Call for applications 2023: Artist grants

Grant applications may be submitted online during the application period. This is the absolute deadline by which time Taike must receive the application.

The Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Taike) requires that applicants familiarise themselves with the call for applications before filling in the application.

Intended recipients

State artist grants are intended for professional artists and art journalists in different fields of the arts. The grant period begins in 2024. The number and duration of awarded grants vary by artform from six months to five years.

A professional artist is one who creates, performs or interprets art as their primary or secondary occupation. A professional artist has an education in a specific field of the arts or otherwise acquired professional expertise in the arts.

Taike recommends that applications be submitted for only one artform. Select the artform when filling in the application. Multidisciplinary art refers to professional artistic activities that combine different artforms in new and unusual ways – not established artforms, such as musical theatre.

Artist Professor grants

Particularly distinguished artists may be awarded ten-year grants, which can also be granted for five-year periods. Recipients are entitled to use the title of Artist Professor.

Artist Professor grants are awarded in the following artforms:

• Architecture 
• Literature 
• Performing Arts (dance, theatre, circus)
• Music.

Information about honorary titles

Who decides

Grant decisions are made by national arts councils based on a presentation by a special advisor. The presentation process is a decision-making method used in public administration, where the presenting official prepares the decision proposals and presents them to the competent decision-makers.

Purpose

Artist grants are intended to support the work of professional artists. Artist grants are not awarded to support studies or thesis work related to vocational qualifications or higher or lower university degrees.

Grants are not available to applicants

• who have received other or state working grants during the same year
• who have received a supplementary State artist pension.

Amount

• Artist grants may be awarded for a period of ½ year, 1 year, 3 years or 5 years. You can apply for all periods on the same application. You can only be awarded a grant for the period you have applied for. The working plan must cover the entire grant period that you have applied for.
• The grant period begins at the start of the year. Half-year artist grants may begin in July 2024 upon request.
• The amount of each artist grant is 2080,42 € per month (2023).
• The grant is paid monthly.
• The grant recipient is obligated to pay the statutory pension insurance contribution in accordance with the applicable Farmers’ Pensions Act (MYEL), which covers also grant recipients. The premium percentage rate is 13-25% of the total amount of the grant. The amount of the insurance premium is based on the recipient’s age and computational annual earnings, as stipulated in the insurance decision. Further information about premiums is available on the website of the Farmers’ Social Insurance Institution Mela.

Decision-making criteria

The arts councils review all applications. The awarding of grants is based on an evaluation, comparison and overall assessment of applications. Factors that may influence the decision include the applicant’s prior artistic activities and the working plan, which must cover the entire grant period. The regional distribution and language of applicants are taken into consideration, as is the amount of funding allocated for each artform. Equality and fair treatment are also taken into account. All grants are discretionary, i.e. there is no subjective right to them, even if all the criteria are fulfilled.

Previous artistic merits of the applicant

• Is the applicant a professional?
• What is the quality of the applicant’s previous artistic works?
• How noteworthy is the applicant in his/her field of the arts?

Quality of the working plan

• How clear and strong is the artistic idea on which the working plan is based?
• How long-term, well-planned and feasible is the artistic work?
• Does the working plan involve professional development, new ideas or methods?

What to include with your application

• Mandatory: CV of the artist
• In addition, you may also include two more attachments that are relevant to your application. The file names should describe the content.
• The maximum file size for each attachment is 4 MB.
• Attachments may not be sent by e-mail.

Visual arts applicants should also include 1 to 5 images of their works in pdf format (maximum file size 4 MB), including details about the name, technique, size and date of each work. Files containing videos or other moving images may not be sent as attachments. Instead, we recommend that artists include a link to their own websites on their applications.

General terms and condition

• The grant recipient must take a leave of absence from his/her regular employment during the grant period if the grant is awarded for 1 year or longer. Part-time paid employment is permitted during the grant period for up to 10 hours per week or on a 30 % contract. Full-time employment is permitted during the grant period only for recipients of ½-year grants.
• The grant recipient must submit after the grant period written clarification of how the grant funds were used.
• The grant recipient must take out pension and accident insurance. These insurance policies must be applied for within three months of the start of the grant period. Applications should be submitted to the Farmers' Social Insurance Institution Mela. Further information on the website of the Farmers’ Social Insurance Institution Mela.

Grounds for not awarding a grant

• If the application arrives after the application deadline. Applications must be received by Taike no later than 4:00 pm on the last day of the application period.
• If the application is incomplete (if the required information has not been delivered to Taike following a request for such information).
• If the applicant has not submitted written clarification of grants previously awarded by Taike before the given deadline.

Grant decisions are subject to the Act (657/2012) and statute (727/2012) on Taiteen edistämiskeskus (only in Finnish); Discretionary Government Transfers (688/2001); and the Administrative Procedure Act (434/2003). Taike monitors the use of grants and is entitled if necessary to review the finances and activities of the recipient.

How to apply 

Log in and fill in the application online

To log in you will need eBanking identifiers, a mobile certificate or an electronic ID card.

Instructions for using online services

If you are unable to use our online services, please contact Taike’s customer service.

Information about artist grants

Notification of decision 

All applicants will be notified of the decision in writing by the end of August. Applicants will be informed by e-mail when the decision can be accessed from our online services. If you do not receive the e-mail to your inbox, remember to check also your junk mail folder. Applicants are responsible for checking their e-mail messages on the address supplied in the application.

Publicity of applications

Applications submitted to Taike are public documents, about which everyone is entitled to receive information according to Finnish law (Act on the Openness of Government Activities 621/1999). For example, the media can request to view applications. Taike does not disclose confidential information. Matters related to a person's privacy, for example contact information and matters related to health and financial situation, are always confidential. Work plans are also confidential to the extent that they contain information considered to be business secrets, such as artistic ideas.

Further information 

t. 0295 330 700 

[email protected]