Call for application

Call for applications 2023: Project Grants for art forms

Project grants are intended for individual projects made by professional artists to be realised in 2024–2025. The project must begin in 2024.

Application period

Decisions

Applicants will be notified of the decision by the end of March.

For what purpose

Project grants are intended for individual projects made by professional artists to be realised in 2024–2025.

For whom

Grants are intended for professional artists or working groups formed by them. Private traders (“toiminimi”) may also apply.

Who decides

Grant decisions are made by national arts councils based on proposals by special advisors.

About applying

The Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike) requires that applicants familiarise themselves with the call for applications before filling in the application.

The deadline for submitting applications is 16:00 (4:00pm) on the last day of the application period.

This is the absolute deadline by which time Taike must receive the application.

Applications should be submitted online during the application period.

Applicants are required to familiarise themselves with the call for applications before filling in the application.

Intended recipients

Grants are intended for professional artists or working groups formed by them. Private traders (“toiminimi”) may also apply.

A professional artist is one who creates, performs or interprets art as their primary or secondary occupation. A professional artist has an education in a specific field of the arts or otherwise acquired professional expertise in the arts.

Who decides

Grant decisions are made by national arts councils based on presentations by special advisors.

Purpose and amount

Project grants are intended for individual projects made by professional artists to be realised in 2024–2025. The project must begin in 2024.

You can apply for a project grant with one application only and for one project only. If you submit more than one application, only the newest one will be evaluated. In addition to one personal application, you can also be the contact person for no more than one working group and a member of other working groups.

Select the artform that your project most closely involves. For multidisciplinary art projects, select the artform that best suits the project.

Project grants may be used to cover, for example:

  • material costs
  • production costs
  • working costs connected to the project
  • travel costs.

Project grants are not awarded for:

  • undergraduate studies 
  • other study-related costs
  • amateurs or hobby-based projects 
  • non-fiction literature.

The minimum amount of each project grant is 2500 euros. The maximum amount that can be applied for to cover working costs is 6000 euros per person.

Previously awarded project grants are listed on the Taike website under Awarded Grants and Subsidies.

Decision-making criteria

The awarding of grants is based on an evaluation, comparison and overall assessment of applications. When evaluating applications, the following criteria and questions are used, not all of which need to be fulfilled. There is no weighting in the decision-making criteria.

The regional distribution and language of applicants are taken into consideration, as is the amount of available funding. Equality and fair treatment are also taken into account, as are the special characteristics of cultural and linguistic minorities. All grants are discretionary, i.e. there is no subjective right to them, even if all the criteria are fulfilled.

1. Previous artistic merits of the applicant

  • Is the applicant a professional? Are the members of the working group professionals?
  • What is the quality of the applicant’s previous artistic works?
  • How noteworthy is the applicant in his/her field of the arts?

2. Quality and impact of the project

  • How interesting are the project plan and its objectives?
  • What is the quality of the project’s artistic content?
  • How does the project encourage an understanding of or discussion about art?
  • What is the impact of the project regionally, nationally or internationally?
  • What kinds of ideas and operating models does the project offer to the field of the arts, artists and audiences?
  • What kinds of cooperation partners does the project have?
  • How realistic is the project in terms of implementation?

3. Project financing

  • How realistic is the project’s budget?
  • How essential is the grant for implementing the project?
  • Is the amount that has been applied for in proportion to the contents and scope of the project?
  • Does the project have other financing? Has other funding been confirmed for the project?

If the applicant is a working group

  • The application should be made by the contact person for the working group. The names of the other members of the working group should be included in the application.
  • The contact person should include with the application a short description of the artistic activities of each member of the working group.
  • Each member of the working group is responsible for how the grant funds are spent and for providing clarification. The contact person for the working group is responsible for submitting the clarification by the deadline.

General terms and conditions

  • Grants awarded by other parties are taken into consideration when awarding grants.
  • Grant recipients must use the grant during the year in which it was awarded or no later than during the following year. 
  • New grants shall not be awarded if previously awarded grants for same purpose have not been used.
  • Grant recipients must submit written clarification of how the grant was used at the end of the grant period.
  • Grant recipients may not transfer personal grant funds or those of a working group to the account of a company or community.
  • Grants are awarded on condition that Parliament allocates the required appropriations in its annual State budget.

The grant recipient must take out pension and accident insurance if working on the grant for at least 4 months without interruption. The insurance obligation also applies to those working on a grant as part of a working group. The insurance must be applied for within three months of the payment of the grant. Applications should be submitted to the Farmers' Social Insurance Institution Mela. Further information: www.mela.fi.

What to include with your application

  • Mandatory: CV of the artist or combined CV for the members of a working group.
  • In addition, you may also include two more attachments that are relevant to your application. The file names should describe the content. The maximum file size for each attachment is 4MB.

Visual arts applicants should also include 3 to 5 images of their works in pdf format, including details about the name, technique, size and date of each work. For videos or other moving images, a link to the publishing platform with any passwords should be included. If you are applying for a grant for the making of a photographic art book, include a sample of the book in pdf format.

Attachments may not be sent by e-mail.

Grounds for disqualification

  • If the application arrives after the application deadline. Applications must be received by the Arts Promotion Centre Finland by 16:00 (4:00pm) on the last day of the application period.
  • If the application is incomplete.
  • If the applicant has not submitted written clarification of previously awarded grants before the given deadline.

Grant decisions are subject to the Act (657/2012) and statute (727/2012) on Taiteen edistämiskeskus (only in Finnish); Discretionary Government Grants (688/2001); and the Administrative Procedure Act (434/2003). The Arts Promotion Centre Finland monitors the use of grants and is entitled if necessary to review the finances and activities of the recipient.

How to apply

Log in and fill in the application online (user interface in Finnish)

To log in you will need eBanking identifiers, a mobile certificate or an electronic ID card.

Instructions for using online services 

If you are unable to use our online services, please contact Taike’s customer service.

Guidelines for applicants 

Notification of decision

All applicants will be notified of the decision in writing by the end of March. Applicants will be informed by e-mail when the decision can be accessed from our online services.

If you do not receive the e-mail to your inbox, remember to check also your junk mail folder. Applicants are responsible for checking their e-mail messages on the address supplied in the application.

Publicity of applications

Applications submitted to Taike are public documents, about which everyone is entitled to receive information according to Finnish law (Act on the Openness of Government Activities 621/1999). For example, the media can request to view applications. Taike does not disclose confidential information. Matters related to a person's privacy, for example contact information and matters related to health and financial situation, are always confidential. Work plans are also confidential to the extent that they contain information considered to be business secrets, such as artistic ideas.

Taike submits information about all grant decisions for publication on the tutkiavustuksia.fi website (Act on Discretionary Government Grants 688/2001 and Government Decree 1394/2022). Applicants can choose when applying whether they consent to the publication of the decision on the Taike website. The submission of decision information to the Tutkiavustuksia.fi service cannot be refused, however, even if the applicant has not given consent to the publication of their name on the Taike website.

Further information

Customer service, t. 0295 330 700, [email protected]