Sign up for Scout Nights
5 February 2021
Have you developed yourself professionally in practice as a maker or designer without having completed a relevant design study? And do you want to apply for a grant to further develop your talents? Then sign up now for the Creative Industries Fund NL's Scout Nights and convince the jury of your unique talent. The deadline is 24 February 2021.
The Fund organizes four online Scout Nights for the Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Rotterdam and Utrecht regions. During Scout Nights, makers who did not follow the beaten path to build up their design practice, are given the opportunity to pitch their work to a jury and apply for the Talent Development Grant Programme. Have you developed yourself professionally in practice as a maker or designer without having completed a relevant design study? And do you want to apply for a grant to further develop your talents? Then sign up now for the Creative Industries Fund NL's Scout Nights and convince the jury of your unique talent. The deadline is 24 February 2021.
Because of the COVID-19 measures, the Scout Nights will take place online. The Scout Nights will be organized on 6, 7, 8 and 9 April from 13.00 to 18.00 hours. Click here to gain an impression of the live Scout Nights from 2019.
objective
With its Talent Development Grant Programme, the Creative Industries Fund NL is stimulating a new generation of designers and makers to further develop and profile their own artistic talent, professional practice and entrepreneurship. This grant programme has two different selection rounds, namely a round for makers and designers with a relevant degree and a round for makers and designers who do not have a degree but who do have relevant work experience. The Scout Nights are specifically aimed at the latter. In this way, the Fund enables designers and makers with different backgrounds to further artistically develop and professionalize their design practice. For 2021–2022, there are a total of 50 12-month grants of € 25,000 available.
sign up
If you want to make a bid for the possibility of pitching your work during a Scout Night, please submit your portfolio (no more than 15 pages) and your curriculum vitae (no more than 2 pages) to our online application environment. The deadline is Wednesday 24 February 2021, 23:59 hours.
do you have any questions?
Please contact the scout for the city where you want to pitch your work. They are:
Marian Duff, Amsterdam
Meryem Slimani, Rotterdam
Jess Oberlin, Eindhoven
Saïd Belhadj, Utrecht
Or please contact Sharvin Ramjan of the Fund.
selection
5 participants can be selected at most per Scout Night. The selected participants each receive € 1,000 to draw up a development plan. The final selection for the 50 available 12-month grants will be made based on the development plans submitted in the second selection round.
conditions
You do not have a design degree, but do have relevant work experience in your own practice or within a collective;
you work in the disciplines/sub-disciplines of design, architecture or digital culture or a cross-over between these disciplines. Any practices that are on the borderline of those disciplines are welcome too, such as street art, art direction and styling or city makers;
you are 18 years or older;
your portfolio and curriculum vitae demonstrate that you have been working for at least one year and at most four years within your area of expertise;
if available: registration with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce or a Chamber of Commerce that falls under the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
maximum of fifteen pitchers
Together with the scouts, the Fund reviews the submitted applications and the degree to which they are in line with this call's objectives. We also check for the presence of a professional practice and if the portfolio is a match with the creative industry's disciplines/sub-disciplines. No more than fifteen participants can make a pitch per Scout Night. Applicants will be informed if they can come and make their pitch two weeks prior to the Scout Nights.
explanation about the pitch
If you are invited to make a pitch, then during the Scout Night in a presentation of a maximum of five minutes you create a picture of who you are as a maker, your motivation and what makes your practice unique or distinctive. You also give a brief insight into what you wish to develop in the coming year. The pitch is supported by images and is in English or Dutch, depending on your preference. Every Scout Night has its own jury, consisting of three members. The composition of the juries will be announced to the participants after the closing date.
selection criteria
During the Scout Nights, the jury will make the selection based on the criteria set out below:
1. Quality of the work: When assessing the quality of the work, the coherence between the maker's motivation and the artistically relevant principles is examined. What is the maker's substantive objective or principle and how does this translate into research, a design challenge, form or another means? The advisers look at how the direction for the development year, as described, fits within the applicant's own practice and portfolio. In doing so, the advisers take into account the design practices that are connected to the various disciplines/sub-disciplines, the circumstances in which the applicant works and the methodology applied.
2. Environmental awareness and positioning: With this criterion, the advisers assess the extent to which the makers have a good understanding of the cultural, social or other environmental factors connected to their personal practice. They look at the artistically relevant issues and/or social themes the applicant relates to and the extent to which they critically reflect their own position with respect to these issues.
3. Development capability: The advisers appraise the maker's potential for artistic and professional development. They look at which new steps the applicant intends to take during the development year and if they are in line with the maker's motivation and artistically relevant principles.
4. The degree to which the applicant's practice can potentially be considered as distinctive within the creative industry. This criterion scrutinizes how the maker's practice is positioned with respect to existing knowledge and practices within the area of expertise and the measure of added value it provides.
results
All applicants will be informed about the results of the Scout Nights. The Fund only provides information about the selected proposals. The rejected proposals will receive a negative result.
next
If you are selected on one of the Scout Nights, you will receive € 1,000 to write a development plan for a € 25,000 grant. The final selection for the 50 available 12-month grants will be made based on all the development plans submitted via the regular application procedure and the Scout Night procedure and will be made by the Talent Development Grant Programme's advisory committee.
online application environment
In the online application environment, you can fill in the form to participate in one of the Scout Nights and also attach your portfolio and curriculum vitae. To do so, you must create a personal account. Please note: create an account on time, as it takes one working day to activate a new applicant account.
any questions?
Do you have any questions? Have a look to see if you can find the answers in the frequently asked questions list on our website or contact Sharvin Ramjan, our Talent Development Fund employee, or the scout for your area.
