Nouveau Grand Tour NL: Call for Applications 2025 is open

The Nouveau Grand Tour NL is a creative and research residency programme coordinated by the Institut français NL, which welcomes to the Netherlands a dozen French artists who have recently graduated from an art and design school, for a period of one to three months within one of the partner residency structures.

Description

The call for applications for the Nouveau Grand Tour NL 2025 is open until 24 November 2024. For the second edition of the Nouveau Grand Tour NL, from April to September 2025, the Institut français NL is offering 10 artists, designers and curators from France, who have recently graduated from an art and design school, the opportunity to undertake one- to three-month creative and research residencies in the Netherlands. 

Presentation of the Nouveau Grand Tour NL

The Nouveau Grand Tour NL is designed as a professional springboard for artists at the start of their careers and as a showcase for the emerging French contemporary art scene for cultural institutions and festivals in the Netherlands. Supported by a network of residency partners, the Nouveau Grand Tour NL offers 10 artists, designers and curators from France, who have recently graduated from an art and design school, the opportunity to undertake creative and research residencies in the Netherlands. 

The Nouveau Grand Tour NL artists in residence benefit from:  

  • Time and space to create, research and experiment, to nurture their practices and develop their projects for one to three months in an urban or rural environment in the Netherlands
  • A programme of professional meetings and field visits, to familiarise themselves with the Dutch cultural landscape and connect with the local ecosystem
  • An access to a French-Dutch network of alumni, creators and cultural professionals. 

The Institut français NL will gather the Nouveau Grand Tour NL 2025 artists in residence at the beginning of their residency with an introductory day. This event will take place during the first edition of the Nouveau Grand Tour NL festival which will invite the 2024 alumni to exhibit their residency projects around installations, performances, workshop, gatherings, conferences and presentations. This festival will provide artists with a living cartography of the Dutch cultural landscape and encourage them to explore the Nouveau Grand Tour NL as an immersion experience, a professional springboard and a laboratory of ideas. 

The Nouveau Grand Tour NL is developed and coordinated by the Institut français NL, echoing the initiative of the Institut français Italy, and benefits from the support of the Stichting France-Nederland Cultuurfonds.  

Eligibility Criteria

The Nouveau Grand Tour NL is aimed at recently graduated artists, designers and curators who wish to enrich their practices and develop a creative and research project that requires a period of immersion in the Netherlands. 

The Nouveau Grand Tour NL offers creative and research residencies for artists who meet the following conditions:   

  • You have graduated from an art and design school within the last five years. Exceptionally, the call for applications is open to artists who graduated shortly before Covid. Artists who graduated between 2018 (included) and 2024 (included) are therefore eligible to apply.   
  • You are of French nationality or have been living in France for a minimum of five years. 
  • You have a good working level of English.  
  • You have an interest in the Netherlands and its cultural and artistic scene. 

The Nouveau Grand Tour NL favours individual applications. Applications from artist duos may be considered if the project justifies this exception; applicants are invited to contact the Institut français NL before submitting their application. 

Artistic disciplines

As part of the Nouveau Grand Tour NL, the Institut français NL invites young, recent graduates to carry out a creative and research residency within one of the programme’s partner residencies in the following disciplines: visual arts, digital arts, sound arts, curatorial practices and writing.   

Cross-disciplinarity and artistic collaboration are encouraged and facilitated between the Nouveau Grand Tour NL artist in residence and other artists at the same residency.

As the Nouveau Grand Tour NL is intended to include other artistic disciplines, separate calls for applications, tailored to the specific challenges of each discipline, will be launched in parallel in 2025.  

Guidance and support by the Institut français NL

The Institut français NL provides personalised support for each Nouveau Grand Tour NL artist in residence, based on their creative practices, their residency project and their professional needs. 

The Institut français NL arranges the arrival and stay of the artists in residence, and covers the travel and living expenses associated with the residency: 

  • Monthly stipend: the Nouveau Grand Tour NL artists in residence receive a stipend of €1500 per month from the Institut français NL to cover their living expenses (meals, local travel, etc.). 
  • Production budget: the Nouveau Grand Tour NL artists in residence receive a production budget of €400 from the Institut français NL to cover any production costs generated by the creation and research project (purchase of materials, return of works, etc.). 
  • Travel expenses: the Nouveau Grand Tour NL artists in residence are reimbursed for their international round-trip travel, up to a certain limit. 
    • €200 max. for a return trip Paris – Rotterdam/Amsterdam
    • €300 max. for a return trip mainland France (excluding Paris) – Rotterdam/Amsterdam or Paris – Netherlands (excluding Rotterdam/Amsterdam).  
    • €350 max. for a return trip from mainland France (excluding Paris) to the Netherlands (excluding Rotterdam/Amsterdam). If an extra day’s travel is required as a result of choosing to travel by train, a supplement of €50 will be added to living expenses. 
    • €600 max for a return trip from overseas France to the Netherlands. 

In terms of material resources, the residencies provide individual or shared accommodation and workspace, and support the Nouveau Grand Tour NL artists in residence in assessing their needs for equipment and consumables to ensure a successful residency. 

Artistic and technical guidance for Nouveau Grand Tour NL artists in residence is also provided by the residency. Each residency offers varying degrees of support, depending on their expertise, network and functioning.  

The Institut français NL and the residencies provide professional guidance for the Nouveau Grand Tour NL artists in residence by facilitating meetings and professional visits. 

Residencies

Applicants are asked to choose a residency from the list of partners of the Nouveau Grand Tour NL. The hosting arrangements, artistic disciplines, dates and duration of each residency differ from one residency to another.   

Candidates are invited to read the presentations of each creation and research residency before applying:  

Application process

Applications for the Nouveau Grand Tour NL 2025 must be sent by email to culture@institutfrancais.nl before 24 November 2024 (23:59 CEST). 

Applicants are invited to use the checklist below to prepare their application file and ensure that it contains all the required documents (pdf format). Incomplete applications or applications in French will not be processed. 

Checklist:  

  1. CV (in English)   
  • Specify your SIRET number (optional)  
  • The document should be entitled: CV_LASTNAME Firstname_2025   
  1. Portfolio (in English)  
  • Compile images of your most important work over the last few years, starting with your most recent work 
  • Maximum 20 pages  
  • The document must be entitled: Portfolio_LASTNAME Firstname_2025  
  1. Project description (in English) 
  • Describe the artistic vision of your work, the way in which this vision is expressed in your practice, and the media and/or techniques you use 
  • Describe your creative and research project, outlining how you intend to develop it in the Netherlands and in the specific context of the residency for which you are applying   
  • Maximum 2 pages  
  • The document must be entitled: Project_LASTNAME Firstname_2025
  1. A copy of your identity card   
  • The document must be entitled: ID_LASTNAME Firstname_2025 
  1. A copy of your most recent diploma  
  • The document must be entitled: Diploma_LASTNAME Firstname_2025  
  1. Optional: a letter of recommendation from a cultural professional (teacher, gallery owner, curator, curator, programmer, etc.) 
  • The document must be entitled: Recommendation_NameofReference_ LASTNAME Firstname_2025 

Selected candidates will be expected to have insurance covering repatriation, hospital costs, medical expenses and civil liability for the period of residence.   

Selection criteria

Applications for the Nouveau Grand Tour NL are reviewed by a jury made up of French and Dutch individuals from the cultural world and representatives of the residencies. The jury is sovereign and does not have to justify its decisions to the applicants. 

The jury will evaluate the applications according to the following criteria:   

  • Quality of the artistic work   
  • Adequacy of the project with the residency and its environment   
  • Relevance and added value of the residency for the artist’s career and practice, as well as for the development of their project and network 

The selected candidates will be announced at the end of January 2025. 

Contact details

Eva Monnier
eva.monnier@institutfrancais.nl

Bernadette Sayar
bernadette.sayar@institutfrancais.nl