Since the decision in June to reduce the BIS, many eyes have focused on the Performing Arts Fund, which has an annual budget of €60 million to give away. However, the Fund is also facing a cut: the budget for the multi-year scheme will be with 40% reduced from 40 to 24.5 million euro.
The multi-year scheme is intended for existing cultural organisations that meet the threshold standard of an average of 40 professional performances a year and an average of 20% own income. The new starting point has shifted from an operating subsidy to an activity subsidy. So there must be production, with quality and entrepreneurship as criteria.
Production houses with a talent development programme fall by the wayside if they do not "perform" sufficiently, as do festivals without "special significance for the development of the performing arts". Festivals can, however, reapply to the two-year programming scheme or so-called project grants.
The Fund says it wants to focus on pluralism in the performing arts. As the BIS is mainly left for established institutions, the small and medium-sized institutions an opportunity with the Fund. Institutions need not count on amounts well above a million.
Applications can be submitted from 15 December to 1 March 2012, the results will follow no later than 1 August 2012 for the period 2013-14. After a review and renewed application, an extension of the grant may be granted for the period 2015-0216.
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