Reform of the Art Funding System

In 2014 a “new” Danish Arts Foundation was established following the reform of the art funding system of 2012-2013. The new institution emerged from a merger between the then Arts Foundation and the Danish Arts Council. The reform consists of two political agreements of the art funding system (i.e. the new Danish Arts Foundation) and the lifelong benefits to artists. These agreements were implemented through the Act on the Danish Arts Foundation (“Lov om Statens Kunstfonds Virksomhed”) and the Act on Visual Arts and Artistic Design (“Lov om Billedkunst og Kunstnerisk Formgivning”), which entered into force in 2014. In terms of the scope of the Convention, the new structure of the Arts Foundation is most relevant as it directly relates to the way in which funding to the arts are distributed. The main objective of the reform was to create a more simple and transparent system for the public support to the arts. As a result thereof, the Danish Arts Foundation today consist of a coordinating board of directors and 12 specialist committees, who each focuses on a specific art form, i.e. literature, music, visual arts, performing arts, crafts and design, architecture and film.

The committees are divided into two different “columns”: project funding and grant funding. It is the Foundation’s specialist committees who decide which funding schemes should be set up and when funding to either specific artists or projects should be awarded. As stated in the legal framework for the Arts Foundation, the main criterion for receiving support from the Danish Arts Foundation is artistic quality. Therefore, the committees are responsible for assessing the artistic quality in all applications. Further, the committees are obligated to broaden their support in all relevant genres of their respective art form, to promote geographical diversity and must accommodate the production and dissemination of art to children and young people.