Performing Arts for Children, Young People, and Adults

Smaller theatres, performing arts groups, independent performaing artists and operators including their collaboration with other theatres and operators in the performing arts field.

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

Are you eligible to apply?

Support cannot be granted for projects, which are carried out exclusively by the large institutional theatres. By large institutional theatres we mean The Royal Danish Theatre, the Danish regional theatres, the Jutland Opera, and the theatres in the Copenhagen theatre association may not apply.

You cannot receive funding for:

• activities initiated before the deadline
• activities concerning only the start-up phase, preliminary studies, and preparations for upcoming project
• educational purposes for individuals

The purpose of the programme is to promote performing arts of a high artistic quality in Denmark and Danish performing arts abroad. This includes:

• performing arts activities and projects targeted at children, young people, and adults
• promoting the development of new forms of performing arts and other experimental activities within the performing arts, including cross-disciplinary projects
• ensuring geographical diversification
• facilitating the encounter between Danish performing arts and the international performing arts scene through international activities, including co-productions, international guest performances and tours, and residencie
• reproductions

If you are planning on applying for project funding from the European Commission, e.g. from Creative Europe, you can apply for support from this funding programme to cover part of your own contribution to the project budget.

The Danish Arts Foundation’s Committee for Performing Arts Project Funding evaluates the incoming applications.

The Danish Arts Foundation has specified its visions and missions with the work of the foundation. (In Danish)

Read the strategy for the period 2022-2025 from the Performing Arts Project Funding. (In Danish)

The most important criterion in the assessment of applications by the Danish Arts Foundation is the quality of the artistic production and the artistic talent seen in relation to the application.

In the assessment of artictic quality, The Committee for Performing Arts Project Funding places emphasis on supporting performing arts with:

• courage and willingsness to follow new paths in terms of form, content or formats
• a clear artistic idea as well as the ability to realize it
• a motivation of the significance or societal relevance of the project
• reflections on the audience's experience of and relationship with the work

Furthermore, the committee emphasizes:

• collaborations between different organizations/institutions - preferably as co--productions with the independent performing arts scene - aimed at:
  • exploring the boundaries of the performings arts
  • meeting new audience groups
  • making the best possible use of artistic and financial resources
• that the project lives longer, for example through national and international touring activity as well as reruns, devolopment and the formation of networks
• choices in relation to dessemination and the promotion of the project to a wide audience
• projects with international aspects

Specifically concerning international activities, the committee emphasizes:

• international guest performances and touring activities that involve several performances and other related activities (e.g. networking, workshops/master classes, research etc.)
• activities with a verified mutual interest regarding resources and interests and future collaborations
• activities where an exchange of experience with the Danish performing arts scene is taken into account

The committee may decide to grant the application partially and/or award a smaller amount than applied for, based on an overall assessment of the application. The committee evaluates your application in consideration of all the other applications and the total amount available for funding while also aiming to spread the support for the arts.

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.

Sustainability

The committee encourages you to consider aspects of social and climate related sustainability in you project description.

For inspiration look at kunst.dk (in Danish)

You must submit your application via our grant portal. We do not receive physical material.

The application form will be available on this page one month prior to the application deadline.

Once you have created your profile on our grant portal, you can enter the portal at any time and check that you have included all the required documents and information before submitting the application.

We recommend you to use the browsers Chrome or Firefox when you fill in the application form.

In your application, the committee expects you to describe:             

• the primary idea and artistic vision
• realisation – work method/process
• the group’s structure – participants in the project
• presentation and relevance to the audience
• information about target audience: children and young people (age groups), partly children and young people or adults
• If you are applying for a grant to cover part of your own contribution for an EU-project you must ensure that it is clearly stated in your project description and in your budget. 

 In the digital application form, you must:

• provide a summary of what you apply for funding for
• state whether you are applying for funding for the same project from another Danish Arts Foundation committee
• mark information about target group: Children and young people, partly children and young people, or adults
• mark choice of genre: Street theatre/site specific, choreographic/physical theatre, contemporary circus, object/animation, performance, text-based or cross-disciplinary
• If you are applying for a grant for research, lab activities, performing arts development and genre development, you must tick off the relevant genre in the application form.

You must attach the following:

• A description of your project (max. 2 pages). You must attach the project description as one single document
• Budget in PDF format. You must list all figures in DKK and remember to check that no pages are empty, when you export the document to PDF.
• Use the mandatory budget template. The budget must give a true impression of the project's overall finances.
  • You must use this mandatory budget template for stand-alone projects (excel)
• When filling in the budget template, you must also state specific goals planned for your project, including international aspects, for example geographic spread, expected number of performances, expected audience and ticket figures, and/or other goals relevant for your project. If we ask you to report on your project, we will evaluate whether you have fulfilled the goals stated in your application
• CV on participating artists – max. one page per person including a photo. All CV’s must be attached as one single document
• In connection with specific international activities, for example a guest performance, you must attach documentation of the agreement with the foreign partner. This could be a contract, an invitation, an e-mail, etc.

You may also attach:

• a summary of or extract from a manuscript, if you apply for funding for new dramatic work (max. 2 pages).
• a document with max. 3 links to photo/video documentation.

If you apply for funding for the same project from other Danish Arts Foundation committees, you have to state this in your application.

Please be aware of the following:

• that the attached annexes does not exceed 25 MB in total
• that attachments can only be received in the formats: PDF, Word and Excel. We do not accept ZIP files
• that before the deadline expires, you can edit an already submitted application and submit a new version
• that after the deadline you can not send attachments or edit an application
• that it is always the most recently submitted application that is processed by the committee

• that it is always the most recent application you have sent to us that will be assesed by the committee

• that your application must contain all mandatory appendices in order to be assesed by the committee. Additional material, in addition to that described in the application guide, will not be included in the assessment of your application
• that you are responsible for ensuring that the application form is completed correctly and that all the required appendices are attached. Therefore, check your submitted application in the portal to ensure that all documents are included
• As a general rule, you may not transfer your application – and any grants – to another legal person or company. It is therefore important that you clarify who the applicant is before submitting your application.

To get an idea of usual grant amounts, you can look at previously awarded grants on our website (in Danish)

Payment

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 the committee’s decision via the Grant Portal within 12 weeks after the application deadline.

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)
• Bekendtgørelse om egnsteatre §13, stk. 2 (BEK nr 1099 af 26/10/2019)

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.

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 Performing Arts processes the applications and makes the final decision concerning the distribution of the committee’s funds.