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Assistant grant
For practitioners in the visual arts, photography, design, crafts, illustration, textile art or architecture.
An assistant grant makes it possible to develop your work together with a more experienced colleague for a period of 5–10 months.
You yourself contact the artist you want to assist and agree on the tasks. With such a grant, you work 50 percent as an assistant and can use the remaining time for your own artistic work.
You cannot apply for collaborations that have already begun or to assist a regular teacher you had during your education.
You must be a professional artist in the field of visual arts or design.
You have an artistic practice in, for example, the visual arts, photography, design, crafts, illustration, textile art or architecture.
To be considered a professional artist, you must earn a living entirely or partly from your artistic activities and regularly present your art to an audience or in an artistic context.
You must be a resident in Sweden or practice most of your art here.
You can be a foreign citizen and apply for our stipends and grants, but you must be a resident in Sweden or primarily practice your art here. If you are a Swedish citizen but live abroad, you must be able to demonstrate that most of your artistic activity takes place in Sweden.
You must not be a student for more than 50 per cent of your time when an award decision is made.
This means being enrolled in any type of studies, from undergraduate studies to doctoral studies and post-graduate education. You can be studying when you submit your application, but when a decision is made you cannot be enrolled for more than 50 per cent for a course or programme.
You must not owe any unpaid Swedish taxes or fees to the Swedish Enforcement Authority or be declared bankrupt.
This means that you cannot owe a debt on your Swedish tax account that has been passed on to the enforcement authority. This does not apply to other types of debts or charges from public organisations or private companies.
You must not have received de minimis aid exceeding a total of 300,000 euros during the last three-year period.
Stipends and grants from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee are subject to the provisions of the European Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2031 on state funding, also known as de minimis aid.
The application for the assistant grant is open once a year. See the application deadlines.
You apply by logging in to “My pages”.
In order to submit an application, you need to answer all the questions marked as mandatory in the form and attach work samples.
Applications must be submitted by 14.00 CET on the application deadline.
Work samples are mandatory
Choose current work samples that are representative of your artistry, preferably from the last two years. Keep in mind that it can be a good idea to choose both close-ups of your works and images that show how your works are presented in context.
When you upload your files with the application, you can specify the title, year, technique, size and description for each file.
Number of files: 5-10 File format and size: jpg (2 MB), mp3 (20 MB), mp4 and mov (50 MB)
Can I submit my application on paper?
We recommend using our e-service to submit your application. It makes it easier for you to ensure that your application was registered and it allows you to follow your case via “My pages”.
If you choose to assist an artist mainly based in Sweden, the grant amount is SEK 100 000.
If you choose to assist an artist abroad, the grant amount is SEK 150 000.
The assistant grant is tax-exempt.
When we receive your application, we verify that you meet all the formal requirements. Members of the panel of the Visual Artists’ Fund will then read your application. The members are practising artists or experts in the field of art. At least three people read each application. The decision is made by the Visual Artists’ Fund.
If a member has a conflict of interest in relation to an applicant, that member is forbidden from participating in the review process or award decision for that application.
How is your decision made?
We select grant recipients based on the quality of artistic activities and the applicant’s financial need. This means that we assess the quality of the work samples and reference material that you submit. At the same time, we make an assessment of your financial need. This can mean, for example, that we do not prioritise an applicant who has a high income or has recently received other grants or stipends.
In our selection, we aim to distribute the grants to artists in different parts of the country and across a variety of artistic expressions.
When we read your application, we try to assess how you will develop together with the artist you have chosen and whether we believe that the tasks described will be rewarding for your development as an artist.
The grant amount is deposited into the private account stated in your application within six weeks of the award decision being announced.
The assistant grant is not taxable and is not considered income that qualifies for sickness benefits.
After completing your project, we will ask you to answer a few questions about your time as an assistant. This will enable us to refine and adapt the grant going forward.
It is important that the assistant and the assisted artist discuss what they both expect from a future working relationship.
Read through the document below before the assitant submits their application.
