The Ministry of Culture hands out 17 awards each year, two-thirds of which are for artists. The State Award for Literature and the State Award for Translation amount to 300 000 CZK, which is not subject to taxation. The awards are precisely defined in the Government Regulation on Awards in the Area of Culture Announced by the MC No. 5/2003 Coll. New state awards that have emerged since 2015 include the ‘Knight of Czech Culture’ (Rytíř), ‘Dame of Czech Culture (Dáma), and ‘Patron of Czech Culture’ (Mecenáš). The title of Knight or Dame of Czech Culture is awarded to artists who have made a significant contribution to the development of intellectual, ethical, and cultural values in consideration of the courage of their views and their life fate. Persons and institutions that have contributed considerable support to arts projects and monuments may be awarded the title of ‘Patron of Czech Culture’.
There are hundreds of other awards handed out by cultural institutions, professional associations, foundations, and other agencies. Many of these awards are intended for young artists. They include the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, the Critics’ Award for Young Painters, the Václav Chada Award, and the Igor Kalný Award of the Zlín Salon of Young Artists or the Věra Jirousová Award for critics. Information about the wide spectrum of awards can be found here.
Scholarships are supported under the State Programme for the Support of Creative and Study Scholarships (see also chapter 7.2.1.). Many other subjects like the Czech Music Fund Foundation, the Arts and Theatre Institute (for all fields of art), the Czech Literary Fund Foundation (literature and theatre), MeetFactory (visual arts), the Centre for Contemporary Arts Foundation (visual artists and curators), Tranzit (visual artists and curators), and others have their own scholarship programmes connected with residencies. A list of residency opportunities is available here.
The conditions of grant procedures at the level of the state and the municipalities are modified every year. Recently, topics focused on interdisciplinary projects (in the field of art and music) have emerged. The state grants for supporting exhibition projects focus on young artists, theoreticians, and curators up to the age of 35 years. The capital city of Prague has a similar programme offering one-year grants for young artists in all fields of art.
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