Open for applications: provenance research into colonial collections

7 November 2024

Does your museum manage collections and objects from colonial contexts and would you like to do provenance research on these? Are you a curator and would you like to carry out this provenance research in collaboration with another museum? Or would you like to map the provenance history of a specific group of objects from your own collection for which there are indications that they were acquired in a colonial context? You can submit an application to the Consortium Colonial Collections for (partial) funding of this research.

About the grant
The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has made budget available for provenance research on colonial collections. Dutch heritage institutions, located in the country of the Netherlands, that manage collections, such as museums, universities, archives and libraries, can submit applications for this budget to the Consortium Colonial Collections under the “Regeling Herkomstonderzoek Koloniale Collecties”. A total of EUR 500,000 is available that will be awarded to provenance research projects in two rounds. The first round of applications closes 15 March 2025. The closing date for the second round is 15 July 2025.

About provenance research
Provenance research is an important part of careful collection management, as mentioned in ICOM’s Code of Ethics for Museums. The institution managing an object is responsible for researching its provenance. To encourage collection managing institutions to prioritize research into the provenance of objects from colonial contexts, the “Regeling Herkomstonderzoek Koloniale Collecties” was established.

The information about this grant is available in Dutch.