Sparx Call for Ideas

The CHF 6500 grant is designed to enable you to spend enough time developing your project vision further. The grant need not be spent on the project vision itself and can also be used to cover living expenses. This contribution is intended to assist participants with their individual professionalisation.

CHF 390 (6%) of the personal grant of CHF 6500 is transferred directly into the participant's pension account at the end of the Studio period. Sparx will also pay a further CHF 390 into the account. In this way, Sparx supports participants in building up their social security.

Applicants must answer three project-specific questions and submit a budget for their project. Together, this constitutes the core of your application. All of the key information about the submitted project vision should be described in the application. Your answers to the questions form the basis for the selection procedure and the only information presented to the selection committee for its final decision.

If you are unsure what to write, you are welcome to attend a writing support session, in which we can help you formulate your idea.

The application form contains a number of questions about the project vision and the participating people. The following documents must be submitted together with the application form:

• Personal project example: All applicants should submit an example of a past project. These can be projects that were particular significant in the development of your artistic or cultural activity or that are related to the submitted idea.
• CV: Your CV should highlight the most important stages of your artistic or cultural work. It should show the extent to which applicants are on the path to becoming artistically or culturally professional.

You can also submit a project visualisation, showing your inspiration, although this is optional. These materials will only be considered in the pre-selection phase. The selection committee will only receive and make their final selection based on the anonymised content of the text fields on the application form.

During the internal pre-selection process, we must check whether the conditions for participation are met and applicants can indeed benefit from funding. However, the project vision should take centre stage in the final external selection by the selection committee, and all project visions should have the same chance. That's why we anonymise the applications for this step.

The budget should list the costs that will be incurred as part of the further development of the project vision. Sparx supports this process through a contribution of approximately CHF 500 per group. The budget should record which materials are required for the process.  

The budget does not have to specify how the grant of CHF 6500 will be spent.  

We are seeking project visions from young creative artists. If you submit a project as a group, the project must also be your own, not that of a third party or institution. 

Sparx does not support projects that

• Fail to fulfil all the conditions of participation;
• Discriminate against people;
• Are developed within an institutional framework (training run by external individuals or institutions);
• Have a commercial focus;
• Go beyond the ideation phase in the planning stage;  
• Serve to establish an office or other infrastructure;
• Focus on the development of apps or websites;
• Involve only the fields of photography, design or architecture;
• Have already been supported by other Migros Culture Percentage funding programmes;
• Are initiated by people who have already been funded by Sparx Studio. 

We are looking for project visions with a potential for development, not completed concepts. If this applies to your project, it may be submitted even if it already receives other funding. However, in this case, you must state on the application form from whom and for what you have already received funding. 

In general, people enrolled at art college can't submit applications to Sparx. Further work on a thesis is possible only under two specific conditions:  

• The thesis has already been submitted and graded; and
• The idea behind it will be fundamentally developed further. 

Your project idea should address social issues and have a positive impact on at least one of the following aspects:  

• Contributing to positive change: using art and/or culture to address social challenges, promote change and reveal issues for which potential solutions can be developed.
• Involving sustainability: the artistic/cultural idea takes sustainability into account on all three levels (ecological, social and economic).
• Considering diversity and inclusion: diversity and inclusion are used as an opportunity to find new ways to collaborate and involve a wide range of perspectives.
• Innovation through art and culture: new creative approaches are explored and solutions to current social issues are found.  

Sparx is looking for projects:

• Submitted by groups of people who all fulfil the conditions of participation;
• Submitted by groups of people who are just starting their personal professionalisation and can equally gain valuable experience for their further development from the support.
• That describe a project vision in a comprehensible and structured way;
• Involving a project vision that is still in the early stages of its development and will not yet be in the production phase during the Sparx Studio period.  
• The content of which aims to have a positive impact in the aforementioned socially relevant areas;
• For which the motivation for participating in Sparx Studio is clearly recognisable;
• That communicate who the group members are and how they collaborate. 

Further information about Sparx Studio is available here. 

The Studio period lasts four months. This time can be used differently by each group and is orientated towards the process of developing the project vision. In general, a development must be visible at the end of the four-month Studio period. How you organise this time is up to you. If, when applying, you already know that you won't have any time during the Studio period, why not give your place to someone who can benefit more from it? 

The focus of the Studio period is to support you in realising your project vision. You should therefore still be in the early stages of implementation. You can make initial preparations for the Studio period in advance, but the idea itself must remain the same as the one you submitted. The form can be modified by agreement, but the basic thematic orientation and the objective must remain unchanged. 

The Studio days are an integral part of our support. All grant recipients should attend these meetings.  

No. Sparx wants to promote inclusivity. Contact us so that we can find a solution tailored to your needs. 

To participate in Sparx, you need to be living and have an account in Switzerland from the moment you apply until the end of the studio period.  

Swiss citizenship is not required. 

Individuals can't apply for Sparx Studio because Studio time will only be made available to groups of two or more people. 

No. Sparx is only open to people who aren't currently studying at an art college.  

Yes. Sparx promotes the professionalisation of young creative artists. Every member of a group must therefore fulfil the conditions of participation.  

Groups of between two and a maximum of four people can benefit from the Studio time.  

People who have already funding from Migros Culture Percentage Sparx can't reapply directly through the call for ideas. All those who haven't received support (but have applied) are always free to submit new project visions. 

The Migros Culture Percentage Sparx programme is aimed at up-and-coming creative artists and cultural workers who would like to be active culturally in the longer term. You needn't identify as a professional creative artist yet, but should aim to become one. 

Sparx sees professionalisation as a process. A variety of skills and external factors are required in order to be seen as "professional". During the studio time, Sparx imparts especially the administrative skills that are important for professionalisation.