I was reading this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/01/world/europe/finland-happiness-optimism.html , and this part:
‘Public funding for education and the arts, including individual artist grants, gives people like his wife, Hertta, a mixed-media artist, the freedom to pursue their creative passions. “It also affects the kind of work that we make, because we don’t have to think of the commercial value of art,” Ms. Kiiski, 49, said. “So what a lot of the artists here make is very experimental.”’
made me wonder what are the requirements, who and how can apply for these benefits. You see, I am an artist myself, but right now I don’t make any money from it. Being able to dedicate full time on my craft without worrying about getting enough money to survive is my biggest dream and literally all I want in this life. I tried searching in Google but didn’t find any specific information about it. Could anyone help?
6 comments
https://www.taike.fi/fi/tietoa-taiteilija-apurahasta
I dont know anything about these but here is a link and atleast on phone you can change the language to english from top right.
I took a quick look and theres info about applying for the grant. Hope this helps and good luck with your work mate!
The article gave a bit rosy picture.
Big part of artist sponsorship and funding in Finland comes from private philanthropic patrons like from the KONE foundation.
Public art funding through TAIKE for 2023 is only around 25,500 euros for a year, and it’s given to some 600 artists. So it’s only roughly 15 Million euros annually, while KONE gives 48 Million euros, and for science too.
There are very large amount of applicants, while only a fraction of them will get a sponsorship. An university art degree and a prolific CV of past exhibitions and residency will help a great deal.
omg this is so useful!!! not many replies here but hey! thanks so much for asking this question and sharing links here, guys! I was struggling for the last year with what I will do with my finances after wanting to switch to design but not being able to work physical job full time to sponsor myself.
Will see if I could make it to the next year application, too bad I haven’t seen it before 😂
In addition to Taike, there are also privately funded foundations that give out grants, one of the biggest is the Finnish Cultural Foundation, that also has smaller, regional foundations. (https://skr.fi/en)
There are different types of grants. Some are for a specific project, some are travel grants, some are working grants, and even they are different lengths from one month to 5 years I think.
The most important things when applying are
1. Check the requirements. It varies a bit with different grants and there’s no point in making an application that won’t even be seen because you don’t fit the requirements
and
2. What you write in the application. Tell them what you are going to do, how you are approaching it and why you are doing it. And most importantly why should they support you doing it. There are a lot of applications. How do you stand out? Are you bringing something new to the art field and the discourse? Is your art relevant for the society or your surroundings?
You pretty much need to be established artist before you get a grant. Also, having solid education in your specific field helps. I have plenty of friends who have grants, at least half comes from private side, from various memorial funds and such. But they did all have several exhibitions/events already, for ex a comic artist that does magazine covers for European newspapers along with his award winning comics, another does experimental art utilizing AI (started way, way before it became trendy, mixed art with code..) and has like 30 years experience in that community before his first grant.
It is a bit easier to get project grants, but those are really for.. projects, like performance art, installation art, event production but then the idea is that you are already going to do it, and then get a grant from municipality, government or private to help with the expenses.
So, it is NOT easy to get grants unlike many think, it takes a lot of dedication and suffering, and applying for them is a special kind of hell… You need to show that you are “worthy” of supporting first, there is a LOT of competition and grants won’t last forever… each year you got to stress if you can make a living from your art or not, or have to scrape by with benefits while still trying to keep creating.
My biggest dream is also to play video games 24/7 without worrying about getting enough money to survive. Sadly, I have to go to work to support myself. This NY Times article is fake and writes too nice about Finland. Don’t believe everything you read.