Artist Basic (2021-2024)

• The applicant must have been professionally active as a visual artist for 4 years or more. An advanced art education is not required to be eligible for an Artist Basic grant.
• Artists who have completed a higher visual arts degree programme may not apply until 4 years after leaving the academy. Periods in which the artist is studying for a master’s degree in visual arts do not count for the periode of professional practice
• Periods in which the applicant participated in post-academic institutions or working studios, such as the Ateliers, Rijksakademie, BAK, EKWC or the Jan van Eyck Academy do count towards the required 4 years of professional practice.
• The Artist Basic grant cannot be used to pay for study. It cannot be used while attending higher educational institutions, such as bachelor or master programmes, post-academic or post-graduate programmes.
• To be eligible for a grant, you must be artistically active in the visual arts and in that capacity be embedded in the professional visual arts practice in the Netherlands and/or the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.

• Artist Basic grants can be awarded no more than once every 4 years.
• An artist who has previously been rejected on the grounds of artistic performance may not apply for an Artist Basic grant for a period of 12 months after the first application date.
• An artist may not apply for an Artist Basic grant during the term of other financial support from the Mondriaan Fund if the fund board believes that the contribution will cover the same costs.

• To receive an Artist Basic grant, the applicant’s aggregate income for the previous 2 years must not exceed € 55,000 per year. Any previous financial support from the Mondriaan Fund is not taken into account in this calculation.
• At the time of application, you do not receive any other financial contribution from the Mondriaan Fund that covers the same costs.
• The level of collective income is assessed on the basis of income tax return forms or final tax assessments for the past 2 calendar years. For applications submitted before 1 October, the aggregate income from the 2 years preceding the previous year can be substituted. If the applicant did not file an income tax return during these years, we will ask for a statement of your income, a statement of why you did not file a tax return, and/or proof from the tax authorities that you did not have to file a tax return.
• If the income in the 2 calendar years prior to the dates to be covered by the grant was higher than € 55,000, but it can be foreseen in advance that it will be lower in the year of grant and the following year (for example, because a job is terminated), an application can be submitted. The income will subsequently be assessed through tax returns and tax assessments from the 2 years following the grant award. The recipient must then declare their aggregate income for each of these years. The declaration must be submitted before July 15 of the following year. Copies of the final tax assessments must also be submitted as soon as they are received. This also applies to applicants who had not filed an income tax return in the Netherlands in the previous 2 calendar years.

• Your visual documentation material.
• Your explanation of your work and professional practice.
• Your curriculum vitae.
• Your working plan.

• The quality and development of your oeuvre*

• • Do you have a distinctive artistic vision and is this convincingly conveyed in previous work?
  • What is the quality of your work to date? Consider e.g. the significance of the work, the inherent imaginative strength, the command of the selected mediums and/or techniques and the work’s power of expression.
  • Does your oeuvre show development appropriate to the phase of your professional practice?

• Quality of acknowledgement  and cultural entrepreneurship*

  • Is it apparent from your CV that your work as an artist has been acknowledged? As indicated by the location and significance of solo and group exhibitions, sales and publications, acquisitions, commissions, grants or awards.
  • Are you actively focused on developing your practice, entering into collaborations, entering into the public eye and finding an audience for your work?

*The background and context of the professional practice will be taken into consideration during the assessment, e.g. schooling, cultural context, the duration of the professional practice and the type of work produced.

In the case that the advisory committee positively assesses the above criteria, the committee will also assess:

• The quality of the plan and your approach to finding an audience for your work

  • Is the plan for the coming four years a convincing match for your oeuvre to date?
  • Does your plan make it sufficiently apparent that the work and/or work process is being presented to relevant people and/or a relevant audience? E.g. curators, gallery owners, visitors to an exhibition, open studio or workshop, or visitors to a website or blog.

Explanation of your work (3 pages maximum)

Describe the artistic vision/guiding principles of your work, how you express them in your work, and the selected mediums and/or techniques. How has your work developed, and what have you done to achieve this development? Also state what you do to further your entrepreneurship, such as entering into collaborations, entering into the public eye and finding an audience for your work. In the case of collaborations, please outline your role.

Curriculum Vitae (3 pages maximum)

Upload the most important data about your professional practice, with emphasis on the last 4 years. Include exhibitions (indicate solo or group), sales and publications, acquisitions, commissions, grants or awards,  mentioning the year in which they occurred. Also mention any associated activities, such as lectureships, advisory or jury positions., open studio or workshop, or visitors to a website or blog.

Plan (4 pages maximum)

What are your plans for the coming four years? Which direction do you want your work to take? Will you be working with others, and if so, what is your part in that collaboration? Describe how you want to present your work and/or your working process. This could include, for example, exhibitions, a website, a blog, open studios or workshops.

Copy of income tax return or provisional assessment

This confirms that your taxable income is not too high to receive a Mondriaan Fund grant.

Note: copies of your inkomensafhankelijke bijdrage Zorgverzekeringswet (income-related health care insurance contribution) or your aangifte Omzetbelasting (sales or value added tax return) are not sufficient here because they do not indicate your aggregate income.

• Upload a copy of your income tax return or a tax assessment of the previous 2 year’s national insurance contributions.
  Or:
• If you submit your application before 1 October and do not yet have a declaration or assessment from the previous year, send your declarations or assessments from 2 and 3 years ago.
  Or:
• If you have not filed an income tax return in the years mentioned, we will need proof of your income, a statement explaining why you did not file a tax return and/or indication from the tax authorities that you did not need to file a tax return.

(Visual) documentation

Create a PDF document with up to 20 images of your most important works from the past 1 to 4 years. Begin with the most recent work. It can also help to include some images of the work in the context of presentations, such as an exhibition. In addition, you can upload sound or video/film fragments of up to 15 minutes. This is possible, for example, if you make films, performances or installations. If a publication is the carrier of the work (the publication is the medium used by the artist to show the work) you can upload a pdf of the publication or a short video in which the publication can be viewed. Publications sent to us by post will not be included in the assessment. The total size and duration of the presentation (images and separate video or audio fragments) should not secede 300 MB and 15 minutes duration. Click here for the technical specifications for your uploaded documentation.

Please note: The (visual) documentation material is a mandatory part of your application. If you don’t upload any documentation material, your application cannot be processed.

Documentation list (max. 2 pages)

Include a numbered documentation list (in PDF) that corresponds with your visual documentation, with descriptions or captions for the relevant images, sound or video/film clips. (For example: 01, Title, 2020, loop 2 min.)

Please note: do not use hyperlinks in the PDF with (visual) documentation material and in the documentation list. We cannot accept hyperlinks (to web pages for example)because the supplied image material may not be adjusted during the processing of the application.

If applicable:

Personal Records Database (BRP) extract

If you do not have Dutch nationality, include a recent extract (not older than 1 year) from the Basisregistratie Personen (BRP, or Personal Records Database) where you live, confirming you reside in the Netherlands and/or the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.

Bank details

We need your bank account number to transfer funds if your application is granted. If you have not previously submitted an application to the Mondriaan Fund or if the account number has changed since the previous application, please upload a recent bank statement clearly stating the name of the account holder and IBAN/bank account number of the applicant. Applicants established in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom can provide a bank statement or other document from the bank stating the name of the account holder and bank account number.

If you have a business bank account for your one-person business, include a recent (less than 3 months old) copy of your registration with the Kamer van Koophandel (KvK, Chamber of Commerce), showing that you are the sole proprietor of the account.