FAQ

Yes. The Senate Department for Culture and Europe has set up an electronic application procedure that must be used for all its funding programs, including the Capital Cultural Fund. The application form will be available online approximately six weeks before the relevant deadline. You will find it on the website of the Senate Department of Culture and Europe
Go to the application form

There are two deadlines per year, usually April 15 and October 1, both for funding for the following calendar year. The specific deadline for each call can be found in the information sheet.

If possible, applicants—especially those in the areas of theater, dance, and music—should already have received public funding at some point prior to submitting their application. 

Natural and legal persons are eligible to apply. A prerequisite for applying for funding is that the project must be developed for and presented in Berlin. International cooperation partnerships are permitted and desirable.

Students are not eligible for funding. They may, however, be enrolled in university at the time of their application. Should these applicants receive funding, they must provide written proof of their status as not enrolled.

Yes, confirmation of a venue is compulsory in all cases. The venue is part of the project concept and is therefore essential for evaluating the project proposal.  

Yes, a bank account specific for the funding is required, but only once a project has been selected for funding and funding notification has been issued.

Our office will answer any formal questions. Please get in touch either by e-mail or by telephone. Appointments for consultations with the curator can be made in the Office of the Capital Cultural Fund.

A sum of up to €100,000 per year is earmarked for the presentation of especially successful projects (Wiederaufnahme) previously funded by the Capital Cultural Fund. The maximum sum you can apply for to present a project is €15,000. A funding application for the purpose of presenting an especially successful project can be submitted informally by e-mail to the Office of the Capital Cultural Fund over the course of the year. Such funding may not be combined with money from the Wiederaufnahmefonds (Fund for the Presentation of Existing Work) provided by the Senate Department for Culture and Europe.

Any institution funded by the federal or state government—especially on the Berlin visual arts scene—that has the spatial, human, and organizational resources to realize a special exhibition is eligible for funding from this program.

Applications for regular long-term funding are not possible. The Joint Committee decides who should be awarded regular funding. The funding period for projects of cultural or political significance awarded regular funding is four years with the purpose of providing more financial certainty. Currently, four major festivals receive regular funding: “internationales literaturfestival berlin”, ”Poesiefestival”, “Tanz im August,” and “young euro classic”.

The funding from the Capital Cultural Fund can be combined with that from EU funding programs, for example the EFRE. Please contact the Kulturförderpunkt for advice about European funding programs and other funding institutions.Kulturförderpunkt Berlin

The Capital Cultural Fund does not offer stipends for individual artists. Please visit the website of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe for information about stipends offered by the State of Berlin for various areas of the arts as well as other kinds of project funding. Senate Department for Culture and Europe.

Efforts to obtain funding from other sources (e.g., sponsoring) are encouraged and should be clearly indicated in the financial plan. Complementary funding from the State of Berlin or the Berlin boroughs is permitted. In principle, you can also acquire other foundations as cooperation partners, but it is possible to finance a project exclusively with funding from the Capital Cultural Fund.

Double sponsorship from funding institutions from the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media is not permitted. This applies particularly to the Kulturstiftung des Bundes, the Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V., the Fonds Soziokultur e.V., the Stiftung Kunstfonds, the Deutschen Literaturfonds e.V., the Musikfonds e.V. and theDeutschen Übersetzerfonds e.V..

In principle, yes. However, when applying for funding from the Capital Cultural Fund, please indicate the institution(s) you are applying to in parallel and the amount involved.  You will find information about funding from the Senate Department for Culture and Europe.

No. Film production projects (feature films, documentary films, video clips, film postproduction, etc.) are excluded from funding from the Capital Cultural Fund. You may, however, apply for funding for film series, film exhibitions, or film festivals. If you are seeking funding for film productions, we recommend you contact theMedienboard Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH . You can also send an enquiry to the film department of the Federal Commission for Culture and the Media:Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien .

Yes, when a project is realized, the funding also covers the documentation of the project. However, the Capital Cultural Fund cannot provide funding for a catalog alone or to subsidize printing costs for publications.

Yes, planned expenditure for promotional measures should be listed as such in the financial plan. 

In principle, yes, if, when judging the submissions, the jury deems a project to be of outstanding artistic quality on repeated occasions and recommends it for funding. It is not, however, possible to obtain funding for ongoing or consecutive projects or events.

Institutional funding is not possible.

A sum of €100,000 is available annually for the presentation of especially successful projects (Wiederaufnahme) previously funded by the Capital Cultural Fund. The maximum sum you can apply for to present a project is €15,000. You can submit an application for funding to present an especially successful project by e-mail to the Office of the Capital Cultural Fund over the course of the year. Your application should include a financial plan (please use the template), a venue confirmation, press reviews, and a timetable. The curator will decide whether funding should be granted for the presentation of an especially successful project. 

No, there is no legal right to funding from the Capital Cultural Fund.

Once the relevant submission deadlines have passed, decisions are announced twice a year, in July and in December, on this website and in the press.

You should avoid sending additional material in analog form. In your application, you may provide the jury with links to your documentation.
Any additional material submitted in non-electronic form can be picked up from the Office of the Capital Cultural Fund no later than four weeks after the Joint Committee’s decision. Owing to storage and cost constraints, this documentation cannot be archived or returned by post.

The internal deliberations of the jury and the Joint Committee are confidential. It is, however, possible as part of a consultation with the curator or a member of the jury to discuss your chances of success in the event of a resubmission of your application. 

In principle, yes. We recommend, however, that you attend a consultation session at the Office of the Capital Cultural Fund—for example, with the curator or a member of the jury—before resubmitting your application.

The members of the jury are appointed by the Joint Committee for the Capital Cultural Fund on the recommendation of the curator. Both the German Federal Government and the State of Berlin may nominate jury members. The jury members are appointed for two years; their term can be extended by a further year. The members of the jury should be familiar with cultural life in Berlin, should keep abreast of the most recent developments on the German and international cultural scene, should be actively involved in the current art discourse, and be able to take considered decisions about funding in all areas of the arts that they can subsequently argue for. 

The curator is appointed by the Joint Committee for the Capital Cultural Fund for two years. He or she may be reappointed once.

The curator of the Capital Cultural Fund prepares the decisions for the Joint Committee. He or she chairs the jury, has the right to vote, and takes part in the jury’s meetings. He or she presents the jury’s—and in some cases his or her own—funding recommendations to the Joint Committee. Appointments for consultations with the curator can be made in the Office of the Capital Cultural Fund.