The Visual Arts Research Grant are intended to promote the artistic or curatorial development of Berlin based artists and curators. Artistic/curatorial development requires in particular the opportunity to develop new ideas and approaches. For this reason, grant recipients should be given the opportunity to carry out research projects of their own choice, e.g:
- research or preliminary work on a specific topic
- development of new projects
- development of new working techniques
- continuation or finalisation of certain projects
- art education, documentation or publication
Conditions
- Visual artists and curators who have completed artistic training and/or can demonstrate several years of artistic/curatorial activity in the field of visual arts are eligible for funding.
- Applicants must live and work in Berlin and maintain their 1st place of residence in Berlin during the application process as well as during the grant period.
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Applications have been accepted annually since 2025.
- Students (including PhD-students) and artits/curators holding a professorship at the time of application and/or during the funding period cannot apply. Violations may result in the cancellation of the grant.
Funding volume
Subject to the availability of funds in the year 2026 the research grants comprise 8.000 € each and are being paid in four monthly rates of € 2,000 from September to Dezember 2026.
Call for applications
A call for applications to the research grants is usually issued at the beginning of each funding year.
Application process
Applications and all necessary attachments can only be submitted online.
- Please refer to the information sheet on the funding programme for all requirements and conditions.
- The online application form including the short project description have to be filled in in German. The artistic CV with portfolio can be submitted in English if necessary.
Allocation of funds
Since 2025, the research grants have been awarded through a partially randomised procedure (Definition of ‘partially randomised’: Something is decided partly by chance.).
After submitting the online application, the application documents will be reviewed by the reviewers based on professional criteria (quality of previous artistic/curatorial work and quality of the research project) and selected for the lottery process. The grants will be awarded by means of a digital lottery process. Only complete and formally valid applications will be admitted to the award process.
The names of the reviewers will be announced at a later date.
All applicants will be informed of the results of the draw by email in July 2026. The names of the funded artists, curators and groups will be published.
