Project grant

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.

What qualifies as de minimis aid?

Only one person can be listed as an applicant for the project.

If the project involves several people, you can apply to also finance these individuals.

You can only apply for grants for projects that are planned to be carried out the following year.

You can only seek funding to cover future costs incurred after the decision was made. Therefore, grants are not paid out retroactively.

The application for project grants 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”.

Application on paper

 

In your application, you submit a project budget stating which costs you are requesting funding for from the Swedish Arts Grants Committee. There is no defined cap on the amount you can apply for, but feel free to look at previously awarded grants to see the typical grant amount levels.

The grant can be used to cover costs directly related to your project, such as salaries for yourself and other participants, materials, premises rental or travel expenses.

The project grant does not include any value-added tax (VAT), which means that you should calculate your budget including VAT.

You can only seek funding to cover future costs incurred after the award decision was made. Therefore, grants are not paid out retroactively.

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.

Project grants must be requisitioned. If you are awarded a grant, you will receive a form that you must fill in and send back to the Arts Grants Committee, stating how you want the money paid out.

You can choose whether you want the grant paid to your sole proprietorship (F-tax) or to you as a private individual (A-tax). The project grant cannot be paid out to anyone other than the stated project owner or to a company or an association.

A project grant must be requisitioned no later than 1 October of the year in which it is awarded.

Read more in the Artist’s Guide if you are running your project as a sole proprietorship, limited company or together with others.

Project grants are considered taxable income. The grant is paid to the artist in charge of the project, who in turn is responsible for paying any fees or salaries to the other participants as well as other expenses, such as for materials, rents and the like. The Arts Grants Committee sends income statements to the Swedish Tax Agency for the entire amount disbursed, which is then shown in the information for tax returns.

If you do not use the entire project grant amount during the payout year, you can contact the Swedish Tax Agency and request that you report the part you have not had time to use for the coming year to offset future project expenses.

The following applies if you do not have a sole proprietorship
The Arts Grants Committee pays tax and social security contributions on the amounts relating to your salary. The project grant amounts related to overheads must be separately reported to the Swedish Tax Agency by the grant recipient. Note that you must report financial results to the Swedish Tax Agency in the same calendar year as you are awarded the grant. The part of the funding you take out as your own salary will qualify for pension and sickness benefits.

Read more in the Artist’s Guide about how to declare taxes for your project grant.

The following applies if you have a sole proprietorship
The entire grant is paid out as a lump sum and the tax is then declared within your business.

Read more in the Artist’s Guide about the tax rules for grants.

Yes, the grant must be reported within one month of the date stated as the end date in your application.

If the project is delayed, you should contact the Swedish Arts Grants Committee and request an extension of the project period.

You can find the report forms here