FAQ Artist Start

The Artist Start grant can only be awarded once. If you have already received the Artist Start grant, you may be eligible for support through the Artist Basic or Artist Project grants.

The Artist Start grant is intended to boost the artistic development and cultural entrepreneurship of starting artists. It is important that your plan addresses this: what are your plans for the year ahead? In which direction would you like to move with your work, and how does this relate to your previous work? Will you be collaborating? What is your role in the collaboration? Also outline how you would like to present your work and/or working process (e.g. an exhibition, website, blog, open studio or workshop). Also outline your envisaged audience, and why this is a relevant audience (max. 3 pages).

In order to determine whether you are sufficiently active in professional visual art circles, we examine: the exhibitions at art institutions that you have been involved with, publications and acquisitions, commissions, grants or awards that you previously received.

The grants offered by the Mondriaan Fund, including Artist Start, are only for artists who are already artistically and substantively active within the visual arts field, and part of the professional visual arts practice in the Netherlands and/or Caribbean part of the Kingdom.

If you have graduated from a programme with a visual arts curriculum, the 4 years is calculated from the date on your diploma. If there is an interim period between the date upon which you graduated from the Bachelor’s programme with a visual arts curriculum and the start of your Master’s programme, this period will be considered as part of your professional practice.

If you have not completed a study programme with a visual arts curriculum, the date on which you first presented work in professional art circles will be considered the start of your professional practice.

Yes, it is. Artists with the Dutch nationality are eligible for our grants irrespective of where they live. It is important that you are artistically and substantively active, and part of the professional visual arts sector in the Netherlands and/or the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.

When we say ‘part of’, we mean that you have had exhibitions here, your work has been acquired or sold here, or you have been involved with commissions. Or that you have received grants or awards in the past. You could also be a tutor, or have published a book here.

Yes, you can, if you live in the Netherlands or the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. It is also important that you are artistically and substantively active, and part of the professional visual arts sector in the Netherlands and/or the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.

Mondriaan Fund staff cannot offer substantive feedback on your application, but they can check whether your application is complete prior to submission.

If you would like substantive feedback, we recommend asking friends, family members or colleagues to read your application. They can check whether your application comes across as you intend it to, and whether it is comprehensible to an outsider.

It is certainly a good idea to mention that you work in various artistic media.

If you work in different fields, such as visual arts and graphic design, we recommend first contacting a grant officer for the grant.

Mondriaan Fund grant officers can browse your CV to check whether you are eligible for a grant. However, they cannot offer substantive feedback or give any indication of your chances of success.

It is possible to submit an application as a collective, as long as all of the artists satisfy the conditions. Each artist submits an application individually, even though the plans will (partly) overlap.

It may be the case that not all of the artists are awarded grants.

As part of the work plan, you are asked to outline how you plan to present your work and/or working process. This does not necessarily need to be in an exhibition; it could also be a website, blog, open studio or workshop. You are also asked to outline your envisaged audience, and to explain why this is a relevant audience.

If you are not awarded a grant, you can request additional justification of the advisory committee recommendation. Please note: this justification is directed at the board of the Mondriaan Fund, and is not feedback on your work, directed at you as the artist. In this justification, the advisory committee justifies to the board of the Mondriaan Fund why it is of the opinion that the application does not (sufficiently) satisfy the criteria for the grant, and why the committee hence recommends that the grant is not awarded.

If you are awarded an Artist Start grant, you can participate in the Prospects exhibition at Art Rotterdam (subject to change) 2 calendar years later. So if you are awarded an Artist Start grant in 2024, you will be invited to participate in Prospects 2026.

No, that is not necessary.

If you have not completed a Bachelor’s or Master’s programme with a visual arts curriculum, we check the date on which you first presented work in professional art circles. This needs to be at least 1 year ago. We consider this date to be the start of your professional practice.

It is not permitted to apply for or use a contribution while enrolled to study at educational institutions for e.g. Bachelor’s, Master’s, postgraduate, postdoctoral or PhD programmes. The exception is part-time programmes (not Bachelor’s programmes) of less than 20 hours a week.

No, it is not permitted to submit an application if you are a resident at a postgraduate institution. You can submit an application after you have completed the programme. Please note that artists are only eligible for the Artist Start grant if they have a professional practice of no more than 4 years, and that the period during which you attend a programme at a postgraduate or postdoctoral institution counts towards the professional practice.

You do not need to have completed an art programme to be eligible for our grants. You are also eligible if you are self-taught or if you have completed an alternative study.

That being said, it is important that your work can be considered autonomous visual art. If your work is more design-oriented, you can consider applying for a grant from the Creative Industries Fund NL.

If you are unsure whether you are eligible for our grants due to your (design) background, please contact one of the grant officers for the grant. It will be easier for them to help if you include your CV.

Fine art Bachelor’s and Master’s study programmes at international institutions also count as programmes with a visual arts curriculum. In this case, we use the date on your diploma to determine the length of your artistic practice.

You are not required to draft a financial plan for the Artist Start grant, or to provide a final financial report afterwards.

For the Artist Start grant, your total taxable income must not exceed € 55,000. This is assessed based on the income tax return for the preceding calendar year. If you submit your application between 1 January and 1 October, you can use the total taxable income from the year before. If you did not (yet) live in the Netherlands at the time, submit the income tax return for the country where you were living.

If you have not filed income tax returns in either of the stated years, submit a statement of your income, a statement explaining why you have not filed tax returns and/or proof from the tax authorities showing that you were not required to file tax returns.