The Prince Claus Fund approaches a changing group of experts in fields relevant to its mission of culture and development to nominate candidates.
The two essential criteria for selection for a Prince Claus Award are: (1) the outstanding quality of a laureate’s work, and (2) the positive effect of a laureate’s work on a wider cultural or social field. The Prince Claus Fund interprets culture in a broad sense to encompass all kinds of artistic and intellectual disciplines, science, media and education.
The Principal Award of € 100,000 is presented during a festive ceremony in Amsterdam in December every year. The additional awards of € 25,000 each are presented at ceremonies in the Dutch embassies in the countries where the recipients live.
The Fund publishes an annual book to highlight the work of the laureates of that year. It includes laudations on their achievements by renowned experts, a foreword by one of the Honorary Chairmen, a statement by the Fund’s Chairperson and Director, the report of the Awards Committee, and diverse texts and images relevant to the theme.
Prince Claus Awards Books
The Prince Claus Fund maintains a broadly based view of culture that accommodates all kinds of artistic and intellectual disciplines, the transmission of culture, and education and media. In addition, the Fund is interested in the cultural and intercultural dimensions of fields that are not obviously a part of ‘culture’ in the conventional sense. Examples include technology, science and sport. These fields may also entail vocabularies and vernaculars – such as salsa, rap, combat sports and marathon running – that travel across the world and develop into universal languages that span different cultures. Interculturality is prominent on the Fund’s agenda.
The Fund is interested in all the concepts and activities that are relevant to the extensive field of culture and development. Each year the Fund chooses a theme in order to introduce an area of concern.
In its policy, the Prince Claus Fund is guided by four main themes: Zones of Silence (the locating and opening of areas of cultural silence); Creating Spaces of Freedom (the creation of cultural sanctuaries); Beauty in Context (the analysis of beauty in different cultural environments); and Living Together (the art of co-existence). Over the years, the Fund has also worked with a series of sub-themes, such as The Survival and Innovation of Crafts (as part of Beauty in Context), The Positive Results of Asylum and Migration (as part of Living Together) and Humour and Satire (as part of Creating Spaces of Freedom).
Since 1997 the Prince Claus Awards are presented annually to artists, thinkers and cultural organisations in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
