In recent years, Berlin has been the nationwide leader in comics funding. Now the country is once again significantly increasing its grants. The spokesman for the Berlin cultural administration, Daniel Bartsch, confirmed this to the Tagesspiegel on Monday. “Instead of the previous 64,000 euros for scholarships, 112,000 euros will be available in the future, i.e. almost twice as much.”
It had already become apparent in the past few weeks that there should be more money to support comic creators with ongoing projects. “With the approved budget, it was clear that a sum would be available in one title for projects and scholarships,” explained Bartsch.
But that initially applied to all branches of culture. “In the past week, an agreement was reached on how the sum would be divided between the various categories, including the comic/graphic novel grants.”
In recent years, the Berlin Senate has primarily supported comic works with four grants, one of which was endowed with 24,000 euros and three with 8,000 euros. In addition, there was always a six-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.
“With the new allocation of funds, it will now be possible to double the scholarships,” explains Bartsch. In addition, a “staggered system” was agreed: “In addition to the scholarships of 8,000 euros and 24,000 euros, there will from now on also be the option of granting scholarships of more than 16,000 euros.”
A number of scholarships per amount is not specified in advance, these are based on the application and applicant situation. For example, two grants for 24,000 euros are now conceivable for two larger projects that the jury would like to support.
The scholarships, which are now also available in a similar form in some other federal states, were originally set up on the initiative of the German Comics Association and above all its chairman Stefan Neuhaus, who died recently. Once a year, a jury of comics experts from different areas decides on the award, evaluating exposés of projects that are usually not yet completed. We present the most recent award winners here.
Last year in Berlin there was also a one-time additional grant for comic projects amounting to 120,000 euros. This was money from the Corona aid measures, which were spent in the form of 15 research grants of 8,000 euros each.
