Danish Arts Foundation (Statens Kunstfond) – Performing arts: International activities

This pays for the international side of a performing-arts practice: guest performances and touring abroad, site-specific work adapted to a new context, residencies, and the slower groundwork of research, networking, speaking at workshops abroad or bringing a foreign guest to Denmark. It sits in the performing-arts committee rather than the music one, so a purely musical project belongs elsewhere — but music-driven performance, sound-based staging and cross-disciplinary work can apply, and the Foundation has separate guidance for projects that straddle art forms.

Smaller theatres, performing-arts groups, independent artists and operators can apply. The large institutional theatres — the Royal Danish Theatre, the regional theatres, the Jutland Opera and the Copenhagen theatre association houses — cannot. Activities that started before the deadline are not funded, nor is individual education. Worth knowing: this grant does not count as production support, so it will not automatically qualify your show for the Refund Scheme.

The ceiling is DKK 100,000, raised from DKK 75,000, and the committee will often award less than requested, judging your application against the whole field. Deadlines in 2026 are 26 March and 1 October.

You apply through the Danish grant portal with MitID; foreign applicants must order a login in advance. The pack is a project description of up to 2,400 characters covering the artistic idea, method, who is involved and why it matters to an audience, a budget on the mandatory Excel template, one-page CVs, and written proof of your agreement or invitation from the international partner. Assessment leads with artistic quality — courage in form and content, a clear idea you can actually realise, and thought given to the audience — then looks at whether the partnership is genuinely mutual, whether there is real exchange with the Danish scene, and whether the project will have a life beyond a single trip.