Craft and design projects in Denmark and abroad

• Professionals with close ties to Danish craft and design: craftspeople, designers, curators, writers, communication experts, museums, galleries and others with an interest in developing and promoting Danish craft and design.
• International exhibition venues and professionals developing and promoting Danish craft and design abroad.

The Committee for Craft and Design Project Funding funds currently active craftspeople and designers. Exhibitions must present contemporary craftspeople and designers, but group exhibitions are not restricted to artists who are still currently active in their field. Communication projects – books, conveying research results, etc. – are not required to be about contemporary arts and crafts.

Find out more about how to apply if your project combines different art forms.

Who may not apply? 

• The Danish Arts Foundation has elected to limit the group of potential applicants due to the fact that the Danish Arts Foundation has limited resources and wishes to prioritize supporting professional artists who are not currently part of any student programme.

You cannot receive funding for:

• Activities completed before the application deadline
• Travel and accommodation for assistants (as a general rule)
• Courses of study/training courses
• Educational institutions and student projects
• Capital investments, e.g. new machines for production.
• Upkeep, including rent, utilities, water, heat, etc. 
• Projects that the committee previously has supported

The program aims to promote artistic quality within contemporary Danish craft and design projects.

What is a project?

• A project is characterized by having an intention, a project is time-limited and has a target group.
• This means that you must be able to define your project with a goal, an intention, a schedule, a budget, a target group or audience and any partners.

The committee wants to grant project funding to projects that are characterized by a good idea, are realistic, feasible, innovative and not least, create significance for relevant target groups.

Therefore, answer the following auxiliary questions as part of your project description:

• What is the idea and how will you realize it?
• How does the project develops and challenges you or the field?
• Who and what is the project for?

If your project is not yet ripe for implementation and resembles (basic) research, you may apply for a working grant from the Committee for Craft and Design.

Examples of projects:

• Exhibitions in Denmark and abroad as well as trade fair participation
• Residencies
• Production of new works
• Presentation and all forms of communication (oral, written, visual, digital, and print) of the work of Danish craftspeople and designers to appropriate audiences, including travel and accommodation costs for specific exhibitions and projects
• Setting up business and international collaboration on the production of new types of Danish products which help establish the specific identity and profile of craft and design
• Production of content for different media: reviews, articles, communication of academic research projects and more
   

Remuneration for craftspeople and designers

Established exhibition venues, museums, and galleries are encouraged to provide proper remuneration for craftspeople and designers for their work before, during and after exhibitions. For example for participating in meetings, setting up and taking down exhibitions and for participation within PR and dissemination/communication. Funding to cover these set-up costs should be applied for along with the funding application for the exhibition.

Exhibition venues are encouraged to pay fees to artists in connection with their work with an exhibition. The exhibition venue may apply for partial funding of fees for exhibiting artists. The fee covers the artist’s work in connection with an exhibition, which is not directly linked to the production of works - for example, the artist’s participation in meetings, setting up and dismantling an exhibition, participation in PR and presentation.

Read more about the exhibit fee program on our website (in Danish).

The overall criteria of assessment, when the Danish Arts Foundation reviews applications is artistic quality. The Committee evaluates artistic quality in craft and design in terms of whether the proposed project demonstrates:

• Professionalism
  The project develops and challenges practices, ideas, traditions and materials
• Coherence
  The project is well thought through from idea to method and means
• Significance
  The project demonstrates a high level of reflection in terms of how it aims to create significance in relevant contexts

The Committee is aware that craft and design is a broad area and it funds projects of high artistic quality throughout the whole field. This means projects that demonstrate aesthetic potential and a keen understanding of the craft, its materials and sensuousness, as well as projects centered on specific design solutions to specific problems or projects of a more intangible nature.

Please be aware of the following:

If you receive a smaller amount than applied for, you will be notified in your grant notification letter if you need to submit further information, before we can pay out your grant.

The Danish Arts Foundation’s Committee for Craft and Design Project Funding uses this program to fund specific projects on the basis of the budgets submitted by the applicants. If your project is not yet ripe for implementation and resembles (basic) research, you may apply for a working grant from the Committee for Craft and Design.

If you are part of a group of partners who do not share the same company ID number and intend to share the funding, you must each submit an application form with identical project name and appendices. On the budget form, each applicant must stipulate their share of the total amount.

If you have applied for grants from the Danish Arts Foundation within the past three years, this information will be considered in the evaluation of your application.

You must submit your application using our Grant Portal. We do not accept paper forms.

The Grant Portal requires that you log in using NemID (Denmark's common secure login on the Internet). As a foreign applicant, you must order a login unless you have the right to have a Danish NemID. Read more about the Grant Portal and order a login.

A good, complete application meets the formal criteria for what the application must include, arguing precisely and concisely why the project is important and relevant to the applicant, the craft, and society in general.

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You must attach the following: 

• Completed mandatory Project description and budget
  • Project description. No more than one page of 2400 keystrokes (PDF or Word). You MUST use the mandatory template. Please do not remove the questions from the template. Download the template here.
  • Budget: Fill out the budget in the same mandatory template as the project description.
    • If you are VAT-registered, the requested amounts that contain VAT must be indicated excluding the VAT you can get refunded via SKAT (Danish Tax Agency).
• Images:
  • No more than two A4 sheets featuring relevant images that visualize the project: e.g. photographs, sketches or other images (PDF or Word).
  • Where relevant, no more than five A4 sheets of images documenting previous work (PDF or Word).
• Brief CV
  • CV’s of all the craftspeople, designers, curators, innovators, writers, etc., seeking funding. CV’s must be no more than a single A4 sheet. For projects involving several participants, enclose only shortened CV’s of no more than half an A4 sheet each. (Word or PDF)

Do not attach images of other people's work, e.g., inspirational images and mood boards. If there are particular reasons for attaching pictures of other people's works, it must be clearly stated that they are not yours. Similarly, you must state whether the artistic work submitted was collaborative or not.

Please be aware of the following: 

• The total size of the attached files may not exceed 25 MB.
• We accept the document formats PDF and Word. We do not accept Pages or ZIP files.
• You can edit your application until deadline. Remember to attach all files again when editing.
• The committee will process the most recently submitted application.
• Your application must include all the required attachments in order to be processed by the committee.
• You are responsible for ensuring that your application has been filled in correctly and that all required attachments are included. You can always check your reciept in the grant portal. 
• If you are applying for funding from more than one of the Danish Arts Foundation committees, you must state this in the application.

If you are a Danish citizen, organisation, or business and receive a grant, you must have a NemKonto available for the payment transfer. We transfer all grants to the NemKonto linked to the Danish CPR/CVR number you state in the application. If you, for example, apply with a new CVR number, you have to make sure that you have linked it to a NemKonto. You have to do this before a potential grant is awarded.

If you have moved out of Denmark according to the Danish Customs and Tax Administration’s definition, or if you are a foreign applicant, you are able to have a potential grant transferred to a foreign bank account. For applicants with foreign bank accounts, a completed bank information form must be attached, either the form for wire transfers to countries using IBAN or the form for wire transfers to countries NOT using IBAN.

If you receive a grant of: 

• DKK 100,000 or less, we pay the grant as closely as possible to the start date you have stated in your application. You should therefore make sure that the start date you enter matches the date of the first expenses for your project.
• more than DKK 100,000 with a project period longer than six months, we pay the grant in instalments.

We report the grant to the Danish Tax Agency, but tax has not been deducted from the payment.

You will receive a response to your application no later than twelve weeks after the application deadline.

You will receive a notification email when your answer is ready on your profile in the Grant Portal.

Throughout those weeks, the committee will read and process all submitted applications. We will publish all awarded grants on our website (in Danish), once all applicants have received the committee’s decision.

The names of all applicants are made public on our website in the committees’ minutes (in Danish).

Once you have submitted your application, you will receive a screen receipt which you can download if you wish, but you can always see your application and its status in the Grant Portal under "My Applications".

You will not receive an email receipt to confirm that you have submitted an application.

On your case in the Grant Portal, you can also see the appendices you have attached to the application.
It is your own responsibility that the necessary documents have been attached and sent - so remember to look through your application carefully.

You can edit in an application even if you have already submitted it. As long as it is before the deadline! If you edit in a submitted application, you must again make sure that all necessary documents are included. The committee deals exclusively with the most recently submitted application.

If you need to contact a case officer in the secretariat, write via the contact form on your case in the Grant Portal.

Decisions are made in accordance with section 3(1), cf. (2) and (3) of the Danish Act on the Danish Arts Foundation’s Activities (Act no. 458 of 8 May 2013).

When the Danish Arts Foundation awards grants, it is important, and not least legally required, that the money is used for the purpose you have described in your application. Therefore, you must report on your project to the Agency for Culture and Palaces. How you must report depends on the grant amount you have received. Read more about how to report on your project.

The Danish Arts Foundation’s Committee for Craft and Design Project Funding processes the applications and makes the final decision concerning the distribution of the committee’s funds.