Prince Claus Fund Seed Award 2026 for Emerging Artists and Cultural Practitioners (Up To €5 000 Grants)

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Applications are open for Prince Claus Fund Seed Award 2026. Each year, the Prince Claus Fund grants the Seed Award to 100 emerging artists who work in contexts where cultural expression is under pressure. The Seed Award is intended to give emerging artists the chance to amplify their practice and interests, thereby sparking a new wave of change makers.

The 2026 Seed Award is an opportunity dedicated to offering support to emerging artists and cultural practitioners that add a new wave of ideas, perspectives, and energy to the force of culture.

They deserve the chance to explore, experiment, and build momentum in their work — and the Seed Award offers support to this journey.

Prince Claus Fund Seed Award Benefits

Each Seed Award recipient will receive €5,000 to invest in the growth of their artistic and cultural practice on their own terms. As a trust-based grant, the Seed Award places full confidence in the vision and autonomy of its recipients, allowing them to choose how best to use the support for their artistic and cultural development. Whether exploring new perspectives, nurturing connections, investing in materials, or simply taking the time to experiment and create without financial strain, the Seed Award offers the freedom and space needed to let their practice flourish.

Eligibility Criteria

The Seed Award offers support to talented and engaged emerging artists and cultural practitioners who are committed to strengthening their contexts and societies through socially and politically engaged work that contributes meaningfully to free expression and safe spaces in civil society, participation and structural equity, or environmental sustainability. They are committed to recognising those whose work is both grounded and inventive, and whose approaches are inclusive in their process, thoughtful in their execution, and expansive in their reach.

They welcome applications from individual applicants who:

are in the early and exploratory stages of their career, within the initial 1 to 5 years of their professional career (excluding study years);
have established an innovative and interesting artistic or cultural practice that addresses pressing social/political issues that are important within their local context;
have received little to no institutional recognition and support for their artistic and/or cultural practices;
are from, living, and working in our eligible countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.