Center for Craft, Creativity and Design

The mission of the Center for Craft, Creativity & Design is to advance the understanding of craft by encouraging and supporting research, scholarship, and professional development. The Center’s programs strive to support the best examples of research and practice in the field; it provides funding for several categories of grants as well as fellowships and museum internships.

The George and Helen Segal Foundation

The 2013-2014 grant cycle has been postponed. Check the website for updates.

Black Rock Arts Foundation

Through its Grants to Artists and Civic Arts programs, BRAF works with communities in the Bay Area and around the world to collaboratively produce innovative, relevant and pioneering works of public art that build community and empower individuals. Grants commonly range between $2000 and $6000. BRAF recommends that artists sign up for its mailing list to be notified when the next grant cycle begins.

Biennial Grants for Mature Women

Grants of $1,000 to visual artists, writers and musicians over the age of 35. NOTE: Next grants awarded in 2012. Write for guidelines. (Direct link to the grant page is here.)

Creative Capital

Creative Capital provides integrated financial and advisory support to artists pursuing adventurous projects in five disciplines: Emerging Fields, Film/Video, Literature, Performing Arts and Visual Arts. The funding cycle rotates over a cycle of several years; check the website for details.

The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts, Inc.

The Golden Foundation Residency Program is specifically designed to assist the professional artist in discovering and exploring the many materials and technologies available today. Through the Golden Foundation, residents will have the unparalleled opportunity to work with dozens of unique materials and technologies.

Atlantic Center for the Arts

ACA organizes and funds many programs for artists of all ages and professional levels; these include three residency programs (including one for teenaged writers), various community programs, and internships.

Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE

The Center provides Artists-in-Residence with the gift of time, space and support. Artists come from around the world to work within a supportive community of like-minded people. Residencies are three months in length, and a monthly stipend is provided in addition to living and studio space.

Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA

The Center provides studio space, residencies, fellowships, grants, workshops and other opportunities for artists. The goal of the center is to bring together local, national, and international artists from a wide range of disciplines — including visual and interdisciplinary artists, architects, dancers, choreographers, musicians, composers, writers, and curators — thus enabling the exchange of ideas and approaches that help catalyze new cultural and social perspectives.

Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

The Center hosts residencies of 2 to 12 weeks for visual artists and writers. VSC Residents represent a mix of mediums, cultures, experience, and ages, for a diverse and vibrant community.

Artadia – The Fund for Art and Dialogue

Unrestricted cash fellowships and a national network of support provided to visual artists in participating cities: Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc.

Giving exclusively to needy and worthy individual working artists (painters, sculptors, artists who work on paper, including printmakers) who have embarked on professional careers; grants may be used for professional or personal requirements.

Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation

Individual support program for painters, sculptors, and printmakers who have worked at least 20 years in a mature phase of their art, and are in current financial need. Application is available in early September, by mail only. Complete instruction are on the website.
Emergency assistance program for painters, sculptors, and printmakers who have worked at least 10 years in a mature phase of their art and are in current financial need which is the result of a recent emergency occurrence such as a fire, flood or medical emergency. Emergency grants have a maximum of $15,000; a typical emergency grant is $5,000.

Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Inc.

Grants of $500-$1,500 to poets, fiction and nonfiction writers, visual artists, and for a mixed-genre category (illustration and text) to feminist women in the arts whose work in some way focuses upon women. Application processing fee is $25. There are two application deadlines each year: December 31 (art, mixed genre, and fiction) and June 30 (nonfiction and poetry). Download the application in .pdf form from the website or write to the postal address to request an application (include a SASE with your request.) Completed applications and supporting material must be mailed. Complete instructions are available on the website.

The Puffin Foundation

Grants that encourage emerging artists whose works, due to their genre and/or social philosophy might have difficulty being aired. In September 2013 application packets will be available for the 2014 grant cycle. In this cycle, proposals will be accepted in the areas of music, photography, and theater. In the 2015 grant cycle proposals will be accepted in the areas of dance, fine arts, and video (this category also includes radio projects.) Grants: Up to $2,500

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. Grant amounts vary; the fellowship term is six to twelve months. Currently applications will be accepted from artists in the U.S. and Canada (the 2013 deadline is September 19, 2013.) The program for Latin American and Caribbean artists has been temporarily suspended. Check the website for details.

E.D. Foundation

Grants to individual professional artists, sculptors, and printmakers. Grants: $2,500 to $5,000

Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation

Funds emerging or early-stage representational artists working in painting, drawing, printmaking or sculpture who are committed to making the practice of their art a lifetime career. Grants are to assist applicants in the study or practice of their art, and the costs associated therewith, such as tuition, studio rental, model fees, travel and living expenses.

Eligible courses of study or training include undergraduate, graduate or post-graduate studies and diploma programs from accredited institutions, recognized residencies, apprenticeships/internships and studio training. Abstract or non-representational art is precluded by the terms of the Foundation’s Charter. Grant amount is $15,000-$18,000 (Canadian $).

Complete information on the Foundation, its mission, grants, eligibility requirements, and how to apply for a grant are found on its website.

Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation
1814 Sherbrooke St. West
Montreal, Quebec
H3H 1E4 CANADA
Phone: (514) 937-9225
Email: info@greenshieldsfoundation.ca
Website: www.elizabethgreenshieldsfoundation.org/main.html
(Also available in French at www.elizabethgreenshieldsfoundation.org/main_fr.html)

Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts

EFA’s stated mission:

EFA is dedicated to providing artists across all disciplines with space, tools and a cooperative forum for the development of individual practice. We are a catalyst for cultural growth, stimulating new interactions between artists, creative communities, and the public.

EFA sponsors three programs: the Studio Space Program, the Project Space Program, and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop.

National YoungArts Foundation (formerly National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts)

The foundation aims to identify and support the next generation of artists, and to contribute to the cultural vitality of the nation by investing in the artistic development of talented young artists in the visual, literary, and performing arts.  YoungArts provides emerging artists with life-changing experiences with renowned mentors, access to significant scholarships, national recognition, and other opportunities throughout their careers to help ensure that the nation’s most outstanding emerging artists are encouraged to pursue careers in the arts.

Virginia A. Groot Foundation

The Virginia A. Groot Foundation Grant was established in 1988 so that a ceramic sculpture or sculpture artist may have the opportunity to devote a substantial period of time to the development of his or her work. Artists who have exceptional talent and demonstrated ability in ceramic sculpture or sculpture, at any stage of career development from emerging through mature, are eligible. Three grants are awarded each year: up to $35,000, $10,000, and $5,000.

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Xeric Foundation

Grants to self-publishing Comic Book Creators. Note: As of January 2009, website was under construction. Check back for updates.

Aaron Siskind Foundation

The Individual Photographer’s Fellowship (IPF) review panel examines the work of upwards of 1,000 applicants each year, awarding a varying number of grants in amounts of up to $10,000. Eligible work must be based on the idea of the lens-based still image, but grant recipients work in forms as diverse as digital imagery, installations, documentary projects and photo-generated print media.

Nadine Blacklock Nature Photography Fellowship for Women

One month-long artist fellowship for a woman nature photographer to allow her access to the subject matter found at the Sanctuary with a $2,000 stipend. Also funds Emerging Artist Fellowships for Minnesota artists.

En Foco, Inc.

New Works Photography Awards assist several photographers each year in the creation or completion of quality in-depth photographic work that explores themes emanating from their personal experiences.  Applicants must be photographers of Latino, African, or Asian heritage, or Native Peoples of the Americas and the Pacific. Work can be in any photo-based style or genre (documentary, autobiographical, landscape, abstract, digital, pinhole, etc), or photo-based medium (installation, mixed media, alternative processes, etc). Submission deadlines take place every Summer.
The goal is to identify and promote talented emerging and mid-career artists, creating a cross-cultural dialogue and providing artists with exposure and growth opportunities. More info here.

Fifty Crows International Fund for Documentary Photography
(Formerly Mother Jones Fund)

The fund awards four grants of $5,000 each to “emerging documentary photographers whose outstanding ability in visual storytelling leads us to a better understanding of our common humanity.”

W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund, Inc.

Grant program that provides photographers with the financial freedom to carry out or complete major photographic essays. As of 2011, grant was $30,000.

Erna and Victor Hasselblads Foundation

Research Grants in Photography promote scientific research, education and projects within the field of photography. Open internationally to photographers, cultural theorists, historians, curators and researchers.

The Ruth Chenven Foundation

The Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundation gives annual awards (amounts up to $1,500) to individual artists and craftpersons living and working in the United States, and who are engaged in or planning a new craft or visual art project. See the website for up-to-date application procedure information.

Women’s Studio Workshop, Inc.

The Mission of the Women’s Studio Workshop is to operate and maintain an artists’ workspace that encourages the voice and vision of individual women artists, to provide professional opportunities and employment to artists at all stages of their careers, and to promote programs designed to stimulate public involvement, awareness and support for the visual arts. To this end, a variety of residencies (both fully and partially subsidized), internships, and other opportunities are available.

Library Fellows Artist Book Program

The Library Fellows Program was established in 1989 to encourage and support the creation of artists’ books and to benefit the Library and Research Center. The program provides funds for the creation of new artists’ books by book artists or artists of other media who are interested in creating a book. The artist who is responsible for the overall creation, design, and realization of the book must be a woman. The grant is awarded every other year; the next grant cycle will be in 2014. Check the website for details.
(In addition, internships and other opportunities are available at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.)

Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice

Astraea’s supports the work of contemporary lesbian visual artists within the U.S.and throughout the world, through several programs. The Global Arts Fund and the Margot Karle Scholarship are for individuals. The Global Arts Fund only considers submissions from artists through a nomination process led by Astraea’s current U.S. and International grantee partners; the Scholarship is currently on hiatus but plans to resume its cycle in 2014. Astraea also sponsors two funds for organizations. See the website for more information.

Sustainable Arts Foundation

Supports artists and writers with children (specifically a child under the age of 18) with unrestricted cash awards of $6,000 for visual artists and for writers. Their philosophy:

Too often, creative impulses are set aside to meet the wonderful, but pressing, demands of raising a family. The foundation’s goal is to encourage parents to continue pursuing their creative passion, and to rekindle it in those who may have let it slide.

Smaller grants of $1,000 are also available. Applications are accepted twice a year. Visit website for complete guidelines and specific deadlines.

Harpo Foundation

Supports the production of new work by visual artists and/or collaborative teams who are under recognized by the field. Production may happen in the context of an installation, public intervention, residency, or exhibition. Prioritizes projects that advance and cross the boundaries of visual media and artistic disciplines. Letters of inquiry must be submitted prior to being invited to submit a full application. Application guidelines changed in 2013; be sure to check the website for details. The next grant cycle will be in 2014.
The Foundation also supports two fellowship programs, for Native American Artists and for Emerging Artists.

Provincetown Art Association and Museum: The Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Foundation Grant

Awards of $5,000-$30,000 to American painters 45 years or older at time of application who demonstrate clear need for financial support. Individual applicants only. Three or four grants awarded annually.

* Many state arts councils also provide fellowships to individual artists. For an alphabetical
listing of state and regional councils with links to web sites go to: