Call for applications 2024: Artist grants
The deadline for submitting applications is 16:00 (4:00pm) on the last day of the application period. This is the absolute deadline by which time Taike must receive the application.
Applications should be submitted online during the application period.
Intended recipients
State artist grants are intended for professional artists and art journalists in different fields of the arts. 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.
The grant period begins in 2025. The number and duration of awarded grants vary by artform from six months to five years.
Five-year artist grants may also be awarded in the form of an Artist Professor grant, in which case the recipient is entitled to use the title of Artist Professor for the duration of the grant period. A total of four Artist Professor grants can be awarded, and they can now be awarded alternatively for the following artforms: visual arts, multidisciplinary art, illustrations and comics, circus art, dance art, theatre and photographic art.
Information about honorary titles
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.
Who decides
Grant decisions are made by national arts councils based on a presentation by a special advisor.
Purpose
Artist grants are intended to support the work of professional artists. These grants are not awarded for studies or thesis work related to vocational qualifications or higher or lower university degrees.
Grants are not available to applicants
- who will continue to receive in 2025 a multi-year artist grant previously awarded by Taike
- who have been awarded a working grant for 2025 lasting at least 6 months awarded by a body other than Taike
- who have been awarded a supplementary State artist pension
Amount
- The amount of each artist grant is 2 196,30 € per month (2024).
- The grant is paid monthly.
- 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 2025. Half-year artist grants may begin in July 2025 upon request. - 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. The insurance must be applied for within three months of payment of the grant. Insurance applications should be submitted to the Farmers’ Social Insurance Institution Mela. Further information can be found on the Mela website.
Decision-making criteria
The arts councils review all applications. The awarding of grants is based on an evaluation and comparison of applications, as well as an overall assessment. 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, as are the special characteristics of cultural and linguistic minorities. 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 activities?
- 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 for all applicants: Artist CV.
- Applicants working in the visual arts (including architecture, visual arts, media art, design, illustrations and comics, photographic art) must also include 3 to 5 images of their works or similar work sample as a single pdf file, including details about the name, technique, size and year of each work. For videos, a link to the publishing platform with any passwords should be included.
- The maximum file size is 4 MB.
In addition, you may also include two more attachments that are relevant to your application. The file names should describe the content.
Applicants are responsible for ensuring that the attachments include all the required information as specified in the call for applications.
General terms and conditions
- 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.
Grounds for disqualification
- 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 applicant has not submitted written clarification of previously awarded Taike grants 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 (user interface in Finnish)
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 September. 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.
Taike submits information about all grant decisions for publication on the tutkiavustuksia.fi website (Act on Discretionary Government Grants 688/2001 and Government Decree 1394/2022). Applicants can choose when applying whether they consent to the publication of the decision on the Taike website. The submission of decision information to the Tutkiavustuksia.fi service cannot be refused, however, even if the applicant has not given consent to the publication of their name on the Taike website. For grant applications made by individuals, only positive grant decisions are published on the service.
Further information
Customer service
t. 0295 330 700
[email protected]