For whom
Heritage Innovation grants are for museums and cultural heritage institutions that manage collections with open public presentation objectives, including archives.
The Mondriaan Fund offers Heritage Innovation grants to stimulate museums and heritage institutions managing collections to develop innovative initiatives that result in transition, including research, new programming, exceptional thematic collaborations and redesigns that are relevant to society.
For what
- Realising an initiative: Research or programmes focused on new forms for the presentationprogramming and initiatives or new designs or layouts for cultural heritage organizations. This could entail research into new ways of preserving and managing contemporary art or towards the development of new narratives that can be expressed through the collection.
- Collaborations between museums and other organizations that manage collections, either between themselves or together with other cultural parties in the field of research and scholarship, public reach or collection management.
- Conducting a feasibility study as part of the development process towards a programme or a thematic collaboration.
How much
The amount of the stipend is separately determined for each individual application. The stipend for an innovative programme is a maximum of 40% of the flexible costs. The costs of the total programme must be over € 25,000. For a feasibility study, the amount can be no more than 70% of the costs, with a total maximum award of € 15,000.
Apply
Applications for the Heritage Innovation grant can be submitted twice each year, using the Mondriaan Fund online application system. Deadlines for the submission in 2025 are 15 May and 9 October, 4 P.M. (Dutch time zone) / 10 A.M. (Caribbean time zone). You first apply through the website for an account with the Mondriaan Fund, which you need in order to apply. When determining your dates, keep in mind that the processing of your application will take 3 months after the deadline. A grant cannot be awarded retroactively.
Conditions
- Cultural Heritage Innovation grants are available to museums and other collection-managing cultural heritage institutions with a public function that are primarily focused on presenting cultural heritage and/or visual arts in the Netherlands and the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.
- Higher art education institutions and sector institutes without collections may not apply.
- Activities that are already or will be financed through other Mondriaan Fund support, under the Regeling op het specifiek cultuurbeleid, or through any other provisions financed from public funds do not qualify.
- Cultural Heritage Innovation grants cannot be requested for fixed costs, for building or founding museums or for regular operations.
- The minimum budget of the project must exceed € 25,000. The maximum contribution from the Mondriaan Fund is 40% of the project costs.
- The maximum contribution for feasibility studies is € 15,000. For these studies, the maximum contribution of the Mondriaan Fund is 70% of the total project costs.
- The disposal of collections must be carried out in accordance with the Guide to the Disposal of Museum Objects and, where possible, in accordance with the valuation framework of the Cultural Heritage Agency.
- An application for a collaboration must be accompanied by a jointly reasoned plan that includes: an explanation of how the applicant will safeguard the knowledge and experience gained and share it with the museum field; a presentation plan; a budget with, where possible, price estimates and, if applicable, a statement of commitment from inviting or participating parties. For applications in the area of collection mobility, a collection plan from both the receiving and the relinquishing museum is required.
- If artists are involved in the programme, realistic remuneration for the artist is required. In the case of temporary exhibitions or presentations with no sales purpose, artists should be paid fairly. In the budget, use one of these two calculators for your fair fee calculations.
- Applicants subscribe to the Fair Practice Code (Dutch only), the Culture Governance Code (Dutch only) and the Diversity & Inclusion Code (Dutch only). Compliance with the Fair Practice Code automatically means that the institution implements the codes.
Assessment
Mondriaan Fund staff check the submitted applications and attachments to ensure that they are complete. Once an application is complete, it is submitted to the committee that advises on awarding a Heritage Innovation grant.
The committee will always assess whether the programme contributes to a high-quality offering. The committee uses an inclusive understanding of quality, taking into account the individual context within which each application is submitted or implemented. A Heritage Innovation grant can only be awarded if the committee advises to that effect.
Due to budgetary restrictions, we are unfortunately not always able to award grants to all applications that receive positive advisories from the committee. In this case, the Mondriaan Fund Board asks the advisory committee to prioritise the positive advisories. This means that an application may receive a positive advisory, but a grant is nevertheless not awarded.
Checklist
To process your application, the Mondriaan Fund needs information. All of this information can be submitted in the application form itself, together with documentation that you can upload. Here below is a checklist that follows the layout of the application form and contains all the information required.
Tip: collect all your information before you start filling out the online application form. Your attachments should be uploaded as PDFs. Please note: make sure that your documents meet the stated conditions. Otherwise, we will unfortunately not be able to process your request. Do not exceed the number of pages where a maximum is indicated.