[Open Call] Mentorship Award by the Prince Claus Fund & Goethe-Institut

Deadline: 31-May-22

Applications are open for the Mentorship Award: Cultural & Artistic Responses to Environmental Change programme that aims at accelerating engaged community-based cultural practices at the intersection of arts and the environment, initiating an international network of creative, and fostering leadership.

Through this programme they create a platform to explore critical artistic practices, stimulate joint learning, connect engaged practitioners across the world, stimulate cross-disciplinary exchange, and amplify new perspectives on environmental change.

The mentorship brings together 12 emerging artists and cultural practitioners (± 8-15 years of relevant professional experience) with 4 mentors, all working across a range of disciplines and environmental issues. Throughout 2023, these 12 individuals will each work on a body of work, form a peer-group, receive guidance, exchange ideas, and jointly delve deeper into their practices. The 4 mentors, all experts on the intersection of arts and the environment, guide the participants throughout the programme.

The programme consists of two Labs (week long mentoring intensives, one in person and one online), bi-monthly online masterclasses and peer-group sessions, and a visitor’s programme in Amsterdam and Berlin.

Aims

Through this mentorship programme they aim to:

• Support critical and unconventional work by emerging artists working on a range of issues related to the global commons, environmentalism, the climate crisis, and climate justice;
• Stimulate leadership of individuals whose artistic work fosters awareness, social cohesion and empathy;
• Accelerate the artistic practices of artists and cultural practitioners who show a commitment to their communities and to creating lasting change through environmental activism;
• Strengthen and amplify new perspectives on environmentalism, the climate crisis and climate justice.

Funding Information

Each participant receives an award of €10.000 to work on the concept for a body of work that they outline in their application.

Eligibility Criteria

You are eligible for this programme if:

• You have ±8-15 years of relevant professional experience.
• You are from, living, registered and working one of the countries on this list.
• The Goethe-Institut and Prince Claus Fund hold a broad disciplinary understanding of arts and culture. With artists and cultural practitioners they mean people who have an individual artistic practice – be it as a visual artist, curator, writer, musician, performer, designer, architect, interdisciplinary artist, etc.
• Individuals who are arts managers, facilitators, academic researchers or other, without an individual artistic practice are not considered to fall under this category, and as such are not eligible to apply.

Criteria for Selection of Applications

The following criteria are used for assessing applications:

• Original: the work is innovative and artistically interesting.
• Transformative: the work engages with pressing social/political issues, is challenging and thought provoking, and aims to create lasting change.
• Context-specific: the work is important in and relevant to the local context.
• Inclusive: the work is linked to the ultimate aim of more inclusive societies, connecting people in ways that resist marginalization, oppression and division.
• Impactful: the award will make a real difference to the professional development, engagement and impact of the individual’s practice.
• Potential to Accelerate: the individual has the potential to become a leader in the field, the work is engaged and focused on relevant social issues within context.

For more information, visit https://princeclausfund.org/open-calls/open-call-mentorship-awards-with-goethe-institut-2022