Making a living as an artist can be challenging at times. How can you get to work on completing your next big sculpture or photography project if you’re worried about next month’s rent?
Thankfully, there are a lot of organizations that offer art grants and fellowships that support artists in creating their work, and free them up to concentrate on creating. Not sure where to start? We’ll help you figure out how to apply, and share some of our favourite artist grants, from grants for emerging artists and performing arts grants to grants for female artists and visual arts grants.
They’ll also need your artist statement, so ensure that yours is as clear and concise as possible, and up-to-date with all the information about your practice. (Here are some tips on how to write an artist statement.)
Once your portfolio and artist statement are done, you can bone up on how to write better artist grant applications here.
Now that you’ve got all your materials ready and the art grant application skills under your belt, it’s time to get started! Here are 36 of the best grants for artists, and everything you need to know to apply for them.
Amount: $20,000
Special notes: Applicants must be 25 or older
A Blade of Grass is an organization that provides resources for talented artists who “serve as innovative conduits for social change.” Its fellowship program is designed to support artists in creating work that highlights social problems, and focuses on funding projects that challenge unfair power dynamics. Along with the financial support, the fellowship grants artists an expenses-paid two-day orientation retreat in NYC to meet fellow artists as well as the organization’s staff and board.
Amount: $1,000
Special notes: $35 entry fee to submit up to three works
Specto Art Space, an art gallery in Virginia, offers this unrestricted art grant to help artists with all the expenses involved with creating great art. It also offers winning artists the option of being included in the gallery’s shows and promotional materials.
Amount: $1,000
Special notes: Has 90 chapters that each give out a $1,000 art grant monthly
The Awesome Foundation is an international organization with 90 chapters. Each of the chapters offers a $1,000 art grant every month. The foundation funds all types of art projects as well as initiatives in community development and technology. “Many Awesome projects are novel or experimental, and evoke surprise and delight,” their website says. “Awesome sometimes challenges and often inspires.”
Each chapter tends to fund projects that contribute to their own communities, so it’s best to apply to a chapter near you. However, there are no restrictions based on location and you can apply to multiple chapters.
Amount: Up to $10,000
Special notes: Focuses on interactive and community-driven artworks
The Burning Man organization (yes, the one behind the annual festival) offers art grants to help fund projects around the world. It focuses on art projects that are accessible to the public and that encourage the viewers to experience it in other ways than just visually. They love art projects that can be touched, heard, or experienced. These artist grants can range between $500 and $10,000 dollars, but most often they fall between $3,000 and $6,000.
Amount: $5,000
Special notes: The artist must be based in another country and plan on traveling to the U.S.
CEC ArtsLink gives art grants to international artists to help them come to the U.S. to collaborate with an American artist or organization. Their criteria for choosing an artist include the artist’s plans for sharing the benefits of the experience with artists and institutions in their home country.
Amount: Up to $50,000 and career development services
Special notes: Focuses on large-scale, long-term projects
Creative Capital is an arts organization that supports artists across the U.S. with funding, counsel, and career development services. It typically awards grants for artists with plans for large or long-term projects. Most of the projects that get funded have a timeline between three to five years.
Amount: $40,000
Special notes: Grants are given to support artists, not specific projects
The Foundation for Contemporary Arts awards several artist grants annually across five different art fields. Recipients are chosen on the merit and imagination of their past work, and what effect the recognition and support of a grant will have on their careers.
These artist grants are not given to fund specific art projects. Instead, they are meant to support artists financially while they pursue whatever artistic endeavors they wish, including developing new ideas, starting new projects, and completing ongoing projects.
Amount: $25,000
Special notes: Only open to “mature” artists
The Gottlieb Foundation gives out 12 artist grants each year. It aims to support “serious” and “fully-committed” artists, meaning those who focus on their artistic goals over other personal or financial responsibilities. The foundation only awards these art grants to “mature” artists, which it defines as having worked for at least 20 years in a mature phase of their art.
Amount: Varies
Special notes: No restrictions on how grants are used
Guggenheim Fellowships are art grants that are given to individuals who show “exceptional creative ability” in the arts. The goal is to help provide the recipient with time so they can work with as much creative freedom as possible. Recipients can use the funds in any way they see fit to help with their work.
In addition to this artist grant, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation also provides grants to scientists and scholars. As a result, they receive about 3,000 applications a year, and award about 175 fellowships across these different fields.
Amount: Up to $10,000
Special notes: Artists must have been working for a significant amount of time and be in financial need
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation provides grants for artists in financial need, whether that’s professional, personal or both. When selecting an applicant, the organization focuses on artists who have been working for a significant amount of time, and who can demonstrate both artistic merit and financial need.
Amount: Up to a $70,000 stipend and $5,000 to cover project expenses
Special notes: Involves living at Harvard University for a year
Each year, the Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program chooses 50 talented artists and scholars to convene at Harvard University for a full academic year. There they can work on individual projects while benefiting from a multidisciplinary community.
Applicants from any discipline and who focus on any subject matter are welcome to apply. However, there are some subjects that are of special interest to the Radcliffe Institute. For instance, artists whose work involves women, gender, and society will have a better chance of getting chosen.
Amount: Up to $5,000
Special notes: Only artists with children are eligible
This foundation aims to support artists with families by providing financial awards to parents that are pursuing creative work. Parents often put aside their creative impulses to meet the demands of raising a family, so the foundation’s goal is to encourage parents to continue with their creative passions.
Amount: Up to $20,000
Special notes: Artadia has award programs in cities across the U.S.
Artadia is a national non-profit organization that supports visual artists by providing merit-based grants for artists. These awards are unrestricted, so artists can use them however they want. The awards range from $5,000 to $20,000 and also come with ongoing career assistance.
Artadia focuses on recognizing artists in several cities that show a commitment to contemporary art. It currently has award programs in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and the San Francisco Bay Area. To apply, you have to live in one of these designated cities.
Amount: $1,500
Special notes: Up to seven awards are granted annually
This foundation gives unrestricted cash awards to help individual artists who are working on or planning a new visual art project. Between four and seven artist grants are given out each year. Applicants have to be living and working in the U.S to be eligible.
Amount: Up to $10,000
Special notes: $25 fee to apply
The Aaron Siskind Foundation gives out art grants annually to support artists working in photography and photo-based art. It selects recipients based on artistic excellence, accomplishments, and the promise of future achievement.
Amount: $10,000
Special notes: Open to any emerging photographer
The Emerging Photographer grant is intended to support photographers who will become tomorrow’s icons. Recipients can use the money to support themselves as they move forward in their work and continue making a mark.
In addition to the Emerging Photographer grant for artists, which is open to any emerging photographer, Burn Magazine offers a $10,000 award specifically for photographers who are 25 and under. If you apply for the Emerging Photographer grant and meet the age requirement, you’ll automatically be eligible for the award.
Amount: $5,000
Special notes: Applicants should have a completed or nearly completed project
This artist grant is offered by CENTER, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and providing opportunities for gifted photographers. It is awarded to photographers that have either a completed or nearly completed project that would benefit from some financial support. The recipient also has their work published on Lenscratch, and gets to participate in an exhibition at The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts in North Carolina.
Amount: $35,000
Special notes: Helps photographers working on major photographic essays
This art grant provides photographers some financial freedom to carry out major photographic essays. The grant was established in 1978 following the death of American photo essayist Gene Smith.
The artist grant is given to photographers whose work demonstrates a commitment to documenting the human condition. A panel of judges selects a recipient whose work follows in the tradition of Smith’s “concerned photography and dedicated compassion.”
Amount: $15,000
Special notes: Applications are accepted throughout the year with no deadline
The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation gives grants for emerging artists to develop their skills in artistic expression. Applicants must be 18 or older, in an early or developmental stage of their work, and be able to show a commitment to making art their lifetime career.
Amount: Up to $10,000
Special notes: $15 application fee
This grant for emerging artists aims to help support under-recognized visual artists. Applicants are evaluated based on the quality of their artistic work and potential to expand aesthetic inquiry. The grant can be used towards any activity that will help with the development of the artist’s work.
Amount: Up to $2,500
Special notes: Focuses on under-represented artists
This organization aims to provide grants for emerging artists who are “often excluded from mainstream opportunities due to their race, gender, or social philosophy.” It also focuses on new artists, and specifies that established artists are less likely to be considered for a grant. They look for “projects that seek to enrich and inform the public on important subjects such as the physical environment, social justice, civil rights and other contemporary issues facing the country (and the planet), that some organizations might hesitate to fund.”
Amount: $2,000 for individuals, or up to $10,000 for groups
Special notes: Supports artist to travel outside the U.S. to collaborate with international artists
The Association of Performing Arts Professionals gives travel grants to help American artists travel abroad to collaborate, build partnerships, and experience art from around the world in its cultural context. There are no limitations on the countries the artist can travel to, but APAP encourages applicants to consider choosing a country in Africa, Asia, Latin America, or the Middle East.
Amount: Up to $10,000
Special notes: The grant recipient must travel to New York to present their work
The Franklin Furnace Fund has been awarding performing arts grants to performance artists since 1985. The grants are meant to enable artists to produce major performance artworks in New York. Artists from anywhere in the world are encouraged to apply, but the grant recipient is expected to present their work in New York.
This art grant is typically given to emerging artists. However, the organization’s website says, “every year the panel changes, as do the definitions of ‘emerging artist’ and ‘performance art.’” So, if at first you don’t succeed, apply, apply again.
Amount: $5,000 per year for two years
Special notes: The only requirement is that applicants live within the U.S.
Jubilation Foundation performing arts grants are given to individual artists with “an exceptional talent for helping young people feel fully alive through rhythm—as expressed in music and dance.” The foundation’s goal is to promote well-being and the joyful side of human nature through music and movement.
Amount: $25,000
Special notes: Grants must be matched from other sources
In partnership with Arts Midwest, the Shakespeare in American Communities program provides funds to nonprofit theater companies. The funds are provided to support professional, high-quality productions of Shakespeare plays performed for middle- and high-school students.
Amount: $5,000
Special notes: Includes promotion in art magazines
The National Sculpture Society (NSS) sponsors a number of annual artist grants for sculptors. One is the Alex J. Ettl Grant. It involves an unrestricted $5,000 grant, a half-page ad in Fine Art Connoisseur magazine, and a quarter-page ad in Sculpture Review magazine. It is awarded to a sculptor who has shown a commitment to sculpting as well as outstanding ability.
Amount: $5,000
Special notes: Includes promotion in art magazines
This is another art grant sponsored by the NSS and it offers the same exposure in magazine ads as the Alex J. Ettl Grant that’s listed above. The difference is this grant is awarded to sculptors who specialize in animal sculpture.
Amount: Up to $50,000
Special notes: Three grants are available every year
This grant for artists was established in 1988 to enable sculptors to devote a substantial amount of time to the development of their work. The foundation offers three grants of up to $50,000, $20,000, and $10,000. Applicants can be at any stage of their career development. The grant winner is chosen primarily on the quality of work submitted. Also taken into consideration is the proposal included in the grant application.
Amount: $50,000
Special notes: Involves creating a traveling exhibition of paintings
The Bennett Prize awards $50,000 to a female artist to help her create a solo exhibition of figurative realist paintings that will travel the country. It aims to assist female painters who haven’t yet gotten full recognition, including new artists and those who have been painting for many years.
Amount: Varies
Special notes: Focuses on long-term documentary photography projects
This annual award is given to a female photographer under the age of 30 to help in completing a long-term photography project. The specific guidelines change year to year, but they focus on photo essays that document different cultures and contemporary issues.
Amount: Up to $1,500
Special notes: Artists should have substantial work done on their project before applying
Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund is a feminist granting agency that has been around for over 40 years. It gives grants to individual feminist women in the arts to help them complete ongoing projects. The website specifies that, when applying for a grant, the project should already be well underway and the artist should have substantial work to show. (Projects that are not eligible for this grant include play scripts, videos, and work that will be self-published.)
Amount: $1,000
Special notes: Entry fee of $35
This grant for female artists is intended to encourage mature, talented women to pursue their artistic goals. The money can go towards anything that will help with their creative efforts. In addition to this visual arts grant, NLAPW also offers separate $1,000 grants for mature women in music and literature.
Amount: Up to an eight-week residency with a $350 per week stipend, and money for materials and travel
Special notes: Open to artists in any stage of their career
The Women’s Studio Workshop has a residency art grant program. It involves a six- to eight-week residency for artists to create new work. In addition to a stipend of $350 per week, WSW provides $500 for art materials and $250 for travel expenses.
Amount: Up to $15,000
Special notes: Helps artists facing financial problems due to unforeseen events
The Gottlieb Foundation gives emergency art grants to help artists overcome catastrophic events. Some examples include fire, flood, or medical conditions. One requirement is that applicants need to be able to show they’ve been working on their art for a minimum of 10 years.
Amount: Varies
Special notes: Applicants must make a living off their art
The Artists’ Fellowship offers emergency financial aid to professional artists and their families in times of need. The support is meant to help artists overcome unexpected hardships including sickness, natural disasters, and bereavement. This financial assistance program is only open to professional artists who create works for sale in galleries, private commission, or reproduction in mass media.
Amount: Up to $2,500
Special notes: Grants to help artists to meet a project deadline
The Foundation for Contemporary Arts offers emergency grants for artists who are urgently in need of funding. The grants help artists who either have a sudden opportunity to present their work to the public but need funding, or those who run into unexpected expenses for a project with an upcoming exhibition date.
The FCA gives out about 12 to 15 emergency grants per month, and they range from $500 to $2,500.
Finding one of these grants with specific requirements can help improve your chances by limiting the number of applicants you’re competing with.
Philanthropy News Digest (select “Arts/Culture” in the search box)
WomenArts
Good luck—may your financial future be worry-free!
Want to learn more about ways to fund your art?
The Best Photography Contests and Prizes in 2018
5 Ways to Fund Your Personal Project
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How to Get Your Work in an Art Gallery
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