Finding Grants & Residencies

Below I've listed several websites and some books for you to find and research the opportunities that will best serve your needs. Another great place to find opportunities is on the CV of your friends and colleagues. Ask them about their experiences and the application process!

Searchable Websites, Subscriptions & Specific Opportunities

ArtDeadline.com

Art Opportunities Monthly: Yearly subscription service for access to grants and other opportunities.

Artist Trust: Artist Trust is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting individual artists working in all disciplines throughout Washington State.

Artwork Archive: Complete Guide to 2019 Artist Grants & Opportunities

College Art Association

Cranbrook Academy of Art's List: Grants and Other Funding Sources for Individual Artists (with grants listed by region and discipline)

Foundation Grants to Individuals Online: Foundation Grants to Individuals Online is the ideal resource for students, artists, researchers—subscription service.

Grants.gov: Federal grants

National Assembly of State Arts Agencies: State arts agencies directly serve the public through grants for artists, arts education, organizations and communities.

National Endowment for the Arts: The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation.

Regional Arts and Culture Council

Women Arts

Residencies

Alliance of Artist Communities

Res Artis

Trans Artists

Big Name Grants

The following is a subjective list of "big name" grants—awards that have name recognition and often, big prizes to accompany their prestige.

John F. Guggenheim Foundation

• *Note: The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation decided to suspend its Latin American and Caribbean competition for the year 2019 while we examine the workings and efficacy of the program. The U.S. and Canadian competition is unaffected by this suspension.
• Award amount is not listed but is usually generous (average amount as of 2009 was $43,200)
• More exclusions and notes available here

Artadia

• Artists can not be currently enrolled in an art-related degree program.
• Location specific: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles,New York and the San Francisco Bay Area

Pollock Krasner Foundation

• No commercial artists, video artists, performance artists, filmmakers, crafts-makers, or any artist whose work primarily falls into these categories
• Amount varies
• Rolling applications

Creative Capital

• Application closes soon—February 28 at 2pm!
• Read this "Reality Check Interview" about Creative Capital Grant applications between Jackie Battenfield and Aaron Landsman here.

Fulbright Grant

• Must be US citizen
• Different types of grants are available. US Scholars Program lasts about 12 months with stipend (varies by location). Deadline Sept. 16, 2019.
• Fulbright Student Program is for recent graduates.

The Gottlieb Foundation

• Individual and emergency grant funds
• $25,000 for a painter, printmaker, or sculptor, who has been working for at least 20 years in a mature phase of your work, and can demonstrate a need for financial assistance.

MacArthur Genius

• Nomination, no solicitation
• The MacArthur Fellowship is a $625,000, no-strings-attached award to extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential.
• Their website lists three criteria for selection of Fellows: (1) Exceptional creativity; (2) Promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishments; and (3) Potential for the Fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.

The Joan Mitchell Foundation

Painters & Sculptors Program

• $25,000 per artist
• Invitation only

Joan Mitchell Emerging Artist

• $12,000 unrestricted funds
• No solicitations

Emergency Fund

• up to $6,000 in emergency support to US-based visual artists working in the mediums of painting, sculpture, and/or drawing, who have suffered significant losses after natural or man-made disasters that have affected a region on a broad scale

Articles

20 Top Artist Grants and Fellowships You Might Actually Be Able to Get | Bloun Info (2012)

7 Individual Artist Grants That Will Make You Stop, Drop and Apply | Artwork Archive

36 Amazing Art Grants To Apply For Today | Format (2018)

Books

Battenfield, Jackie. The Artist's Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2009.

Rosenberg, Gigi. The Artist's Guide to Grant Writing: How to Find Funds and Write Foolproof Proposals for the Visual, Literary, and Performing Artist. Watson-Guptill Publications: New York, 2010.