Berlin Senate Residency Program: Berlin Residents
2025/2026
This stipend is one feature of the active sister city relations between Berlin and Istanbul. The office of the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Senate Chancellery will support these efforts on a long-term basis. Partner institutions for this stipend are Anadolu Kültür/Depo in Istanbul and the neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK) in Berlin in cooperation with Kunstquartier Bethanien. Berlin’s Senate Department for Culture and Europe promotes cultural exchange and supports the artistic development of professional artists through its international cultural exchange programs.
Subject to the availability of funds, Berlin’s Senate Department for Culture and Europe will award artists-in-residence stipends in fine art for study programs:
- 1 stipend for five months – July 15, 2025 to December 15, 2025
- 1 stipend for five months – January 15, 2026 to June 15, 2026
Application deadline: December 13, 2024, 18:00
Target group
The stipends are intended to support the artistic development of visual artists whose main place of residence and work is Istanbul and who have a proven record of success in their careers. Students are excluded from receiving any funding under this scheme, applicants must not be enrolled at a university.
Purpose of funding
The stipends are intended to support the artistic development of professional artists. The aim of the residency is to give them the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of and insight into the culture of the host country, study trends in the local art scene, make contacts, exchange ideas, gain inspiration and carry out an artistic project in the host country. To this end, the partner institution Kunstquartier Bethanien provides a studio apartment in their premises at Mariannenplatz in Kreuzberg.
The cultural exchange stipend consists of:
• a stipend of € 2,000 per month (for travel to the place of residency and back, materials, living costs)
• the (rent-free) use of a studio apartment with kitchen and shared bathroom at Kunstquartier Bethanien.
During the residency, the partner institution nGbK will assist the guests from Istanbul and establish contacts with the local art scene on request. The nGbK will also help in all visa-related questions. The events organized by the partner institutions (open studios, exhibitions, artist talks) provide the Istanbul artists with an opportunity to present their work to an international audience. Accommodated in a spacious studio apartment in the arts and culture center Kunstquartier Bethanien, the artists are in close proximity to the nGbK as well as to the local art scene, as the bbk berlin’s printing and media workshops and the other facilities are located in the same building, providing a productive environment.
Given that the partner institutions accept no responsibility for the Istanbul artists’ luggage, personal belongings and works, the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe recommends taking out insurance for traveling abroad (including health insurance).
Prerequisites
Funding is available for visual artists who have exhibited and won recognition for their work and seeking further opportunity to develop their practice and the concepts of their artistic work. The candidates should be able to explain how the experience of an international residency may benefit his/her career development. They should have some knowledge of English or German (A1 level) when beginning their residency. They are obliged to be present at the designated location throughout their residency.
Allocation of funding, selection of the artists
An independent jury of different experts nominated yearly by Depo will select a shortlist of ten to fifteen Istanbul-based candidates, while the final selection of two artists will be made by a jury in Berlin.
The members of the Jury in Istanbul are: Başak Doğa Temür, Fırat Yusuf Yılmaz, Lara Fresko and Özge Açıkkol. The members of the Jury in Berlin will be announced later.
Those on the short list will be notified in January 2025 and final awardees in February 2025. The names of the artists and groups who will receive funding will be made public.Application procedure
The application can be submitted in Turkish or English. If one is selected for the short list, they will be expected to submit an English version of their application for the final selection by the Berlin-based jury. The application will be filed online from the link below:
For further questions: depo@depoistanbul.net
Note: Employees of Anadolu Kültür / Depo and their family members are not allowed to apply. We will only consider applications that are complete and have been submitted by the deadline. All information will be treated confidentially and used only for selection and funding purposes. All applications will receive written notification at the end of the selection process.
Information about foreign partner institutions:
Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (nGbK)
The neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst (nGbK), founded with a grassroots structure in 1969, is today one of Germany’s most significant and largest art societies. The unique structure of the nGbK enables its members to directly influence its thematic orientation: exhibitions, interventions, research projects, event series and publications are developed in interdisciplinary project groups and supervised from the initial idea to the final implementation. The nGbK has established itself as an innovative venue for contemporary art and exhibition production which has left its mark on generations of curators, artists and creatives, and whose experimental exhibition concepts count as path-breaking. They have provided important impetus and continue to engage with relevant socio-political topics. Themes such as racism, National Socialism and urban politics are negotiated time and again, with a further focus placed on (post)migrant, (post)colonial and gender issues. Topical discourses and debates are openly discussed and reflected upon in a timely manner. Art is understood as a form of action that has an impact on social processes.
The active members are working on the themes with great personal commitment, thus shaping a programme that advances the original idea of the nGbK’s founding members: The search for a new society.
ngbk.de
Kunstquartier Bethanien
Located in a former hospital in the center of Kreuzberg, Kunstquartier Bethanien is a lively place for the production and presentation of art and culture. On the first and second floor, the building accommodates studios for residency programs and a Berlin studio program for artists. The Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien with its large exhibition space as well as the project spaces Projektraum and Studio 1 is situated on the ground floor. The building also hosts the bbk Berlin’s printing and media workshop, the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg music school, and the Kreuzberg open-air cinema.
kunstquartier-bethanien.de
2024 – 2025
Istanbul – Berlin Residency Program 2024-2025 Grantees
From 126 applications for this year’s Berlin Senate Residency Program, which promotes cultural exchange and supports the artistic development of professional artists, the selecting jury from Istanbul (Aslı Çetinkaya, Aylin Vartanyan, Evrim Kavcar, Rojda Tuğrul) has decided on a short list of ten artists. The final selection of two artists out of this list was made by the jury in Berlin (Stepháne Bauer, Nuray Demir, Barış Seyitvan).
By the end of this process rezzan gümgüm and Serpil Polat are chosen to receive the scholarship for the artist residency. Congratulations to both artists!
We would like to thank all the artists who applied and wish to continue the exchange partnership with the institutions in the coming years.
2023 – 2024
From 82 applications to this year’s Berlin Senate Residency Program, which promotes cultural exchange and supports the artistic development of professional artists as a component of the active sister city relations between Berlin and Istanbul, the selecting jury from Istanbul (Ceren Erdem, Kristina Kramer, Marina Papazyan, Mert Sarısu, and Zeyno Pekünlü) has decided on a short list of 10 artists. The final selection of 2 artists out of this list was made by the jury in Berlin (Stéphane Bauer, Ece Pazarbaşı, and Pınar Öğrenci).
By the end of this process Fatma Çelik and Ece Eldek are chosen to receive the scholarship for the artist residency. Congratulations to both artists!
We also would like to thank all the artists who applied and wish to continue the exchange partnership with the institutions in the coming years.
2022 – 2023
From 119 applications to this year’s Berlin Senate Residency Program, which promotes cultural exchange and supports the artistic development of professional artists as a component of the active sister city relations between Berlin and Istanbul, the selecting jury from Istanbul (Asena Günal, Aslı Çetinkaya, Banu Karaca, Kristina Kramer and Meriç Öner) has decided on a short list of 14 artists. The final selection of 2 artists out of this list was made by the jury in Berlin (Gülsün Karamustafa, Ingrid Wagner, Katja Eydel, Ingo Arend and Stephane Bauer).
By the end of this process İz Öztat and Özge Açıkkol are chosen to receive the scholarship for the artist residency. Congratulations to both artists!
We also would like to thank all the artists who applied and wish to continue the exchange partnership with the institutions in the coming years.
2021 – 2022
From 67 applications to this year’s Berlin Senate Residency Program, which promotes cultural exchange and supports the artistic development of professional artists as a component of the active sister city relations between Berlin and Istanbul, the selecting jury from Istanbul (Asena Günal, Aslı Çetinkaya, Erinç Seymen, Kristina Kramer and Zeynep Öz) has decided on a short list of 12 artists. The final selection of 2 artists out of this list is made by the jury in Berlin (Ingo Arend, Stèphane Bauer, Banu Cennetoğlu, Çağla İlk and Sandra Schäfer).
By the end of this process Dilek Winchester and İrem Sözen are chosen to receive the scholarship for the artist residency. Congratulations to both artists!
We also would like to thank all the artists who applied and wish to continue the exchange partnership with the institutions in the coming years.
2020 – 2021
From 84 applications to this year’s Berlin Senate Residency Program, which promotes cultural exchange and supports the artistic development of professional artists as a component of the active sister city relations between Berlin and Istanbul, the selecting jury from Istanbul (Asena Günal, Aslı Çetinkaya, Çağla İlk, Kevser Güler, Nilüfer Şaşmazer) has decided on a short list of 6 artists. The final selection of 2 artists out of this list is made by the jury in Berlin (Nevin Aladağ, Ingo Arend, Harry Sachs).
By the end of this process Leman Sevda Darıcıoğlu (July – December 2020) and Alper Aydın (January – July 2021) are chosen to receive the scholarship for the artist residency. Congratulations to both artists!
We also would like to thank all the artists who applied and wish to continue the exchange partnership with the institutions in the coming years.
2019 – 2020
From 91 applications to this year’s Berlin Senate Residency Program, which promotes cultural exchange and supports the artistic development of professional artists as a component of the active sister city relations between Berlin and Istanbul, the selecting jury from Istanbul (Ahu Antmen, Aslı Çetinkaya, Özge Ersoy, Asena Günal, Hale Tenger) has decided on a short list of 6 artists. The final selection of 2 artists out of this list is made by the jury in Berlin (Mehtap Baydu, Philipp Horst, Çağla İlk).
By the end of this process Kerem Ozan Bayraktar (July – December 2019) and Nermin Er (January – July 2020) are chosen to receive the scholarship for the artist residency. Congratulations to both artists!
We also would like to thank all the artists who applied and wish to continue the exchange partnership with the institutions in the coming years.
2018 – 2019
After the open call that is made for the first time this year, the selecting jury from Istanbul (Ahu Antmen, Asena Günal, Aslı Çetinkaya, Erden Kosova, Özge Ersoy) has decided on a short list of 11 artists out of 115 applications. The final selection of 2 artists out of this list is made by the jury in Berlin (Philipp Horst, Çağla İlk, Beral Madra).
By the end of this process Evrim Kavcar (July – December 2018) and Yasemin Özcan (January – July 2019) are chosen to receive the scholarship for the artist residency. Congratulations to both artists!
We also would like to thank all the artists who applied and wish to continue the exchange partnership with the institutions in the coming years.