The Prince Claus Seed Awards for Emerging Artists and Cultural Practitioners with Funding up to 5.000 Euros

The Prince Claus Fund is excited to issue the 2023 open call for the Prince Claus Seed Awards. The Prince Claus Fund annually recognizes 100 emerging artists and cultural practitioners within the first five years of their careers with Prince Claus Seed Awards. Through this, we aim to create space for emerging artists to experiment and develop new perspectives on societal challenges within their practice on their own terms. 

The Prince Claus Seed Awards will give each Award recipient €5.000 to invest in the development of their artistic practice/career. Activities and expenses directly aimed at the further development of artistic practices could, for example, include (but are not limited to):

1. Participation in residency programmes, festivals, workshops, etc.;
2. Development of a personal project;
3. Investment in ongoing work.

The Prince Claus Seed Awards are aimed at emerging artists and cultural practitioners who:

1. Are on average in the initial 1 to 5 years of their professional career (study years not included);
2. Have an innovative and interesting artistic practice that addresses pressing social/political issues important within their local context;
3. Have received little to no recognition/support for their artistic/cultural practices, and are not yet recognised internationally.
4. With this open call for the Prince Claus Seed Awards we would like to invite emerging artists and cultural practitioners who live and work in our eligible countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe to apply for this award.
5. We especially encourage individuals with experimental artistic practices that: 

• Represent minority groups and marginalized communities within society;
• Create safe spaces for young artists, makers and participants;
• Generate participation and empower local communities to express themselves freely;
• Propose new narratives and futures on histories, particularly those censored or marginalised for political, religious, cultural, or economic reasons;
• Enable exchange, cooperation and knowledge sharing related to the current global environmental crisis;
• Creatively and confidently challenge gender norms.

Contents of the application:

Your application should contain:

1. A completed application form, including personal details of the applicant;
2. A pitch that answers the question what drives you as an artist/author/cultural practitioner? (This can be submitted in video and audio formats, and should be circa 3 minutes long);If for any reason (such as accessibility or lack of resources) you are not able to provide a pitch in audio or video form, please get in touch with us at awards@princeclausfund.nl
3. A reference letter from a person or organisation that knows your work and/or has worked with you in the past. (should be signed and contain the contact details of the referee);
4. An up to date CV
5. Supporting materials related to your work. This should include, but is not limited to: samples of your artistic/cultural work (videos, images, texts, portfolio), reviews and interviews.
6. Please note that at this stage we only accept applications in the English language. Supporting materials can be submitted in your language of preference and video pitches can be subtitled to English (Softwares such as Otter, Subly, Jubler and Amara provide free transcript and subtitling tools).

About provider:

The Prince Claus Fund was established on 6 September 1996 as a tribute to HRH Prince Claus's dedication to culture and development. Since then, the Fund has created opportunities for connection and exchange and stimulated cultural expression, primarily in Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe. The Fund honors the outstanding achievement of visionaries at the front-line of culture and development with annual Prince Claus Awards; protects cultural heritage by providing ‘first aid’ to rescue heritage threatened by man-made or natural disasters; supports innovative, high-quality cultural initiatives through grants and mentoring, especially where opportunities are limited, whether by poverty, conflict, marginalization or political repression; works for and with youth through our Next Generation programme and create networks of exchange.

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