Artist Start

• In order to be eligible for a contribution, you must be artistically active in the visual arts and in that capacity embedded in the professional visual arts practice in the Netherlands and/or the Caribbean part of the Kingdom
• Applications may only be submitted by artists who have been active as a professional visual artist for at least 1 year and no more than 4 years:
  • If you have completed a Bachelor’s degree programme (HBO) with a visual arts curriculum, the date on your diploma will be considered the start of your professional practice. If there is an interim period between your graduation 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 Bachelor’s degree programme (HBO) 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.
• A period during which the applicant is enrolled for a Master’s degree programme does not count towards the duration of the professional practice.
• A period of enrolment in postdoctoral programmes and programmes at postgraduate institutions, such as the Rijksakademie, de Ateliers, the Jan van Eyck Academie, BAK or EKWC, will be counted as part of the duration of the professional practice.
• You cannot apply for or use a contribution while enrolled to study at educational institutions for e.g. Bachelor’s, Master’s or postdoctoral programmes. This also applies to participation in programmes at postgraduate institutions and to PhD programmes. The exception is part-time programmes (not Bachelor’s programmes) of less than 20 hours a week.

• Only one Artist Start grant is awarded to any artists.
• An artist who was previously rejected on the grounds of the criterium ‘quality and development of the oeuvre’ is not permitted to submit a new application for Artist Start within a period of 12 months after the initial application date.
• An Artist Start grant may not be applied for during the term of any other financial support from the Mondriaan Fund if the board believes that the contribution could cover the same costs.

• For the Artist Start grant, the applicant’s total taxable income in the period for which the application is submitted must not be higher than € 55,000.
• The level of the combined income is checked beforehand on the basis of the income tax return for the preceding calendar year. For applications submitted between 1 January and 1 October, the aggregate income from the year before that can be substituted. If the applicant did not file an income tax return in either of the years mentioned, we will ask for a statement of your income, a statement of the reason 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. A copy of the Income-related Health Insurance Act contribution (‘inkomensafhankelijke bijdrage Zorgverzekeringswet’) or VAT return (‘aangifte Omzetbelasting’) is not valid, as these documents do not state the total taxable income.

• Visual documentation material.
• Explanation of your work and cultural entrepreneurship
• Curriculum vitae.
• Working plan.

The quality and development of the oeuvre* **

• Do you have a distinctive artistic vision and is this convincingly conveyed in previous work?
• Does the quality of your work to date show that you have sufficient potential or notable talent in order to be (or become) significant to the professional contemporary art field? (Consider e.g. development in the work, the substantive significance of the work, its inherent imaginative strength, the command of the selected mediums and/or techniques and the work’s power of expression).

The quality of your cultural entrepreneurship*

• Do you make convincing efforts to stimulate the understanding and appreciation of the intentions of the work? And does this result in increased visibility of the practice within the professional contemporary visual art scene?

*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.

** Please note that this criterion carries more weight in the decision-making process, as this is a policy focus point within the grant.

In the case that the advisory committee views the above criteria favourably, the committee will also assess:

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

• Does the plan contribute to your artistic development and the development of your cultural entrepreneurship?
• 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, a website or blog, open studio or workshop.)

Diploma

If you have completed a Bachelor’s degree programme (HBO) with a visual arts curriculum, we require a copy of the diploma from the programme.

Explanation of work and cultural entrepreneurship (max. 3 pages)

Describe the artistic vision/guiding principles of your work, how you express these in your work, and the selected mediums and/or techniques. How has your work developed, and what have you done to achieve this development? In the case of a collaboration, please outline your role.

Also state what you do to further develop your cultural entrepreneurship. How do you make efforts to convey the intentions of your work, so that they are understood and appreciated? Which mediums do you use to these ends, and how? Consider e.g. the use of social media and/or a website, investment in a network, collaboration with a gallery or art institution, participation in open calls.

Curriculum Vitae (max. 3 pages)

Collect the most important data about your professional practice, focusing on the past 1 to 4 years, depending on when you began. Think of exhibitions (indicate solo or group), events, commissions, prizes or awards, publications, possible sales, mentioning the year in which they occurred. Also mention any associated activities, such as lectureships, advisory and supervisory positions.

Plan (max. 3 pages)

What are your plans for the coming year? Which direction do you want to go with your work? Will you be working in collaboration with others, and if so, what is your part in that? Describe how you want to present your work and/or your working process. Think, for example, of one or more exhibitions, a website, blog, open studio or workshop. Also describe the audience you have in mind and why that is a suitable audience for your work.

Copy of income tax return or provisional assessment

We need a recent copy of your income tax return, or a tax assessment, to check if your total taxable income is not too high to receive an Artist Start grant.

Please note: copy of the Income-related Health Insurance Act contribution (‘inkomensafhankelijke bijdrage Zorgverzekeringswet’) or VAT return (‘aangifte Omzetbelasting’) is not valid, as these documents do not state the total taxable income.

• Include a copy of your income tax return, or a tax assessment for the previous calender 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 declaration or assessment from 2 years ago.
  Or
• If you have not filed an income tax return in the previous 2 years, we will need proof of your income, a statement with the reason 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.

(Visual) documentation (max. 20 pages)

You must also upload visual documentation material for this application. Please note! This is mandatory. If you do not do this, your application cannot be processed. Compile a PDF presenting your most important works from the last 4 years.

• Begin with the most recent work. Ideally highlight a comparable number of works per year, so that the committee can see how your work has developed.

• Include 1 image per page. If you need to show a (spatial) work from different angles, you can include multiple images of that specific work on 1 page. This is permitted on a maximum of 5 of the 20 pages.

• You can also upload audio or video/film fragments totalling up to 15 minutes (the committee will require these if you make films, performances, video installations or audio works).

• Applicants using publications to present or make their work can upload a PDF of a maximum of 1 publication or a short video in which the publication is featured. The publication is for the committee’s perusal and may not be viewed in full. Publications sent to us by post will not be presented to the committee.

Note: You can upload a maximum of 500 MB of images and audio or video/film fragments. See the technical specifications.

Documentation list (max. 2 pages)

Please include a documentation list (in PDF) that corresponds to the visual documentation material, containing a description or caption for each image and/or audio/video fragment information about the title, year, dimensions, technique, duration, and any additional information. For example: 01, title of work, 2024, 20×30 cm, material. See the specifications for the documentation list for more examples.

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

If applicable:

Personal Information Provision Netherlands Antilles and Aruba (PIVA) 

Are you registered in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom? If so, please send a recent extract (no more than one year old) from the PIVA/population register. 

Personal Records Database (BRP) extract

If you do not have Dutch nationality, include a recent extract (no more than one year old) from the Basisregistratie Personen (BRP) population register where you live, confirming your residency in the Netherlands.

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.

Within 24 months of being awarded an Artist Start grant, you can sign up for the Mentoring programme. In this trajectory you will be guided for a year by an experienced artist or curator. Read more about the mentoring programme.

If you have been awarded a grant from the Mondriaan Fund in the past twelve months, you may also qualify for a pre-approved, interest-free loan from Fonds Kwadraat (Dutch only). This could, for example, cover the purchase of equipment.

The Mondriaan Fund organizes the annual Prospects exhibition during the international art fair Art Rotterdam in Ahoy Rotterdam. All artists who received an Artist Start 2 years before the exhibition will be invited to join (subject to change).