Kulturstiftung des Bundes – Allgemeine Projektförderung

This is Germany's federal arts foundation funding large, ambitious projects, and music sits alongside visual and performing arts, literature, dance, film, photography, architecture and new media. There is no set theme: you bring the idea. In practice that means festival editions, commissioned works, cross-disciplinary productions and international collaborations rather than an album or a tour. Around ten million euros is distributed each year across all fields.

The thresholds do most of the filtering. A project must need at least EUR 50,000 and must already have at least 20% of its total budget secured from your own funds or other backers, so this is co-financing rather than a first source of money. The applicant must be an institution - with headquarters in Germany or abroad - not an individual artist, and the project has to be innovative with a genuine international dimension. Wherever the work happens, it must be visible in Germany, and any media you produce with the funding needs a German-language version.

Applications are submitted twice a year through an online portal, closing at noon CET on 31 July and 31 January. A practical detail that catches people out: the form exists only on the German-language site, and every text you enter must be written in German. Juries meet in May and November, and the project cannot begin before its jury date - so budget for a wait of several months between applying and being able to start. Read the foundation's general funding guidelines and the specific criteria for this strand before drafting; both are published, and staff offer consultation beforehand.