile ou face
“Zempia, pile ou face”, an Afro-contemporary choreographic and musical production, brought together professional dancers and students from the EIMAB (Anne Beffort International School) and EIDE (International School of Differdange and Esch-sur-Alzette) high schools. Through educational workshops and five performances, the students explored the theme of resilience through dance and music. The project, organized by the asbl AlterCadence primarily addressed injustice, trauma, and the transformation of negative emotions into positive strength.
10 Years of an Inclusive Music School in Luxembourg
To mark the 10th anniversary of Reboredo’s Music School in Differdange, its founder, João Reboredo, led an artistic and educational project that brought together 40 students around the story of a little boy who dreamed of starting a music school. With the guidance of five educators, the young participants were involved in every stage of the creative process, from writing the lyrics to creating the illustrations, as well as rehearsing and recording the songs performed during music classes. This collaborative project resulted in the publication of an illustrated book and a CD, which serve as lasting testimonies to the experience.
Fun Acting for Film: YOUTH
This project, led by the non-profit organization Club Créatif pour Jeunes Actifs, aimed to bring together eight young participants aged 16 to 25 to create three short films. From brainstorming and scriptwriting to acting in front of the camera, the participants were involved in every stage of the project.
Following the workshops and filming, a screening was held at Cercle Cité, giving the participants the opportunity to walk the red carpet and proudly present the culmination of several months of work.