Secure the Bag: Grants and Funding Opportunities for Artists
Are you an artist that is always grinding, hustling, and creating and would love some financial support along the way? Of course, you do.
I’m an artist, too, so I get it.
Between navigating the cycle of creation and posting your process and work on social media (very 2024, I know), it can get tiring. Wouldn’t it be helpful to have some financial support to take the edge off and catalyze you towards your artistic dreams?
Here are a few great funding opportunities for individual artists and creatives:
The Creative Capital Award ($15,000 to $50,000)
The Creative Capital Award is perhaps one of the panaceas of funding for individual artists. It provides unrestricted project funding (which can be tapped into over a multi-year period), bespoke professional development services, and community-building opportunities. Grants are awarded based on a democratic, national, open call, external review process. Their goal is to fund individual artists creating conceptually interesting, aesthetically engaging, as well as challenging, risk-taking, and never-before-seen projects.
National Endowment for The Arts Creative Writing Fellowships ($25,000)
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Fellowships program offers grants to published creative writers working on prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) and/or poetry. The goal of this fellowship is to enable awardees to set aside time for reflection, research, travel, writing, and anything else that facilitates career advancement.
Anonymous Was A Woman Environmental Art Grants ($20,000)
The Anonymous Was A Woman Environmental Art Grants (AWAW EAG) will distribute a total of $300,000 in funding—up to $20,000 per project—to support environmentally engaged art projects led by women-identifying artists in the United States and U.S. Territories.
Hopper Prize ($3,500)
The Hopper Prize is an international open call for artists at any stage in their career working in any medium. Grants are available to artists worldwide, age 18 and older, working in all visual media. There is no restriction in terms of genre, style, or subject matter–all media is eligible. Submissions will be juried by Lauren Rosati, Associate Curator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Maya Brooks, Assistant Curator, North Carolina Museum of Art. Aside from the financial incentive, this opportunity gets your work in front of curators and exhibition makers. In addition to grants, 30 artists will be selected for a shortlist, and all winners will have the opportunity to publish an in-depth interview about their work in The Hopper Prize’s online journal. There’s a $40 application fee.
Innovate Artist Grant ($1,800)
Innovate Grant distributes two $1,800.00 grants each quarter, to one visual artist and one photographer, intending to support artists to develop new ideas, experiment with new forms, and create new work. They accept and encourage submissions from applicants 18 years or older, from around the world within the following two categories: art (Painting, Printmaking, Drawing, Sculpture, Film / Video, Mixed Media, Installation, New Media) or photography (Portrait, Conceptual, Still Life, Black + White, Documentary, Street, Composite, Collage). Their application process is simple so you spend less time on the application and more time making your important work. There’s a $35 application fee.
The Artadia Awards provide financial support, exposure, and recognition to artists. The awards are unrestricted, allowing artists to use the funds in any way they choose. Each year, an open-call application is made available in each of the seven active partner cities (Atlanta, LA, Chicago, NYC, San Francisco Bay Area, Boston, Houston). Supporting artists equitably is a critical part of the Artadia Award process. They are committed to diversity in their awardee pool (currently over 50% female and over 40% people of color). Apart from financial support, awardees can participate in the Artadia Network to receive other resource opportunities.
