Voucher Artisan

How and when to apply

Applications may be submitted at any time of the year, provided sufficient budget remains. You will require an account in order to submit an application. New accounts can be requested on the website. Applications will be accepted a maximum of 4 months and a minimum of 5 weeks before the commencement date of the plan. We aim to process all applications within 5 weeks, although the procedure can sometimes take longer. In no cases will a contribution be granted in retroaction.

Conditions

Schooling, professional practice and the artisan

• You have been working as a professional artist for at least one year and are registered with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce; or you have completed at least three years of a Higher Professional Education (HBO) art course and have worked as a professional artist for at least one year. Or you have worked as a professional artist for three years or longer.
• You may not apply for the Artisan Voucher while studying at an educational institution (e.g. Bachelor’s or Master’s degree programmes). The same applies for postgraduate and postdoctoral programmes.
• You are artistically active in the visual arts and in that capacity embedded in the professional visual arts practice in the Netherlands and/or the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.
• Artisans live in the Netherlands and/or the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and have been working as a professional artisan for at least one year.
• The Mondriaan Fund considers an artisan to be:
  Someone who is active in the production, transformation, repair or restoration of objects, who offers services related to manual aspects, whose activities have an authentic character, and who develops knowledge focused on quality, tradition, creation or innovation.
  The Mondriaan Fund considers Artisan(al) to be more specific than the terms craftsmanship or craftsperson, which solely focus on capably practising a profession. The board may decide not to accept an application if it is of the opinion that the artisan fails to satisfy the above definition.
  At the heart of this voucher is the exchange between artist and artisan, specifically to preserve, pass on or further develop an artisan from the original tradition.

Project plan

• The Artisan Voucher can only be used to cover payment of the artisan. The application should therefore be supported by a quotation from the artisan.
• Applications for the Artisan Voucher made during the term of any other financial support from the Mondriaan Fund will not be accepted in the case that the board is of the opinion that the contribution covers the same expenses.
• Applications for support for regular production expenses such as framing, web design, sound effects and assembly will not be accepted.

Assessment

The submitted application and appendices will be checked for completeness. A simplified procedure is used for the Artisan Voucher.

Fund Agency Assessment

In the case that you received a positive advisory for an application for the Artist Start (formerly ‘Young Talent Work Contribution’), Artist Basic (formerly ‘Proven Talent Work Contribution’), Artist Project (formerly ‘Project Investment Artist/Intermediary’) and/or Publications Contribution schemes in the four years preceding your application for the Artisan Voucher, and you have not subsequently received a negative advisory, Mondriaan Fund staff will assess whether your application for the Artisan Voucher satisfies the conditions. If so, the application will be granted.

Assessment by the advisory committee

In the case that this is your first application to the Mondriaan Fund, or if you received a negative advisory for your last application, your application will be tested against the conditions, and your CV will be presented to the Artisan Voucher advisory committee.

This advisory committee assesses the level of recognition and its importance for Dutch visual art: based on solo or group exhibitions, sales, publications, commissions, subsidies and – if applicable – awards. An Artisan Voucher can only be granted with a positive advisory from the committee.

Due to budgetary restrictions, we are unfortunately not always able to award grants to all applications that receive positive advisories from the committee. In this case, the Mondriaan Fund will prioritise the applications with positive advisories according to when they were received. This means that an application may receive a positive advisory, but that a grant is nevertheless not awarded, or a lower grant is awarded.

Checklist

In order to process your application, the Mondriaan Fund requires various information: details that you can enter in the application form and documents that you can upload. Below is a checklist outlining all of the required information, following the layout of the application form.