South Africa

Are you looking for (international) funding? Check our general funding page for different funding guides, grants and open calls, or the digital Cultural Mobility Funding Guide for the Netherlands for regional, private and international (mobility) funding.

In the Netherlands the means for international cultural cooperation are delegated to the national funds. The fund that works for your art form or discipline, has one or several subsidy schemes for internationalisation. To make sure the program fits your project, contact the advisors of the fund before starting the process of application. These are the national funds:

Design, Creative Industries, Architecture, Digital Culture

Creative Industries Fund NL
> International Vouchers
> Internationalization of the Design Sector Grant Scheme

Visual Arts, Heritage

Mondriaan Fund 
> Subsidy for International Art Presentation to present work by living Dutch(-based) artists. For Dutch(-based) artists or internationally recognized art organizations outside the Netherlands.
> Subsidy for International Art Fair/Art Book Fair to present work by living Dutch(-based) artists. For Dutch and non-Dutch galleries, publishers and non-Dutch art fairs.

Theater, Dance, Music

Performing Arts Fund 
> Grants for foreign organisations to invite Dutch(-based) artists
> Internationalisation grants for Dutch(-based) artists

Audiovisual media, Film, Documentary

Dutch Film Fund
The Film Fund has several subsidy schemes to support co-productions and distribution (film & documentary).

Literature

Dutch Foundation for Literature
The Dutch Foundation for Literature has several subsidies for internationalisation:
> Translation grants for foreign publishers
> Travel grants

Participation, Education, Communal arts, Cooperations, Projects with non-professionals

Cultural Participation Fund
> The international collaboration grant is available for all disciplines and designated for finding partners abroad.

Heritage

International Heritage Cooperation is part of the Netherlands’ international cultural policy. The embassies of the Netherlands in the partner countries have a budget for supporting local cultural heritage projects. DutchCulture manages a Matching Fund. Dutch legal entities (companies and registered freelancers) are able to apply for partial funding for an international heritage cooperation project.

DutchCulture supports sustainable Dutch-European heritage cooperation by supporting and facilitating (international) expert meetings and exchanges while underlining the European context of heritage. The Europe + Heritage programme offers advice, a travel grant scheme and a support grant scheme for European heritage cooperation.

More funds

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency is not a national fund but also offers on behalf of various ministries and the European Union subsidies for companies in the creative industries.

On The Move has assembled a guide to cross-border mobility for artists and cultural workers from and travelling to Africa.

Visa

Dutch nationals can stay in South Africa without a visa for a period up to 90 days, for tourism or business. For any information on visa, please consult the website of the South African government.

Social security

The website of the Dutch Sociale Verzekeringsbank (SVB) offers a lot of information on social security when working internationally, with specific information for artists. The information is available in five languages.

Taxation

As artists are highly mobile these days, there are specific rules to avoid that one would not pay taxes. Everyone needs to pay income taxes, but when you have earned your income in different countries in which country should you pay? And how can you avoid double taxation? The Netherlands has tax treaties with a number of countries. In many cases, this means that the taxes you pay in one of the countries are deductible from the taxes you owe in another country, or that you are exempt from paying certain taxes. Here you can find an overview of the countries with which the Netherlands has a treaty.

It is a good idea to engage local publicists, that have an understanding of your art discipline, audience and region.

Make sure to contact the embassy to let them know about your projects. Do not forget to create a My DC account, where you can add your activities to our Cultural Database. This way you will be included in our database and become part of our network.

Through the DutchCulture database, you can find out which artists from the Netherlands have worked at which venues, and start your research there. Go to the search icon on the upper left corner of the website, and search by discipline, country, and city.

For residencies, DutchCulture's TransArtists is a great research tool. In order to successfully build an international career, and in order to find sustainable partners in a country, it is always wise to spend more than a few days somewhere. Residencies, which can last from a couple of weeks up to several months, can help you achieve this.

The cultural policy officer of the embassy of the Netherlands in South Africa is active on different social media platforms. Other interesting platforms include Bubblegum Club, VANSA and Latitudes.

For the most recent travel advice to South Africa, please see the website of the Dutch government (in Dutch).