The Venice Art Prize International  & More 

Grants for All the Arts

Here are more Funding Opportunities for the Arts--a residency in Venice, Grants for Theater arts, Photography, Videography, Art Education, a Small Works Exhibition for Women Artists and Native American Research Fellowships.

I add to the post often, so be sure to sign up for email alerts and become a follower.  Let me know what is useful and what questions or comments you have.  I'll try to add that as I go along. I'll share some of the recent winners of the 2011 awards in coming weeks.

 

Arte Laguna Sixth Venice Art Prize International

Deadline: November 11, 2011

The Italian Cultural Association MoCA (Modern Contemporary Art), in collaboration with Arte Laguna, organizes the Sixth International Art Prize 'Arte Laguna' aimed at promoting and enhancing the contemporary art.  Those selected as winners will receive partially funded residency and solo art show.

The Prize is divided into five sections: painting, photographic art, sculpture, videoart and performance. Participants can choose the theme of their artworks.

ELIGIBILITY
The Prize is open to all artists, without any limit of age, sex, nationality or other qualifications. Each artist can participate with one or more artworks, in one or more sections. Technical details:

• Painting
  works realized with technical and stylistic freedom (oil, tempera, acrylic, ink, vinyl, watercolor, graphite, pencil, collage, etc.) on whatever support (canvas, paper, wood,
• Sculpture and installation
  any organic or inorganic material. In the works sounds, lights, videos, mechanical or electrical movements can be used.
• Photographic Art
  color and b/w analog photos, color and b/w digital photos, color and b/w digital elaborations, works entirely created by computer. The maximum dimensions allowed per each works are 150 cm per side
• Video Art and animation
  film, video and works with all the animation techniques on any digital and analog support. The works has to last as maximum 15 minutes, opening title and closing credits included.
• Performance
  any technique, expressive form and with any support materials (video, music, etc.. to be provided and arranged by the artist in the case of being selected as finalist) can be used.
• NEW - Virtual Art - i Fope, with the contribution of FOPE: artworks entirely created by computer, 3D graphics, virtual installations, works created by smartphone or tablet applications, videos entirely created by computer, virtual videos, net art. The finalist artworks will be on display at the collective exhibition on tablet or smartphone.

Theater Communications Group Announces New Leadership Program for Theatre Practitioners

Deadline: December 12, 2011 and February 26, 2011

Up to $94,500 is available to support the development of emerging and established leaders in all areas of nonprofit theater.

Theatre Communications Group, a national membership organization that works to strengthen, nurture, and promote professional nonprofit American theater, has received $1 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to launch Leadership U, a grant program designed to support the development of theater leaders at various points in their career. The overall intent of the program is to strengthen the field by developing individuals who are the core and future of theater.

The new program provides support through two initiatives: One-on-One for early-career leaders and Continuing Ed for mid-career and veteran professionals.

The One-on-One Initiative seeks to identify exceptionally talented early-career theater professionals who have potential to impact the theater field in a positive way and who are committed to working full-time with a performing arts organization rather than on a freelance basis. The program will nurture early-career leaders in all areas of theater, including but not limited to acting, administration, management, craft areas, design, directing, dramaturgy, literary management, producing, stage management, and technical production. The program will provide six individuals with a $75,000 grant for professional development mentorships lasting sixteen to eighteen months at a TCG member theater, with an additional $5,000 honorarium for their mentor. Supplemental funds up to $10,000 will be available to each mentee for outstanding student loans, approved activities, and/or life needs (i.e. healthcare, child or elder care, or other medical expenses). An additional $4,500 (maximum) will be available for mentee and mentor travel. The mentee applicant must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States and must not be a full-time student at a university or conservatory training program at the commencement of the mentorship period (August 1, 2012). The primary mentor must be key personnel and hold a full-time position at a TCG member theater.  Deadline for this initiative is  December 12, 2011

The Continuing Ed Initiative will award grants of up to $6,000 to eight mid-career to veteran professionals at TCG member theaters for learning opportunities that will advance their leadership skills in artistic, administrative, educational, and production areas. Since these grants are for mid-career and veteran leaders who are established in the field, their activities will be self-supervised. Depending on the goals of the applicant, there may be activities that are learning situations where specific supervision will be built into activities (e.g., classes, workshops, or working directly with an established leader or specialist in the field of theater or in another sector). Grants will be awarded to the applicant's home theater on behalf of the theater practitioner. The theater professional applicant must be key personnel, hold a full-time position at a TCG member theater, and have a minimum of five years' professional experience in the not-for-profit theater field.

Deadline for this initiative is February 26, 2011.

For more information go to http://www.tcg.org/grants/leadershipu/guidelines.cfm

 

Kresge Foundation Invites Preliminary Applications for Arts and Community Building and Artists' Skills and Resources Grant Opportunities

Deadline:  February 1, 2011

From now through Feb.1, 2012, the Kresge Arts Fellowship application period is open. Each artist selected will receive $25,000 to use in whichever way benefits his or her practice, whether it be covering the cost of supplies, food, travel, whatever. There are no restrictions on how the money is to be used.

The fellowship alternates the genres of art it supports every year. Painters, sculptors, and photographers will have to wait until 2012 when the application opens again for visual artists.

The Kresge Foundation's Arts and Culture Program seeks to foster the power of arts and culture to recharge and rebuild communities of all sizes in the United States.

As part of this effort, the program is accepting preliminary grant applications from nonprofit organizations for its Community Building and Artists' Skills and Resources focus areas.

The Arts and Community Building focus area is intended to help develop a systematic way to support arts and culture as a tool for revitalizing communities. To achieve this goal, the program will invest in exemplary efforts and identify and share best practices within the field. At the national level, the foundation wishes to fund exemplary organizations dedicated to integrating arts and community-building activities and identifying new methods as models for the field; commission and publish research on efforts to integrate cultural organizations and artists into community-building efforts; elevate the visibility of arts and community building, and disseminate best practices through meetings, publications, and other means as appropriate. The foundation is accepting preliminary applications from grantseekers for national-level projects. 

The Artists' Skills and Resources focus area is based in the belief that community transformation would be more widespread if more communities embraced artists as important contributors to the identity, vitality, and cohesion of the places where they live. The program seeks to boost artists' skills and resources by supporting leading practitioners as well as efforts to increase the number of live-and-work spaces for artists. 

Preliminary applications for both funding areas will be accepted and reviewed on an ongoing basis through February 1, 2012. (After that date, the grant opportunity may be modified.) The preliminary application contains a data-entry component and several attachments, including a narrative. Applicants with promising requests will be asked to complete the second part of the application process.  

More information at http://www.kresge.org/programs/arts-culture/arts-and-community-building

Women Artists Open Small Works Exhibition in New York

Deadline: December 31, 2011

The National Association of Women Artists, Inc. is inviting women artists to apply for the Open Small Works Exhibition. A Multi-Media Small Works Exhibit in the N.A.W.A. Gallery, Feb 1 to Feb 28, 2012.

First Prize - Solo Exhibition in the N.A.W.A. Gallery

ENTRY GUIDELINES

• Entry fee $35.00 (up to three entries). check payable to N.A.W.A.
• Artist's name and name of work should be clearly marked on CD
• Images on CD must be 300 ppi maximum size 6" x 4" in any direction
• Artist may submit a 72 ppi JPG as an email attachment (rather than a CD). Please send to: office@thenawa.org and in the subject like please write: 'Annual Open Small Works Exhibition'.
• Artwork information must be included in email (signed waiver, application, and entry fee must be sent by snail mail).
• All artwork must be for sale. Please sign application waiver and return with application.
• SASE (with sufficient postage) for notification of acceptance.
• SASE (with sufficient postage) for the return of CD (optional).

For full directions for applications go to:  http://newsdeadline.com/012-11/nawa.pdf

Native American Research Fellowships Available

The Sequoyah National Research Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock is accepting proposals for its 2012 Research Fellowship Program, which fosters research involving forms of Native American expression in a range of disciplines.

“The program encourages scholars and artists to conduct research in the American Native Press Archives and the Dr. J. W. Wiggins Collection of Native American Art to support significant studies in a wide range of fields and subjects such as Indian removal from the Southeast, Native journalism and journalists, late 20th century and early 21st century tribal societies and economics, literary artists, visual arts and artists, art history, entertainment, and others,” reads a press release announcing the fellowships.

At least six fellowships of $1,500 will be offered, which are meant to alleviate some of the cost of living and travel expenses while fellows are conducting research at the Sequoyah National Research Center.

Letters of inquiry can be sent to dflittlefiel@ualr.edu and will be considered until January 31, 2012.

Here are a few more Grant Funding and Fellowship Programs for the Arts, Studio Fellowships for Women, Grants for Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers and Paper Arts, an Invitation for Arts Teacher's Fellowships and info on the newest $50 million for performing artists and jazz musicians.  And more specific grants for artists in New York.

I add to the post often, so be sure to sign up for email alerts and become a follower.  Let me know what is useful and what you need.  I'll try to add that as I go along.  We are in the process of finishing our book on grant funding and will include many of your questions and comments.

Here they are.

Hamiltonian Fellowship Program

Deadline:  February 29, 2012

The Hamiltonian Fellowship is a critical stepping-stone for emerging artists who have finished their academic training and beginning their professional art careers. Every year, an independent selection committee chooses five emerging artists to join the program. Built around a rigorous exhibition schedule, fellows receive one-on-one mentorship, participate in group critiques and professional development seminars and lectures. During their two-year tenure, fellows receive commercial representation from Hamiltonian Gallery and exhibit at international art fairs in Miami, DC and/or New York. They enjoy heightened visibility and engage in an intense dialogue about their work, while building active professional networks and stronger business skills. An annual stipend help supplements career related expenses. 

The artists participating in the fellowship program will learn some of the essential tools and techniques to advance their professional careers and achieve entrepreneurial success as exhibiting artist while continuing to grow artistically. Thanks to our exclusive partnership with the Hamiltonian Gallery, through which we have access to the gallery’s large exhibition space located in the heart of Washington DC’s new contemporary art district at 14th & U Street, NW, our fellows also gain valuable experience in the administration of both a non-profit art space and a commercial gallery.

To be considered for the fellowship program, all applicants must prepare the following items in electronic format only on no more than two digital CDs.
A  completed application form (form downloadable in MS doc or in PDF)

•  A CV or resume (in MS doc)
•  Ten (10) medium to high resolution images of your recent work (in JPEG format only).   Images  beyond the first ten images will not be considered.
• A correlating list of works which must include title, media, dimension and year executed (in MS doc). An artist statement (in MS doc not PDF format)
• Although not required, applicants may provide up to three other supporting materials such as press coverage, reviews, and other public write-ups about you and/or your work (in PDF format)

Send the completed application CD + $25 application fee (do not send cash) to:

Hamiltonian Artists
1353 U Street, NW
Suite 101
Washington DC, 20009

To learn more of what the Fellowship activities include, go to the website.              

An application fee of $25 is required   (We try not to include grants that require application fee, but because the fellowship is a two-year program offering, we thought we should tell you about it.) 

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Commits a Record $50 Million to Support Individual Performing Musicians and Artists 

We mention this grant as information to keep you current with what's going on in art world funding.  Those awarded money from the Doris Duke Foundation do not apply, they are selected by the foundation based on previous work and recognition.  And although it may not reach everyone in Jazz or Performing Arts, it is an excited opportunity that we hope may reach you in future years.

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has announced the launch of a ten-year, $50 million initiative designed to support more than two hundred individual artists in the fields of jazz, theater, and contemporary dance. 

The balance, about $14.5 million, will go to administer the program and to fund an initiative in which individual artists will pair with dance companies, theater companies and performing arts presenters for four months of residencies spread over two or three years.  At least 50 residency awards of $75,000 or $150,000 will be made, starting in 2013.

Believed to be the largest such effort in the nation, the Doris Duke Performing Artists Initiative will invest in the development and future work of individual artists by providing unrestricted multiyear cash grants. Specifically, the initiative will award fellowships to a total of one hundred artists who have won funding on a national level for at least three different projects over the past ten years, with at least one project having received support from a DDCF-funded program; fellowships to an additional one hundred artists who have demonstrated the potential to influence their respective fields but who have yet to receive significant national support; and a minimum of fifty residencies to artists at dance companies, theaters, or presenting organizations, with half of each grant going to the artist and half to the supporting organization.

To narrow the field for “leading artist” grants, the Duke Foundation will only consider artists who have had at least three projects funded by national arts grantmakers over the past 10 years, including at least one project that indirectly received money from the Duke Foundation. Until now, Duke had confined its arts giving to organizations that then mainly used their own discretion to hire or provide grants to artists while carrying out a Duke-funded project. 

Established to enable artists to take creative risks, explore new ideas, and tend to critical needs such as health care and retirement savings, the initiative represents an additional investment by DDCF in the arts above its existing commitment. Since its inception in 1996, the foundation has awarded more than $218 million to bolster the arts nationwide. 

"Think of this as a radical vote of confidence in the creativity of more than two hundred individual artists," said DDCF president Ed Henry. "At a time when support for the arts is being cut back across the country, and when most artists — the lifeblood of the field — are struggling just to stay viable project by project, we thought it was essential to step up our commitment. We want to make a contribution large enough to have an impact on the performing arts and above all to give artists their freedom — freedom to experiment, to reflect, to try something new without fear of failure."

From the  LA Times Article by Mike Boehn and Philanthropy News Digest

New York Foundation for the Arts Invites Applications for 2012 New York State Artists' Fellowships

Deadline:  December 15-16, 2011 

Fellowships are for Art, Fiction, Media, Folk and Video/Film

For more than years, the New York Foundation for the Arts has each year awarded unrestricted $7,000 Artists' Fellowships to individual originating artists living in New York State and/or Indian Nations located in New York State.

Grants are awarded in fifteen artistic disciplines, with applications accepted in five categories each year. The categories for 2011-12 cycle are Painting, Fiction, Interdisciplinary Work, Folk/Traditional Arts, and Video/Film. Painting applicants also have the option to apply for the Basil H. Alkazzi Award for Excellence in Painting, which will provide two painters with an award of $20,000 each.

Peer review panels select up to one hundred fellows each year based on artistic vision, the goal being to provide recipients with creative time to continue making work. The fellowships are not project grants but are intended to fund an artist's vision or voice regardless of the level of his or her artistic development. NYFA is committed to supporting New York State artists of diverse cultural, sexual, and ethnic backgrounds. NYFA does not discriminate based on age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, or ability/disability of artists, and welcomes work whose content reflects the lived experiences of the applicants. 

To be eligible for a fellowship, applicants must be 25 years old or older and have been a resident of New York State for at least three years prior to the application deadline. Applicants cannot be enrolled in a degree program of any kind. 

Collaborating artists should apply together with one application. A collaboration is defined as up to three artists who can clearly demonstrate an ongoing collaborative career.

In 2011, NYFA awarded one hundred and four fellowships and recognized sixteen finalists. 

The application deadlines are as follows: December 15, 2011 (Painting and Fiction); and December 16, 2011 (Interdisciplinary Work, Folk/Traditional Arts, and Video/Film).

For complete fellowship guidelines and the application form go to  the website here.

Pollock-Krasner Foundation Provides Grants for Painters, Sculptors and Printmakers and Paper Artists

Deadline:  Ongoing for Artists with Financial needs.

The Pollock-Krasner Foundation's dual criteria for grants are recognizable artistic merit and demonstrable financial need, whether professional, personal or both. The Foundation's mission is to aid, internationally, those individuals who have worked as professional artists over a significant period of time.

The Foundation welcomes, throughout the year, applications from visual artists who are painters, sculptors and artists who work on paper, including printmakers. There are no deadlines. The Foundation encourages applications from artists who have genuine financial needs that are not necessarily catastrophic. Grants are intended for a one-year period of time. The Foundation will consider need on the part of an applicant for all legitimate expenditures relating to his or her professional work and personal living, including medical expenses. The size of the grant is determined by the individual circumstances of the artist. Professional exhibition history will be taken into consideration. Artists must be actively exhibiting their current work in professional artistic venues, such as gallery and museum spaces.

The Foundation does not accept applications from commercial artists, photographers, video artists, performance artists, filmmakers, crafts-makers, computer artists or any artist whose work primarily falls into these categories. The Foundation does not make grants to students or fund academic study. The Foundation does not make grants to pay for past debts, legal fees, the purchase of real estate, moves to other cities, personal travel, or to pay for the costs of installations, commissions or projects ordered by others. 

The Officers and Directors are advised in the selection process by a distinguished Committee of Selection comprised of recognized specialists in the fields of the Foundation's concern. Artists are required to submit a cover letter, an application, and images of current work. Professional exhibition history will be taken into consideration. All completed applications will be promptly acknowledged and considered. If further information is required after the completed application has been received, the artist will be contacted directly by the staff. Further information including financial data may be requested at any time during the review process. The application process could take from nine months to a year.

Applicants may reapply to the Foundation. All reapplicants must send images of work not previously submitted. The procedure requires that grantees who reapply must wait 12 months from the end of their grant period. Reapplicants who were previously declined must wait at least 12 months from the date of their application letter to reapply. The 12-month waiting period may be waived for reapplicants applying under emergency circumstances.

Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship

Deadline: November 14, 2011.

Applications are now available for the 2012 Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowships (SATF).

The Surdna Foundation invites arts teachers from public arts high schools to apply for funding for artistic development through its Arts Teachers Fellowship Program (SATF). Eligible schools include specialized public arts high schools, as well as arts-focused, magnet and charter high schools. The program offers teachers the opportunity to immerse themselves in their own creative work, interact with other professional artists, and stay current with new practices.

Recognizing that such teachers often lack the time and resources to reconnect with the artistic processes they teach, the Arts Teachers Fellowship Program provides grants of $5,500 to enable selected teachers to make art with professionals in their disciplines and stay current with new practices and resources. A complementary grant of $1,500 is awarded to each Fellow's school to support related post-Fellowship activities

For more information click for the webpage

Green Box Launches New Round of Funded Grants for Artists, Musicians, Dancers, Writers, Designers, Photographers

Over the next three years, Beck’s, through The Green Box Project, will fund and showcase 1,000 projects by artists with unique creative vision. 

With art funding disappearing, Becks, an organization created to provide arts funding has launched the latest round of of opportunities for their young, creative and ongoing Green Box project. 

The Green Box Project is a global fund established to inspire, celebrate and financially support independent talent in art, design, music and fashion. 

Unfortunately, Artists who currently live in California may be excluded from this application project. I tried to see if I could find the reason for excluding Californians, but couldn't.  But as we all know, many grants are geographic specific.  or example, last week I included a grant only for Northern California.  That can be found at:   http://freegrantfunding.blogspot.com/2011/08/grants-for-no-calif-artists-for.html

The resulting art pieces will be experienced via augmented-reality in Green Boxes located around the world and will be permanently displayed in the fund’s virtual gallery. 

To start the project, from July to September 2011, we will release 30 Green Boxes holding exclusive virtual pieces by renowned artists in the US, UK and Italy. 

An article by Robin Murray in Clash, a music website, highlights a little more about this unusually designed and very generous project.

"It's easy to get suspicious when brands get involved in the creative arts, but Becks have a better track record than most. Previously working with the likes of Phoenix on a series of bottle labels, the brand recently launched the Green Box project.

An ambitious project with a global reach, sites for the Green Box scheme are placed in London, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Rome and Milan.

Essentially, Becks have simply placed a series of green boxes around the world which can be filled with anything the artists see fit. The first round of submissions were launched earlier this year, with Canadian group Austra amongst those taking part.

The initial round of the project was overseen by Grammy-award-winning producer Sam Speigel and photographer Nick Knight, with Green Box set to create more than 1000 boxes around the world.

“This feels like a new art form; the juxtaposition between the world we see and the world we’re going to be allowed to see through the technology," he said. "To me, art is the people’s voice, it’s about people expressing themselves and their position in the world and with this project everybody’s voices can be heard.”

Fans can interact with each Green Box via a new application which, is available on iTunes now. When you find a Green Box, simply scan the location into your iPhone to unlock some specially designed bonus content.

On a more abstract note, the app comes equipped with a map of each Green Box alongside some bonus destinations. Here users can unlock additional content, as well being able to upload photos and artwork from their travels."

We try to bring you new grants, fellowships and other opportunities each week. Be sure to sign up for email alerts as we have more funding grants to report.  

 

And it may be useful to you to look up a posting on 220 grants being given by the Guggenheim -- although that deadline is fast approaching.  The post is at  http://freegrantfunding.blogspot.com/2011/08/guggenheim-offers-220-fellowships-for.html

An easy to understand instructions for writing a grant can be found at   http://freegrantfunding.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-to-write-grant.html

How to Apply to the Fund

The Beck's Green Box Project is a fund designed to support independent creative talent. Over the next three years this ambition will be realized through Beck's support of 1,000 original works from selected independent artists. 

Anyone can submit a proposal for funding within the areas of art, design, music or fashion. Each submission will be individually considered and reviewed by the dedicated Green Box team and its Board, led by two iconic artists admired and respected for their independent vision and consistently groundbreaking creative ambition. 

The chosen submissions will then receive the requested funding to bring their project to life. The first wave of finalized Green Box Projects will be released around the world in 2012.

 

Submissions

Anyone with a unique vision or idea can submit a proposal for funding within the areas of art, design, music or fashion. 

Submissions will be judged by the Green Box Project Board, formed by artists Nick Knight and Sam Spiegel.  The selected projects will be granted the requested funding and brought to life as per the artist’s original vision, unfiltered and unedited. 

All finalized pieces will be displayed permanently online, in the Green Box Project’s virtual gallery. Some projects will also have the unique opportunity of being showcased in physical Green Boxes located around the world. 

To submit your idea for the Beck’s Green Box Project, applicants are advised to complete the application process found on the Green Box Project website.

Submissions are accespted from August 8 until October 27 2011. During the judging period proposals will be on display at becks.com where the public can browse and support their favorite projects. 

The shortlist will be revealed in November, and final selected projects announced in December. 

Nick Knight and Sam Spiegel, TWO multi-talented artists, will head The Beck's Green Box Project. They will have the ultimate decision in which projects are commissioned. Collectively, through the Green Box Project, they will support fresh creative talent and promote public art to a global audience.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. 

Applicant Criteria

ENTRY INTO THE CONTEST IS OPEN TO THE PERSONS MEETING THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA (THE “ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA”) :

• · LEGAL RESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES (EXCLUDING CALIFORNIA) WHO ARE 21 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER, 

• · LEGAL RESIDENTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM WHO ARE 18 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER,

• · LEGAL RESIDENTS OF ITALY WHO PARTICIPATE IN THE LOCAL ITALIAN CONTEST, (SEE BECKS.COM) OR,

•  · LEGAL RESIDENTS OF OTHER COUNTRIES WHERE PARTICIPATION IS NOT PROHIBITED AND SUCH PERSON IS OF LEGAL DRINKING AGE IN HIS OR HER COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE. 

During the Contest Entry Period, you can enter the Contest by visitingwww.becks.com. Click on the Contest icon, banner or text link to access the online entry form and follow the online instructions to provide your contact information and your Idea. 

Entry must be in English. All Entries must be received and recorded within the Contest Entry Period and must comply with their Official Rules. You can enter as often as you like, however, each entry must be substantially different from previous Entries. 

In addition to the online form you are required to complete, you may submit a video, track, photograph(s), and/or essay to help describe your Idea. Follow the online instructions to upload your Additional Content in accordance with guidelines as stated on the Website.

For More information check the information and watch the video at:

http://www.becks.com/#/en/introduction  

Grants for No Calif. Artists for Computer, Media and Performing Arts and New National Grants for the Arts

Here are 3 new sets of grant opportunities. Although one is for Northern California we've included it because it stretches over a broad scope of arts -- covering computer, media and performing arts.  And the others are for some interesting projects.  Be sure to sign up for email alerts as we have more information on the 220 paid fellowships announced last week.

Remember these foundations have to give this money away.  It's part of the requirement for being a foundation.  So check these and the earlier posts out and apply often.  Also, hope you'll become a follower.

 

  Media and Performing Artists in Northern and Central California Invited to Apply for Project Grants

Deadline: November 8, 2011

The Creative Work Fund, a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund supported by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation, invites artists and nonprofit organizations to apply for grants for collaborative projects featuring media or performing artists. 

Launched in 1994, the Creative Work Fund is designed to help address the decline in support for artists and new works. Since its inception, CWF has contributed $8 million to advance art-making by California artists in a variety of disciplines. Grants are awarded to genuine, creative partnerships between artists and nonprofit organizations. Each year, CWF focuses on projects from different disciplines; the 2012 grants program will fund collaborative projects that feature media or performing artists.

The CWF grant program emphasizes the creation of new work — not distribution or productions of work already developed. Projects may culminate in any form, but they must feature a lead artist with a strong track record as a media artist or performing artist and collaboration between that artist and a nonprofit organization.

• Media artists create narrative, documentary, animated, or experimental time-based works using audio, digital, film, and/or video media. 
• Computer arts also are included in this category.  
• Performing artists create or execute work in dance, opera, performance art, theater, and vocal and instrumental music. 

Any kind of 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization may apply (but not a private foundation). A recognized religious organization, even if it does not have 501(c)(3) status, may apply, as may a public agency (such as a parks department, health department, or public school). A nonprofit organization that clearly fills a charitable or educational purpose but does not have nonprofit status may apply with an eligible nonprofit fiscal sponsor.

The principal collaborating artists and organizations must live or be located in the Northern or Central California counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, or Stanislaus; and have been there for at least two years.

A total of up to $810,000 will be available through grants ranging from $10,000 to $40,000. Artists and organizations should plan projects and prepare and sign their Letters of Inquiry together. 

Visit the CWF Web site for complete program guidelines, application materials, and examples of funded projects. 

 
 

New Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts Offered to Research Value and Impact of the Arts

Deadline: November 8, 2011

The Office of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts has announced the availability of grants for research on the value and impact of the U.S. arts sector, at either the individual or community level.

The NEA is interested in novel and significant research questions that will lead to greater public understanding of the contribution of the arts.

Grantees may use either existing or newly established datasets to conduct their research. The resulting projects will help determine the usefulness of various datasets to arts-related research — including those not previously used for that purpose. Through this grant opportunity, the NEA hopes to further expand the pool of researchers knowledgeable about arts and culture datasets.

Applicants must be U.S. nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations; units of state or local government; or federally recognized tribal communities or tribes. This may include but is not limited to colleges and universities. The NEA encourages applicants from diverse backgrounds, including those who have not specialized in arts-related research. Although applicants must be nonprofit organizations, they are encouraged to partner with for-profit entities and/or use commercial and/or administrative datasets.

The NEA anticipates awarding up to twenty-five grants in the range of $10,000 to $30,000. The grant period is not expected to exceed one year.

Complete program information, application and  guidelines are available at the NEA Web site

http://www.nea.gov/news/news11/research-art-works.html

                                                                                                                                                                         

New Exciting Opportunity for Public-Private Partnership to Connect Latin American Performing Artists With U.S.  Audiences

Deadline: February 10, 2012

The Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation have announced a public-private partnership in support of the Southern Exposure: Performing Arts of Latin America program, which is designed to bring exemplary contemporary and traditional performing arts from Latin America to audiences across the U.S. that have little access to this work.

The new initiative will support the presentation of dance, music, and theater artists and ensembles and will include community activities designed to provide audiences with a greater understanding of the artists, their work, and respective cultures.

The pilot program will support projects for the 2012-13 performing season that are developed collaboratively by presenter consortia based in the U.S. and its territories and ensure that engagements take place in at least three different cities or towns. In addition to public performances, all projects will include complementary community activities intended to build appreciation for the visiting artists' work and cultures. Consortia will work together to develop print and electronic support material for their respective projects.

Each consortium must consist of a minimum of three and a maximum of five presenting organizations. Priority will be given to consortia that include at least one organization with little to no experience in presenting artists from outside the U.S. Consortium partners must be based either in different states and/or federal jurisdictions or, at a minimum, outside of a fifty-mile radius from one another. Each presenter in a consortium must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization or a unit of state or local government and have a minimum of three continuous years of experience offering multiple presentations by professional touring performing artists in a given season.

Grants will not exceed $25,000. Eligible expenses include artist fees, travel-related expenses, shipping, expenses related to support material creation and distribution, translation services, expenses related to community engagement activities, communications, marketing and promotion, some administration costs, and visa application services.

Complete program information and application guidelines are available at the MAAF Web site.

The electronic application as well as online grant workshop details will be available on the site in September.      

http://www.midatlanticarts.org/funding/pat_presentation/Southern_Exposure/index.html

Guggenheim offers 220 Fellowships for Artists &Tribeca Film Institute to Give Filmmaker Grant Program ($10,000 + Grant Awards)

New Grant and Fellowship deadlines coming up soon from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the Tribeca Film Institute. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Offers Fellowships  for Artists and Scholars Deadline: For U.S. and Canada competition, the deadline is September 15, 2011  For Latin America and Caribbean competition, deadline is December 1, 2011 The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation provides fellowships for advanced professionals in all fields (creative arts, natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, visual arts). The fellowships are intended to further the development of artists and scholars  by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions.  Fellowships are awarded through two annual competitions: one open to citizens and permanent residents of the U.S. and Canada, and the other open to citizens and permanent residents of Latin America and the Caribbean.  Fellowships are grants to selected individuals made for a minimum of six months and a maximum of twelve months. Since the purpose of the program is to help provide fellows with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible, grants are made freely. No special conditions attach to them, and fellows may spend their grant funds in any manner they deem necessary to their work. The amounts of grants vary, and the foundation does not guarantee it will fully fund any project. Working with a fixed annual budget, the foundation strives to allocate its funds as equitably as possible, taking into consideration the fellows' other resources and the purpose and scope of their plans. Members of the teaching profession receiving sabbatical leave on full or part salary are eligible for appointment, as are those holding other fellowships and appointments at research centers. Approximately two hundred and twenty fellowships are awarded each year. The foundation only supports individuals. http://www.gf.org/applicants Tribeca Film Institute Invites Submissions for Narrative and Documentary Filmmaker Grant Programs Deadline: October 10, 2011 The Tribeca Film Institute has opened the application period of four of its grant programs for narrative, non-fiction, and new media filmmakers. The TFI Documentary Fund, the TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund, Tribeca All Access, and the TFI Latin America Media Arts Fund are all open for applications. The TFI Documentary Fund provides grants of at least $10,000 and guidance to support exceptional character-driven, nonfiction works-in-progress that sit outside of the social issue landscape and aim to take audiences into someone else's environment and spotlight the journey of the individual. Support is available for documentary films that are in the advanced stages of development or either in production or post-production. The program is open to filmmakers based anywhere in the world. The TFI Sloan Filmmaker Fund, supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, provides grants of $10,000 to $40,000 as well as professional guidance in support of innovative and compelling narrative features that offer a fresh take on scientific, mathematic, and technological themes. Funding is available for narrative films at any stage of development. The program is open to filmmakers based anywhere in the world.  The Tribeca All Access program supports working filmmakers who come from communities traditionally underrepresented in the film industry, including female filmmakers and filmmakers of color, by providing grants of $10,000 (with participants eligible for one of two additional $10,000 awards), access to industry contacts, workshops, panels, and year-round support. Funding is available for documentary or narrative films that are in development or in production. The program is open to filmmakers based in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The TFI Latin America Media Arts Fund provides grants of at least $10,000 to innovative film and video artists living and working in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central and South America whose works reflect their diverse cultures in documentary or mixed media format. Funding is available for documentary or nonfiction new media projects that are in production or post-production. Beyond providing grants for filmmakers, these programs also include year-round support, filmmaker resources, and industry connections for grantees. Grant recipients also will be invited to attend events during the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival in New York.                                    http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org/filmmakers/taa/news/126866293.html

More Grants for the Arts & $2 million Grants Announced

Dear Friends in the Arts,

We have just added a few more free grant funding sources which you may find useful. We realize not everyone can apply for all of these, but there should be some possibilities for each applicant in the arts. We will continue to confirm and add to the post biweekly. These are good organizations that provide funding and other logistical support to artists, art programs, writers, photographers and musicians.

And I will try to add more information and sources as we go along. The most important thing is for you to be confident about your art and tell a little about it to your funder in your request letter or application.

And if you find this information useful, sign up for new alerts at the top of the page on the right. We will be adding posts often, so that will let you get the newest information. If you don't hear anything from us, check back often.

Also, there are links on the page to earlier posts which may be useful to you -- including one which gives step by step directions to submitting a grant.

And below here are the 16 winners of the Rockefeller Foundations $3 million two-year grants.  Most of these went to organizations in the arts -- writing, music, history, literature, photography, choreography and art.  But it shows how you can partner with others to apply for even more grants than are available to individuals in the arts. 

Thanks for your comments.  We are taking many of your suggestions to give you information that is useful.

By Pia Catton from Wall Street Journal

The Rockefeller Foundation announced Thursday that it will give nearly $3 million to 16 local arts applicants through its 2011 New York City Cultural Innovation Fund competition. The two-year grants range from $50,000 to $250,000.

The trend among the applicants, according to the associate director of the Rockefeller Foundation, Edwin Torres, was collaboration among local arts groups. "It just emerged from the field. It wasn't articulated in our guidelines," he said. "Resources are so scarce."

The Dance Films Association, which produces the annual Dance on Camera festival, received a $250,000 grant to create two new 3D and HD dance films in a partnership with TenduTV, a dance programming distributor.
Casita Maria, the arts and education center in the South Bronx, received $210,000 for a new partnership with its company-in-residence, Dancing in the Streets. The center's executive director, Sarah Calderon, said the funds will be used to bolster community arts programs.

The arts service organization the Field received $100,000 to support Our Goods, an online barter network for artists. The project brings artists together to learn how to monetize their skills in new ways and support one another's work. Jennifer Wright Cook, executive director of the Field, said the funding boost will help populate the site so it can reach more artists and be more effective. "A big piece of this," she said, "is outreach and getting people to use the site."

New York Live Arts received $175,000 to fund its new Resident Commissioned Artist program, a two-year residency for a mid-career choreographer. "We hadn't raised all the funds for this program already," said Jean Davidson, executive director of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and New York Live Arts. "When you are innovating in the first year, you face some risk."

Creative Work Fund

Funds for artists and non-profit organizations to create new art works through collaborations. It celebrates artists as problem solvers and the making of art as a profound contribution to the strengthening of communities. Grants range from $10,000 to $40,000. Limited to artists and organizations based in San Francisco and Alameda, CA counties.

One Lombard Street, Suite 305, San Francisco, California 94111-1130

http://www.creativeworkfund.org/before.html

Cultural Resource Council's Community Arts Grants

Funding individual artists and not-for-profit organizations throughout Cortland, Onondaga and Oswego Counties, New York, USA. Funds are available for all not-for-profit organizations, including service organizations and units of government, and individual artists that wish to increase cultural awareness by presenting artistic and cultural events to benefit the public. All disciplines including, but not limited to, theater, dance, music, film, video, literature, visual arts, folk arts, historical and culturally specific events will be considered. All applicants, past and new, must attend an information session before applying. The information sessions are free and open to the public.

Cultural Resources Council,
John H. Mulroy Civic Center,
411 Montgomery Street, Syracuse,
NY 13202
telephone: 315.435.2155, fax: 315.435.2160
mwright@cspot.org

Culture Shapes Community

Culture Shapes Community recognizes and encourages neighborhood based arts and cultural organizations as unique stakeholders in poor neighborhoods experiencing economic and demographic shifts. This is accomplished through programs that search out and make use of neighborhood identity and public space, that promote social integration among mixed-income and mixed-race residents, that offer opportunities for upward economic mobility and that empower all to have a strong voice for fair and equitable neighborhood change.

1429 21st Street, NW, Washington DC
20036, phone: (202) 276-6503, fax: (202) 466-4845

Dancer's Group's Parachute Fund

The Parachute Fund provides emergency financial support to members of the San Francisco Bay Area dance community facing the free fall of AIDS or other life-threatening illnesses.

1360 Mission Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94103-2647
DG@dancersgroup.org

Documentary Photography Project Distribution Grants

This grant is offered to documentary photographers who have already completed a significant body of work on issues of social justice to collaborate with a partner organization and propose new ways of using photography as a tool for positive social change. Grants of $5,000 to $30,000 are awarded.

Open Society Institute, 400 West 59th Street, New York, NY 10019
yyamagata@sorosny.org

Durfee Foundation - Artist Resource for Completion Grants

ARC grants provide rapid, short-term assistance of up to $2,500 to individual artists who live in Los Angeles County. Funds must be used to enhance work that is near completion and scheduled for presentation within six months of the grant application deadline. Artists in any discipline may apply. Applicants must have a secure invitation from an established organization to present their work. There are four grant cycles per year.

1453 Third Street, Suite 312, Santa Monica, CA 90401
admin@durfee.org

East Bay Community Foundation Fund for Artists

This consortium of Bay Area, Northern California (USA) community foundations is dedicated to increasing support to Bay Area individual artists. This regional initiative supports the artistic revitalization of outstanding arts teachers in Bay Area middle and high schools. Through this grant, fellows will design individualized courses of study that foster their own creative work and the opportunity to interact with other professional artists in their fields. This annual award to four Bay Area fellows, includes a complementary grant to each fellow's respective school.

(510) 836-3223
fund4artists@eastbaycf.org

Artography

This national, competitive grantmaking program provides grants of $80,000 to $100,000 over two years for general operating expenses to 8 exemplary arts organizations. Recipients must be focused on demographic change, aesthetic innovation, and critical social engagement. Applicants have to be an American based, non-profit organization classified as a 501(c)(3) public charity and have a minimum five-year history of programming in any single or combination of arts disciplines.

ARTOGRAPHY: Arts in a Changing America is a grant and documentation program created to nurture exemplary art-making that both ackowledges and engages the shifting national demographic landscape. We seek a deeper level of understanding of the impact that changing populations, cultures, and aesthetics are having on the American arts community.

For ARTOGRAPHY, exceptional artistic practice is the standard by which investigations into diversity must be manifested and understood. Artists and arts organizations should be empowered to describe (and inscribe) their own practices, and develop their own language of identity.
http://artsinachangingamerica.net/

Artists' Fellowship

The Artists' Fellowship, Inc. is a charitable foundation that assists professional fine artists (painters, graphic artists, printmakers, sculptors) and their families in times of emergency, disability, or bereavement. The Artists' Fellowship's Board of Trustees and Officers all serve as volunteers in service to our community of artists. Assistance is given without expectation of repayment. One does not need to be a member of the Fellowship to receive assistance; neither does membership in the Artists' Fellowship entitle one to assistance from the foundation.


47 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003. (646) 230-9833
http://www.artistsfellowship.org/

CASH Grants: Theater Bay Area

CA$H is a grants program designed by artists for artists to support professionally oriented theatre and dance artists and small companies with budgets under $100,000. Its purpose is to spark a creative surge throughout Northern California's theater and dance community by providing grants to artists ($1,500) and small-sized organizations ($2,500). Approximately $20,000 are awarded each round. Funding decisions are made by a rotating five-member panel.

870 Market Street, Suite 375, San Francisco, CA 94102, phone: (415) 430-1140, Ext. 14

The Rosie Richmond Artist Advancement Award (Illinois)
Provides financial assistance to artists for specific projects. In 2011, visual, dance/choreography and performance/interdisciplinary artists may apply; in 2012, musical and literary artists may apply.
Applications are now available for City Arts Grants and Rosie Richmond Artist Advancement Awards. To be eligible for the City Arts Grant, applicant organizations must serve residents of Sangamon or Menard counties, be registered as a not-for-profit organization with the Illinois Secretary of State and have been in existence for at least one year prior to application. City Arts grants are given to social service agencies that provide arts programming for underserved populations (i.e. people with disabilities, senior citizens, ethnic minorities, etc.). The City Arts Grant program also provides subsidies to area arts organizations for rehearsal, performance or exhibit space.

The Rosie Richmond Artist Advancement Award is a grant program that provides financial assistance to committed artists for specific projects which will enable them to advance their work and careers. In 2011, visual, dance/choreography and performance/interdisciplinary artists may apply; in 2012, musical and literary artists may submit applications.
Attendance at a grant application workshop is required to be eligible for funding. Grant application workshops will be held in the Hoogland Center for the Arts on August 16, August 20 and September 1. Please call the Arts Council (753-3519) for application workshop times, to make reservations and for further information.

Grant applications may be picked up at the Arts Council office (Hoogland Center for the Arts, basement) or requested by e-mail (office@springfieldartsco.org). The deadline for the City Arts Grant and the Rosie Richmond Artist Advancement Award is September 15.