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We believe in the power of socially engaged artists to participate meaningfully in creating a more just, equitable, sustainable, joyful, and compassionate future. We know this means that artists must take time and care to develop relationships built on mutual trust, as well as work with diverse non-arts partners and communities. We understand there are no ready-made roadmaps or guaranteed outcomes for this type of work, and are committed to learning how artists navigate these processes and relationships.
Our fellowship program is meant to support courageous artists in creating exchanges, experiences, and structures that highlight seemingly intractable social problems, inspire audiences, and energize folks to participate in and sustain long-term social change work. This is hard and time-consuming organizational, intellectual, and emotional work.
We are committed to providing relatively unrestricted funding that incorporates a collaborative research component. Additionally, field research replaces grant reporting written by the artist, and is grounded in the goals and areas of inquiry defined by the artist and the perspective of project participants.
Selected Fellows will receive:
Fellowship Projects may become the focus of A Blade of Grass content and programming including:
Open Call Deadline: October 16, 2019 at 11:59PM (EST)
All interested and eligible applicants will submit their full narrative application and supplementals through Submittable, with only semifinalists having to submit more detailed budgets and timelines upon later request from A Blade of Grass. Artist collectives are welcome to apply! They will need one member to submit a single application on behalf of the collective. Required application materials and timeline are below.
Submit the following materials by the Open Call deadline:
Click here to access the application
We believe in the power of socially engaged artists to participate meaningfully in creating a more just, equitable, sustainable, joyful, and compassionate future. We know this means that artists must take time and care to develop relationships built on mutual trust, as well as work with diverse non-arts partners and communities. We understand there are no ready-made roadmaps or guaranteed outcomes for this type of work, and are committed to learning how artists navigate these processes and relationships.
Our fellowship program is meant to support courageous artists in creating exchanges, experiences, and structures that highlight seemingly intractable social problems, inspire audiences, and energize folks to participate in and sustain long-term social change work. This is hard and time-consuming organizational, intellectual, and emotional work.
We are committed to providing relatively unrestricted funding that incorporates a collaborative research component. Additionally, field research replaces grant reporting written by the artist, and is grounded in the goals and areas of inquiry defined by the artist and the perspective of project participants.
Selected Fellows will receive:
- $20,000 in minimally restricted support
- Comprehensive written field research reports that utilize action research methodology
- Expenses paid 2-day orientation retreat in NYC to engage a cohort of peer artists and A Blade of Grass staff and board (a requirement for the fellowship)
- Ongoing invitations to networking events for all A Blade of Grass Fellows and alumni twice annually (attendance voluntary)
- Ongoing promotion of fellow’s projects through A Blade of Grass social media networks and website
- In addition to direct artist support, another primary goal of ABOG is to make the “invisible” parts of socially engaged art visible. We do this through documentary films, publications, web content, and public programming. However, these content collaborations are not an obligation of the fellowship, and will be based on mutual interest under a separate contract.
Fellowship Projects may become the focus of A Blade of Grass content and programming including:
- Curriculum and advocacy that advance the field of socially engaged art
- Inclusion in our biannual magazine (available in print and free online)
- Participation in documentary videos focused on curatorial themes of interest to the field
- Other web content (podcasts, interviews, critical essays)
- Participation in ongoing public programs
Open Call Deadline: October 16, 2019 at 11:59PM (EST)
All interested and eligible applicants will submit their full narrative application and supplementals through Submittable, with only semifinalists having to submit more detailed budgets and timelines upon later request from A Blade of Grass. Artist collectives are welcome to apply! They will need one member to submit a single application on behalf of the collective. Required application materials and timeline are below.
Submit the following materials by the Open Call deadline:
- A maximum 100-word project summary
- A maximum 2,000-word project narrative that describes your project
- Work Samples: A single PDF or Word document with up to 10 still images with captions and/or up to 2 video/audio links with captions and cue points
- Supplemental Materials: A single PDF or Word document with up to 5 supplemental documents or links (press clips, critic reviews, catalog text, your own creative or analytical writing samples). For longer documents, please provide key excerpts.
- A CV (or multiple CVs if applying as a collective)
- Contact information for three references
- An informational diagram that describes your stakeholder network and/or project participation. Click here to see examples.
Click here to access the application