Deadline: 24-Sep-2025
The Creative Industries Fund has announced its Arita/Saga Residency Programme for designers and artists who want to conduct research during a work period in Arita, Japan and develop own work through interaction with local porcelain producers in the Saga region.
The funds aim to initiate new exchanges between Dutch designers and artists and local porcelain producers and craftsmen. This enables participants to learn techniques within Japan’s oldest porcelain industry and apply these in their own work. The work period offers opportunities for deepening understanding of the local context of the Saga region, which can subsequently contribute to new insights or applications for existing design practices. Since exchange is central to the objectives, the programme expects selected designers and artists to bring new perspectives and create opportunities for future collaboration with local porcelain producers and craftsmen.
The residency offers two grants of €11,000 each for a single designer. The work periods are from September 15, 2026, to December 15, 2026 (autumn). Applications for designers must be submitted by September 24, 2025, at 16:00 CEST. The grant is intended for travel, insurance, transport, material, research necessities, and a contribution to living expenses.
The open call is for individual designers, architects, spatial practitioners, or makers established in the Netherlands or the Caribbean territories of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Applicants should have an affinity with the specific context of the Saga region and be willing to engage with ceramics and porcelain. The call is not for duos, collectives, or makers who receive certain other grants in 2026.
The assessment of the open call is based on a ranking of proposals, with the two available work periods awarded to the applicants with the highest scores. The assessment criteria are the artistic quality of the work, the quality of the project plan, and the motivation in relation to the residency’s objective and mission. If applications have the same final score, priority will be given to the one with the highest score on motivation.
Applications must be submitted online and include a plan for the work period, a brief CV, a portfolio, an extract from the Chamber of Commerce register, and a representative image of the work or intended plan.
For more information, visit Creative Industries Fund.
