Please note that information will be updated on this site on an ongoing basis; a complete set of guidelines and instructions on how to apply will be posted once applications open.
Who can apply?
The Outset Partners Grants Programme is only open to public and/or non-profit organisations who have been invited to apply.
How do I apply?
Invited institutions will receive an email on 10th December 2020, with a link to a secure application form.
Only complete applications will be considered that have been submitted using the online form. There is the option to save your progress whilst applying, and return to the form at a later time.
Outset wishes to offer an inclusive application process. If there is anything that we can do to make the online form more accessible, then please email grants@outset.org.uk.
When will full application details be available?
Institutions that are invited to apply will receive all related information and a link to the submission’s platform on 10th December 2020.
How are decisions made?
The judging panel is composed of Outset Partners who take decisions in close consultation with Outset’s Steering Committee – formed of a group of engaged individuals who have been ongoing patrons of Outset and/or sit on its Board of Trustees. Each Outset Partner has a voting right and is thus personally involved in the selection process.
What is the timeline?
Applications open on 10th December 2020 at 15.00 (GMT) and close at midnight on 31st January 2021.
Following careful consideration and deliberation, and after a shortlisting process, Outset Partners will convene in the Summer of 2021 to judge and select awarded proposals.
Successful applicants will be notified in the Autumn of 2021 and grants publicly announced by the close of the year.
Who may I contact for assistance?
The application and feedback process is managed by the Outset team. If you have any further questions, please address them to grants@outset.org.uk. and we will get back in touch.
Who were the Grantees of the 2019 and 2020 Outset Partners Grants Programme?
In 2020, Outset Partners awarded the Transformative Grant jointly to Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the Serpentine Galleries for their projects ‘Climate House’ and ‘Back to Earth’ informing each other’s practice and collaborating on developing the ‘General Ecology Network’.
The Impact Grants were awarded to;
- 32° East, Ugandan Arts Trust (Kampala) for ‘A New Home for 32° East’;
- Beit Ha’Gefen Gallery (Haifa) for the art and education lab ‘The Third Space’;
- Liverpool Biennial for feature film ‘STEPHEN’;
- Nottingham Contemporary for the exhibition ‘Lina Bo Bardi: An Impossible Reality’;
- The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (Toronto) for the exhibition ‘Arctic/Amazon’;
- International Curator’s Forum received their second grant in the three-year initiative awarded in 2019.
In 2019, its inaugural year, Outset Partners awarded the Transformative Grant to a joint initiative by The Whitworth, University of Manchester and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Constituent Museum: Collecting Relations and the Transformational Potential of Arte Util.
The Core Grants (renamed Impact Grants for 2020) were awarded to;
- Hayward Gallery for the solo exhibition The Museum of Emotionby Kader Attia;
- Kunsthalle Basel for the first institutional show in Europe of Dora Budor,I Am Gong;
- The Victoria & Albert Museum for the delivery of the DesignLab Nation school programme in Stoke-on-Trent;
- Spike Island (Bristol), Chisenhale Gallery, Baltic (Gateshead) and The Whitworth for the joint commission, production and presentation of a new moving image work by Imran Perretta, the destructors;
- International Curators Forum for a three-year initiative involving artistic and curatorial research as well as professional development leading to the second edition of the Diaspora Pavilion exhibition in Venice, 2021.