Konstnärsnämnden work and long-term grant (visual art and design)

Konstnärsnämnden work and long-term grant (visual art and design)

You receive a tax-free grant of 120,000 SEK per year (about 10,700 EUR) for a one- or two-year grant. For a five- or ten-year long-term grant you get 3 price base amounts per year, currently around 177,600 SEK (about 15,900 EUR), which is taxable. The money lets you carry on and deepen your artistic work. You do not have to report on how you spend it. It comes from Konstnärsnämnden, the Swedish state agency that supports artists. Its visual arts fund (Bildkonstnärsfonden) decides the award. You apply once with a single form, and the fund decides which length you get. You cannot request a specific duration. Several ten-year grants across all art forms are due to be awarded in 2027.

Who can apply

• What you do: You are a working visual artist or designer, for example in visual art, photography, design, craft, illustration, textile art or architecture.
• Professional: You earn all or part of your living from your art and show it to the public regularly.
• Where you are based: You live in Sweden, or do most of your artistic work here. Any nationality can apply on that basis. If you are Swedish and live abroad, you must show most of your work is in Sweden.
• Not mainly a student: When the decision is made, you are not enrolled on a course of more than 50 percent.
• No overlapping grants: If you have had a two-year grant, or two one-year grants in a row, you must wait at least two years before a new one.
• Clean financial record: You have no debts sent to the Swedish enforcement authority (Kronofogden), no unpaid taxes and are not bankrupt.

How to apply

You apply once a year, online through Konstnärsnämnden's e-service, and attach 5 to 10 recent work samples. The next window runs from 9 October to 11 November 2026, closing at 14:00, with decisions in April 2027. There is no interview. At least two members of the fund read each application and decide together.

How realistic are your chances?

This is a national grant open to all professional visual artists and designers in Sweden, so the field is large and the competition real. This is especially true for the rare multi-year and ten-year grants. The fund judges both the quality of your work samples and your financial need, and tends to rank applicants with higher income or recent funding lower. If your work is strong, your samples current, and you can show genuine need, your prospects are solid.