Goethe-Institut’s Visual Arts Project Fund (Germany)

It funds projects that foster artistic and curatorial cooperation across national and continental borders. As such, the program provides opportunities to develop cross-border modes of discourse and research in complex and supra-regional projects and to experiment with collaborative formats, processes and structures.

What they fund?

• Artistic and curatorial projects based on transnational, cooperative organizational structures and themes that can be expected to foster artistic excellence and strong public impact.
• The fund invites experimentation with (interdisciplinary) formats of cooperation and presentation.
• Complex, multi-layered projects that involve a multiplicity of contexts, regions and partners are especially encouraged.
• The project fund will not provide full financing. Project budgets are expected to include a minimum of 10% in participant’s personal contributions or third-party funding.
• The maximum funding amount is 25,000 Euros.

Whom they fund?

• Professional cultural workers, curators, artists, art mediators, art and cultural theorists from Germany and at least one additional country, working on a joint project.
• In order to be eligible, the project application must be submitted by a minimum of two equal partners. One of the partners’ professional and personal life must be centered in Germany, while other partners must be living and working in at least one other country.

Funding Criteria

• The quality of the concept and the standing of the participants in their respective professional and cultural milieu.
• The projected impact of the project results on artistic and discursive topics.
• Relevance of the concept to contemporary issues.
• An equitable and dialogue-based approach to cooperation that averts dominance by any one person or group.
• Establishing of sustained models of collaboration.
• Sustainable and considered allocation of resources.
• Emphasis on diversity and inclusion.
• A realistic, balanced budget that includes confirmed own/third-party contributions for a minimum 10% of the total funding request. In the event that neither is available, please provide an explanation.
• The Visual Arts Project Fund seeks to provide spaces for critical reflections on Western European /North American modes of discourse, and to develop alternative perspectives.

For more information, visit Goethe-Institut.