Production funding for children's and youth theatre

Description

In 2026, the City of Munich's Department of Culture will award grants of up to 270,000 euros for professional children's and youth theatre productions from the independent scene. The funded productions should be exemplary for contemporary children's and youth theatre and have the potential to be groundbreaking and inspiring.

objective
The aim is to promote independent professional performing arts productions for young audiences at a high level of quality by means of diverse artistic and interdisciplinary forms of expression. Through their themes, their artistic realisation and their performance venues, children and young people with different cultural, social or physical backgrounds are to be reached, thereby enabling cultural participation. This corresponds to the basic principle of cultural education, which always combines education, social issues and culture.

Evaluation criteria

• Meaningfulness and comprehensibility of the project idea and calculation
• high-quality artistic work and convincing composition of the artistic participants
• Target group orientation (relevance of the topic for the target group, target group-orientated preparation, target group approach including choice of venues)

Awarding
The City Council of the City of Munich decides on the awarding of funding on the recommendation of a jury.

funding period
The funding period ends on 31 December 2026, i.e. the production must take place in 2026 and the premiere and further performances must be planned for 2026.

about the application

Each applicant can only submit one application for production funding per year. An additional application in another funding area (e.g. scholarship or three-year funding for children's and youth theatre) is possible.

Grant forms and guidelines

Applications must be submitted via the it@M online portal.

The short URL is: www.muenchen.de/projektantrag-dk

The full address is

https://service.muenchen.de/intelliform/forms/01/06/06/kulturfoerderung/index

Prerequisites

Individual theatre makers and theatre groups whose artistic focus is in Munich are eligible to apply. Project-related funding can cover production costs, premiere costs and up to five subsequent performances in the city of Munich. At least two of these must take place at decentralised venues in Munich.

Required documents

Mandatory

• The completed application form from the online portal must be submitted with a detailed calculation of the expected expenditure and income. The following must be enclosed
• Project description (maximum 9,000 characters)
• Overview of theatre productions already realised
• Naming of the artistic team including short biographies
• Declaration of intent of the planned venues for the premiere and subsequent performances

Please describe the artistic concept and the methods of realisation in your project description. We also ask you to describe your target audience and how you will reach them (content, realisation, venue(s), public relations, ...).

By submitting an application, applicants declare their agreement with the terms and conditions of the competition. Applications that do not comply with the conditions of the call for proposals cannot be considered.

Application workshops

Together with Tanzbüro München, Theaterbüro München is offering an application workshop for the call for proposals:

9. May 2025, 10 am to 6 pm
To the application workshop

Further current calls for applications in the field of performing arts can be found at www.muenchen.de/kulturausschreibungen.

Legal basis

All valid submissions are presented to the jury for children's and youth theatre in the independent scene, which is appointed by the City Council. It makes a selection and recommends selected projects to the city council.
The final decision will be made by the Culture Committee, probably at its meeting at the end of September 2025, after which the applicants will be notified.