Call for applications 2023: Regional grants

Please note that the deadline for submitting applications is 16:00 on the last day of the application period. This is the absolute deadline by which time Taike must receive the application.

Grant applications may be submitted online during the application period.

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

Intended recipients

These grants are intended for professional artists and art journalists, and working groups formed by them.

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 regional arts councils based on a presentation by special advisor. The presentation process is a decision-making method used in public administration, where the presenting official prepares the decision proposals and presents them to the competent decision-makers.

Purpose

You can apply for a regional grant in the form of either a working grant or a project grant.

Working grants

Working grants are intended for professional artistic work. Working grants are awarded for working period lasting 4–6 months without interruption. Grant period can start 1.6.2023 and the period ends 31.12.2023. The grant period cannot begin retroactively.

The amount of each working grant is 2000 euros/month. The grant recipient is obligated to pay the statutory pension insurance contribution in accordance with the applicable Farmers’ Pensions Act (MYEL), which covers also grant recipients. The premium percentage rate is 13–25% of the total amount of the grant. The amount of the insurance premium is based on the recipient’s age and computational annual earnings, as stipulated in the insurance decision. Further information about premiums is available on the website of the Farmers’ Social Insurance Institution Mela.

Working grants are not available to applicants

• who have been awarded a full-year State artist grant or other working grant for the same period
• who have been awarded a supplementary State artist pension.

Other paid employment during the grant period is permitted.

Project grants

Project grants are intended for the individual projects of professional artists implemented during 2023-2024. The project must begin during the calendar year in which the grant was awarded. Private persons carrying on trade (“toiminimi”) may also apply.

Artist or expert in different fields of the arts can be awarded a project grant for international mobility and networking.
Project grants may be used to cover, for example:

• material costs
• production costs
• working costs
• travel costs.

You can apply for a project grant with one application only. Select the artform that your project most closely involves. If your project combines different artforms in such a way that established artforms no longer adequately describe the project, you should select multidisciplinary art. You can also apply for a grant for artistic work or projects in the field of children’s culture.

Grants are not awarded:

• for completing an undergraduate degree
• for amateurs or hobby-based projects
• non-fiction literature.

The amount of the grant is no less than 2500 euros.

If the project includes artistic work that is to be covered by the grant, indicate the amount of working time that is being applied for in months. The amount of the grant used to cover work can be calculated as 2000 euros/month.
Previously allocated grants are listed 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 use:

Working grants and project grants

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?

Working grants

Quality of the working plan

• How clear and strong is the artistic idea on which the working plan is based?
• How long-term, well-planned and feasible is the artistic work?
• Does the working plan involve professional development, new ideas or methods?

Project grants

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?

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?

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.

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

General terms and conditions

• Grants awarded by other parties are taken into consideration when awarding grants.
• New grants shall not be awarded if previously awarded grants for same purpose have not been used.
• Grant recipients must submit written clarification and a calculation (project grant) of how the grant was used after 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.

Working grant recipients must take out pension and accident insurance. The insurance obligation also applies to project grant recipients if they use the grant money to work for at least 4 months in a row. The insurance must be applied for within three months of the start of the grant period. 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 4 MB.

Visual arts applicants should also include 1 to 5 images of their works in pdf format (maximum file size 4 MB), including details about the name, technique, size and date of each work. Files containing videos or other moving images may not be sent as attachments. Instead, we recommend that artists include a link to their own websites on their applications. Attachments may not be sent by e-mail.

Applicants are responsible for ensuring that attachments contain the information required in the call for applications.

Grounds for not awarding a grant

• If the application arrives after the application deadline. Applications must be received by Taike no later than 4:00pm on the last day of the application period.
• If the application is incomplete (if the required information has not been delivered to Taike following a request for such information).
• If the applicant has not submitted written clarification of grants previously awarded by Taike 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 Transfers (688/2001); and the Administrative Procedure Act (434/2003). Taike 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 May. 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.

Further information

t. 0295 330 700  
[email protected]