Heritage Innovation

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: Rresearch 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 2023 are 3 April and 11 September, 5 P.M. CET. 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.

Apply now

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. The guideline for artist honoraria must be followed.
Applicants subscribe to the Fair Practice Code, the Culture Governance Code and the Diversity & Inclusion Code. Application of the Fair Practice Code automatically means that the institution implements the guidelines on artists’ honoraria.

General terms and conditions

What happens with my application?

The advisory committee assesses your application on the basis of:

Your description of the mission, vision and profile of the institution or institutions.
Your plan, consisting of a motivation and description of the programme, possible collaborations or development plan, including a communications plan explaining how the experience of this programme will connect with new target groups and how this audience can be reached, and your strategy of how this programme fits into local, national and international contexts.
In the case of applications for research or collaboration, an explanation of how the added knowledge and experience will be permanently established and shared with the museum world.
A budget with a financing plan.

The committee will always assess whether the plan 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.

The advisory committee takes the following criteria into consideration:

Realisation of an initiative

When addressing applications for the realisation of an initiative, the advisory committee takes the following criteria into consideration:

The vision, mission, and profile of the institution:
- Does the institution have a clear vision, mission and profile?
- Which aims are outlined in the mission and is there a convincing plan to achieve these aims?
The quality and significance of recent activities:
- To what extent is the applicant’s recent role, position and working method relevant to the current context and/or the heritage field?
The quality of activities in the plan and the innovative qualities:
- Does the plan inspire confidence in remarkable, exemplary or distinctive activities within the context of heritage?
- Do the institution’s guiding principles correspond with the activities in the plan?
- Does the plan contribute to substantive innovation and development for the institution itself, society and/or the heritage sector?
Public reach:
- Do the plan and the communication strategy inspire confidence that the intended target groups will be reached?
- To what extent is the plan in line with a suitable audience?
- To what extent does the plan contribute to broadening public reach?
Local, regional, national and international embedment:
- Does the plan add to the existing cultural infrastructure (local, regional, national and/or international)?

Collaboration

When addressing applications for the realisation of collaborative initiatives, the advisory committee takes the following criteria into consideration:

The vision, mission, and profile of the involved institutions:
- Do the involved institutions have a clear vision, mission and profile?
- Which aims are outlined in the mission and is there a convincing plan to achieve these aims?
- Do the vision, mission and profile correspond with the envisaged thematic collaboration?
The quality and significance of recent activities:
- To what extent are the institutions’ recent roles, positions and working methods relevant to the current context and/or the heritage field?
The quality of activities in the thematic collaboration plan and the innovative qualities:
- Does the plan inspire confidence in remarkable, exemplary or distinctive activities within the context of heritage?
- Does the plan contribute to substantive innovation and development for the institution itself, society and/or the heritage sector?
Added value for the museum field:
- Will the collaboration lead to an enduring end result?
- Can the results also be applied at other institutions in the heritage sector?
- To what extent will the collaboration generate added value and knowledge that benefits the museum field and/or heritage sector?
Public reach:
- Does the plan inspire confidence that the envisaged target groups will be reached?
Local, regional, national and international embedment:
- Does the plan add to the existing cultural infrastructure (local, regional, national and/or international)?

Feasibility (development grant)

When addressing applications for feasibility studies, the advisory committee takes the following criteria into consideration:

The vision, mission, and profile of the institution:
- Does the institution have a clear vision, mission and profile?
- Which aims are outlined in the mission and is there a convincing plan to achieve these aims?
The quality and significance of recent activities:
- To what extent is the applicant’s recent role, position and working method relevant to the current context and/or the heritage field?
The quality of the activities in the plan:
- Does the plan for the feasibility study inspire confidence in remarkable, exemplary or distinctive activities within the context of heritage?
- Do the institution’s guiding principles correspond with the activities in the feasibility plan?
- Does the plan for the feasibility study potentially contribute to substantive innovation and development for the institution itself, society and/or the heritage sector?
Public reach:
- To what extent does the envisaged plan correspond with the intended target groups or plans regarding public reach?
- To what extent does the envisaged plan correspond with an appropriate audience?
- To what extent does the envisaged plan contribute to broadening public reach?
Local, regional, national and international embedment:
- To what extent is it likely that the envisaged plan will add to the existing cultural infrastructure (local, regional, national and/or international)?

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. The attachments can be uploaded as PDFs. Important: wherever a maximum number of pages is given, do not exceed that number of pages! Additional pages will be ignored.

Checklist

Recent (less than 1 year old) and valid registration excerpt from the Kamer van Koophandel (KvK- Chamber of Commerce)

Factual information about the institution or institutions (4 pages maximum)
Describe the activities of the last 3 years on the parts of all participating institutions or organizations, as well as those of collaborating partners, including objectives, target groups and the public reach of those activities.

Plan (20 pages maximum)
Give the title of the programme, the date it begins, the contents of any proposed collaborations, location or locations, the expected numbers of participants and visitors and how the organization means to reach them, as well as those responsible for their content and organization. Provide an explanation of the way in which any collaboration will be organized and who is responsible for it.

Describe the specific area to which your plan applies, for example, broadening public reach by appealing to a larger or a new audience, improving the visibility of a collection, or sharing or establishing knowledge in the museum field.

Applying codes
It is expected of all cultural institutions that they follow the Dutch Fair Practice Code, the Governance Code Cultuur (Governance Code for Culture) and the Code Diversiteit & Inclusie (Code for Diversity & Inclusion). Adopting the Fair Practice Code automatically implies that the organization adheres to the guidelines for artists’ fees.

Specified budget with financing plan
Click here for an explanation of budgets for institutions.
This concerns the complete budget and financing plan, not just the segment for which assistance is being requested from the Mondriaan Fund. Where there are questions about any given budget entry, the Mondriaan Fund can request relevant documents, such as price estimates.

Letters of confirmation of contributions from all participating institutions
All of these letters should be included in a single PDF document.

Approved Annual Statement of Accounts for the previous calendar year

Where applicable:

Bank details
We need the bank account number of the applying organisation in order to transfer the money for approved applications. If the organisation has 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. 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.

Permission statements from participating institutions
If the other participating organizations are not submitting applications of their own, we request that you provide statements of permission for your application from the partner organizations. Include all of these declarations in a single PDF document.

For whom

For what

Checklist

Who preceded you?

Application closed

For whom

For what

How much

Apply

Conditions

The advisory committee assesses your application on the basis of:

The advisory committee takes the following criteria into consideration:

Realisation of an initiative

Checklist

Checklist

Relevant links

Questions & contact

Lotte Hemelrijk

Talitha van Ooyen

Minouche Wardenaar

Calendar

Mondriaan Fund closed

Application deadline: Art Platform Programme 2025-2028

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