The Hessian Cultural Foundation, founded in 1988 by the State of Hesse, is a foundation with legal capacity under civil law based in Wiesbaden. Its task is to promote and preserve art and culture in the state of Hesse. It supports museums, libraries and archives by acquiring and safeguarding particularly valuable cultural assets and art objects. It also promotes the documentation and presentation of art and history and awards grants for exhibitions and publications.

The scholarship program was initiated in 1992 as a further key component of the foundation's tasks. This is aimed at artists living or born in Hesse from all areas of visual media who have completed their training and taken their first professional steps. The grants are designed as one-year residencies in the foundation's own studios in New York, Paris and London or as travel grants with freely selectable destinations. The scholarships are publicly advertised and awarded every two years. The selection is made by a changing jury of five experts. Over two decades, the scholarship program has developed into one of the most important and renowned funding programs for young artists in Hesse.

The Hessian Cultural Foundation's capital amounted to around 34 million euros in 2011. The Board of Trustees decides on the funds used. The administration and day-to-day business are managed by the Board of Directors and the Cultural Foundation's office. The members of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Board are appointed by the state government.

With the help of the Hessian Cultural Foundation, many important collection expansions and exhibition projects have been secured and implemented in recent years, including the purchase of a joint work by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder for the Old Masters Picture Gallery of the Staatliche Museen Kassel in 2002 and the acquisition of a complex of works by Rebecca Horn for the Museum Wiesbaden in 2011. The sponsored exhibitions include presentations of international artistic positions, such as the retrospective of Eva Hesse's work at the Museum Wiesbaden in 2002, as well as artistic initiatives and non-institutional projects in the Hessian region.

The quarterly magazine maecenas provides information on the activities of the Hessian Cultural Foundation, current funding and scholarship projects.