Austrian Art Alumni Award

To ensure Austria's status in the arts and culture, the award aims to support particularly outstanding graduates from the art universities while they start their artistic careers. With this objective, the public art universities, in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Science, initiate the “A⁴ - Austrian Art Alumni Award” program, which grants scholarships to six graduates with excellent study background per year, to be awarded across the participating universities.

During their funding period, grant holders must implement a relevant art project, which they may realize in Austria or abroad.

Application termins and conditions

•    Completion of a diploma or master's degree from a public Austrian art university. Completion must be no longer than 18 months before the end of the application period.
•    Excellent study performance, in fulfillment of the university regulations in effect at the respective university
•    Austrian citizenship or citizenship of an EEA country (including Switzerland) or equivalent third-country nationals and stateless persons (according to § 4 Para. 1 StudFG). Candidates who do not meet these criteria are eligible for a scholarship if their place of residence is documented in Austria from the beginning of their studies until application submission.
•    Maximum age for eligible applicants is 35. If there are verifiable reasons (e.g. changing course of study, care responsibilities, etc.) that make fulfillment of this requirement impossible, the jury decides whether to consider the application.
•    A letter of recommendation for the applied project must be submitted, issued by the applicant’s artistic supervisor of their final thesis.

Submission

Submission period yearly end of January to end of March

Submissions are only possible via the Academy's submission system https://calls.akbild.ac.at/. To use our submission system https://calls.akbild.ac.at, you have to register once (if you haven't an account already). You can then log in with your access data, you cannot log in with the AkademieOnline password.

Necessary documents for submission:

1. Personal information (max. file size 10 MB)

• Graduation certificate
• “Bestätigungsformular für den ausgezeichneten Studienerfolg” (confirmation that the degree was passed with distinction), all data to be completed, signed and certified by the Registrar’s Office (“Studien- und Prüfungsabteilung”
• Official photo identification (e.g. passport, identity card)

2. Residence registration certificate (Meldebestätigung/“Meldezettel”)

3. Artistic achievements (max. file size 20 MB)

• Short project description (1 Din A4-page)
• Project concept, including a time plan (max. 2.000 characters including blanks)
• Portfolio (selection of max. 5 artworks / equally applies for music works and videos)
  - Overview of previous artistic work: film, video, and music works with a maximum length of 15 minutes (for longer works, an excerpt of the specified length must be submitted) must be uploaded to www.vimeo.com or www.youtube.com (unrestricted access without password). The links must be included in the respective work description.
  - Artist curriculum vitae 
• Letter of recommendation by the artistic supervisor of the final thesis

Only applications with complete information and documents that meet the stated criteria can be considered. Please note that the submission deadlines must be strictly adhered to; applications submitted late or incomplete cannot be considered.