Temporary Digital Heritage x Public grant programme

The Netherlands is rich in digital heritage. The Cabinet is making extra funds available in 2019 and 2020 to stimulate the visibility and use of this heritage. The Creative Industries Fund NL, the Mondriaan Fund and the Cultural Participation Fund have joined forces and developed three complementary grant programmes. Makers and cultural institutions are being encouraged to work together to develop new uses and increase the visibility of digital heritage to a broad public.

Our history and culture are recorded in detail in the digital or digitized collections and archives of various museums, libraries and specialized institutions. These databases and archives are a rich source for new stories, but all too often they are unintentionally hidden from a large group of people.

Additional resources
By now, the Digital Heritage Network (NDE) has laid the foundations for sustainable digital availability of heritage. The additional resources released by the government in 2019 and 2020 are specifically intended to increase the visibility and use of digital archives and collections. The common objective of the three funds' programmes is to give a broad public a new perspective on the value of our digital heritage. In this way, special and inspirational experiences are created, which tie in with current developments.

Impulse from cultural funds
The Creative Industries Fund NL, Mondriaan Fund and Cultural Participation Fund are each designing a stimulus measure from their own perspective. In so doing, we are opting for a broad impulse to encourage the use and visibility of digital heritage. The Cultural Participation Fund focuses on the creative use of the collections by young people, the Mondriaan Fund contributes to making digitized heritage collections more accessible to the public and the Creative Industries Fund NL invests in new stories created by consortia of makers from the creative industry. The funds will share the proceeds of the grant programmes with the field in coordination with DEN (the knowledge institute for culture and digitization) and the NDE.

Temporary digital heritage x public grant programme
As a designer, maker or design bureau, how do you make heritage visible to a broad public and which perspective, innovative application or intervention do you choose to shed new light on the heritage? With two selection rounds that focus on this question, the Fund aims to improve the visibility and utilization of digital collections in an innovative way, through the joint efforts of designers and heritage institutions. The first deadline is Thursday 5 September 2019.

Click here for more information about applying for the temporary Digital Heritage x Public grant programme.