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Funding for Research and Creative Activity in the Arts

We are here to help

Faculty in the Arts interested in pursuing external funding for their research and/or creative projects have a wealth of exciting opportunities to choose from.  

FSU Research Development (RD) wants to be your first stop as you embark on your funding search.  We have a Research Development Coordinator hired specifically to serve Arts (and Humanities) faculty.  Dr. Carolyn Bradley is committed to promoting and facilitating grantsmanship in the Arts and Humanities at FSU. 

Just reach out!  

Carolyn is happy to guide FSU's Arts faculty through the process of securing grants, both large and small.  Reach out to Carolyn for help any time at any stage of the process: (850)644-7730 or cbradley@fsu.edu.  Carolyn works on campus in the Westcott North Annex Room 2023  on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.  She works remotely on Tuesdays and Fridays.

RD provides a range of services and resources for faculty in the Arts, including:

  • Circulation of Arts-related notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs)
  • Newsletters to keep faculty abreast of goals and expectations of grant agencies
  • Group workshops on topics related to Arts grantsmanship (e.g., costs and benefits of applying for grants, the goals and operations of diverse grant agencies, designing research projects, building effective collaborations, composing persuasive proposal narratives, etc.)
  • One-on-one consultations with faculty members to discuss goals and strategize funding-search efforts
  • Proposal development support including the creation of checklists of materials needed and timetables to ensure that the proposal will be ready by the submission deadline
  • Proposal crafting resources including copies of successful proposals and boilerplate language
  • Mock Review Sessions featuring FSU faculty field experts as review panelists
  • Reviewing (for adherence to NOFO guidelines) and editing (for content and/or final polish)

While RD sends out regular alerts regarding general Arts funding opportunities, we encourage all Arts faculty to devise an ongoing funding search tailored to their unique research and artistic interests.  Pivot is the best resource at FSU for obtaining weekly updates on grant opportunities relevant to you.  For assistance with Pivot, reach out to Carolyn for a personalized meeting.  

Prominent Awards Available to Arts Faculty: TARU Awards, Additional External Awards, and Internal Awards

 

1. Top American Research Universities (TARU) awards

Grant Program and Link to Website

Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award Program

The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers diverse opportunities for U.S. academics, administrators, and professionals to teach, research, do professional projects, and attend seminars abroad.

(Deadline: TBA, likely April 2024)

Getty Scholar Grants

Getty Research Institute (GRI) Getty Scholar Grants offer established scholars residential fellowships at the Getty Research Institute or Getty Villa, where they can pursue their own projects, make use of Getty collections, join their colleagues in a weekly meeting devoted to an annual research theme or the African American Art History Initiative, and participate in the intellectual life of the Getty.  

(Deadlines: TBA, likely Summer 2024)

Guggenheim Fellowships

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Guggenheim Fellowships are for individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.  Recipients can work for six to twelve months with as much creative freedom as possible.  

(Deadline: Mid-September 2024)

MacArthur Fellowship Program

The MacArthur Foundation MacArthur Program is a five-year grant to individuals who show exceptional creativity in their work and the prospect for still more in the future.  

Special Conditions: No set deadline; nominations by invitation only.

2. Additional External Funding Opportunities

Grant Program and Link to Website

Brigham Young University's (BYU's) Barlow Prize for Music Composition

This program offers grants for commissions to musical composers.

(Deadline: June 1, 2024 at 11:59pm MDT)

The Clark's Fellowships at the Clark

This program offers fellowships to established and promising scholars and artists with the aim of fostering a critical commitment to inquiry in the theory, history, and interpretation of art and visual culture.

(Deadline: Oct. 15, 2024)

Cornell University Society for the Humanities's Society Fellowships

This program offers year-long residential fellowships to scholars and artists whose projects reflect on a determined theme.  Fellows spend their time in research and writing.  They also teach one small seminar and participate in a weekly Fellows Seminar workshopping other fellows' projects and discussing readings based on the yearly theme.  

(Deadline: TBA, likely Sept. 2024)

Council on Culture and Arts's (COCA's) Cultural Grants Program

This program supports non-profit arts and cultural programs that enhance the quality of life, economic development, and tourism industry in Leon County.

(Deadline: TBA)

Center of Craft's Craft Research Fund Project Grant

This program supports scholarly craft research in the United States.  The grant is intended to encourage innovative research on critical issues in craft theory and history, investigate neglected questions on craft history and criticism, and support new cross-disciplinary approaches to scholarship in craft.

(Deadline: TBA, likely Oct. 2024)

Creative Capital's Grants

This program supports innovative and original new project proposals in visual arts, performing arts, film/moving image, technology, literature, multidisciplinary, and socially engaged forms.

(Deadline: April 4, 2024 at 4pm ET)

Florida Division of Arts and Culture's (FDAC's) General Program Support (GPS)

This program supports the general program activities of an organization that is realizing its stated mission and furthering the state's cultural objectives by conducting, creating, producing, presenting, staging, or sponsoring cultural exhibits, performances, educational programs, or events or providing a professional services as a State Service Organization or Local Arts Agency.  

Special Conditions:  This is a Limited Submissions program with an earlier internal deadline--see RD's Limited Submission portal.  FSU may submit only one General Program Support application or one Specific Cultural Project application per annual grant cycle.  

(Internal deadline: March 21, 2024; agency deadline: June 1, 2024.)

Florida Division of Arts and Culture's (FDAC's) Specific Cultural Project (SCP)

This program supports a single cultural project, program, exhibition or series taking placing within the grant period (July 1 – June 30). The grant activities must support the mission of the organization or artist and further the state's cultural objectives. Organizations and individuals are both eligible to apply.

Special Conditions:  This is a Limited Submissions program with an earlier internal deadline--see RD's Limited Submission portal.  FSU may submit only one General Program Support application or one Specific Cultural Project application per annual grant cycle.  

(Internal deadline: March 21, 2024; agency deadline: June 1, 2024.)

Ford Foundation's JustFilms

This program supports independent, documentary film, video, and emerging medical projects that explore timely social justice issues, with a focus on reducing inequality.

(Deadline: Rolling deadline beginning February 1, 2024)

Fromm Music Foundation's Commission Award

This program supports commissions of new music by American composers.  This award is available for all types of compositions regardless of idiom, instrumentation, style, or the use of technology.  Submissions in jazz, hybrid, electronic, or other idioms are welcome.

(Deadline: TBA, check website in April 2024)

Harpo Foundation's Grants for Visual Arts

This program supports under-recognized visual artists 21 years or older.  Proposals with an interdisciplinary approach may be considered as long as they have strong visual components.

(Deadline: TBA, check webpage in Feb. 2024)

Howard Foundation's Howard Fellowships: "Emerging Arts"

This program supports artists in any field who work beyond or between recognized arts genres and practices, particularly those which engage digital, multimedia, or other innovative technologies.

(Deadline: TBA, likely Nov. 2024)

The Huntington: Long- and Short-Term Fellowships and Travel Grants for Study Abroad

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens offers long- and short-term residential fellowships to scholars working on projects in fields in which its collections are strong.  Travel grants to support research to be carried out in libraries or archives outside of the United States or Canada are also available.  

(Deadline: TBA, likely Nov. 2024)

Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen's Fellowship Program for Art and Theory

This program supports a five-month fellowship for visual and media artists, art critics, theorists, and curators.  

(Deadline: February 9, 2024)

National Endowment for the Arts's (NEA's) Challenge America

This program supports art projects conducted by small organizations that extend the reach of the arts to underserved communities.  

Special Conditions:  This is a Limited Submissions program with an earlier internal deadline--see RD's Limited Submission portal.  FSU may submit only one application total per calendar year for either the NEA's Challenge America or NEA's GAP program.  

(Internal deadline: Feb. 19, 2024; agency deadline: April 25, 2024)  

 

National Endowment for the Arts's (NEA's) Grants for Arts Projects (GAP)

This program supports arts projects in the following disciplines:  Artist Communities, Arts Education, Dance, Design, Folk & Traditional Arts, Literary Arts, Local Arts Agencies, Media Arts, Museums, Music, Musical Theater, Opera, Presenting & Multidisciplinary Arts, Theater, and Visual Arts.  The programs' grants are cost share/matching grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000.  

Special Conditions:  This program has two deadlines annually.  For 2024, FSU will not be submitting an application for the Feb. 15th GAP deadline.  Also, this is a Limited Submissions program with an earlier internal deadline--see RD's Limited Submission portal.  FSU may submit only one application total per calendar year for either the NEA's GAP or NEA's Challenge America program.  

(Internal deadline: Feb. 19, 2024; agency deadline: July 11, 2024)  

National Endowment for the Arts's (NEA's) Research Grants in the Arts

This program supports research studies that investigate the value and/or impact of the arts, either as individual components of the U.S. arts ecology or as they interact with each other and/or with other domains of American life.  Grants range from $20,000 to $100,000 and require a nonfederal cost share/match of at least 1 to 1.  

(Deadline: March 25, 2024)

National Endowment for the Arts's (NEA's) Creative Writing Fellowships: Poetry

This program offers grants in prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) and poetry to published creative writers that enable the recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement.  

(Deadline: March 13, 2024)

National Endowment for the Arts's (NEA's) Literature Fellowships: Translation Projects

This program offers fellowships to published translators for the translation of specific works of prose, poetry, or drama from other languages into English.

(Deadline: Jan. 18, 2024)

National Endowment for the Humanities's (NEH's) Media Projects

This program supports the development, production, and distribution of radio programs, podcasts, documentary films, and documentary film series that engage general audiences with humanities ideas in creative and appealing ways.  

(Deadline: August 14, 2024)

NEH-Mellon Fellowships for Digital Publication

This program supports individual scholars who need time to conduct interpretive research projects that require digital expression and digital publication.  Successful projects will likely incorporate images, video, audio, and/or other multimedia materials or flexible reading pathways that could not be included in traditionally published books, as well as an active distribution plan.  Projects must have value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both.

(Deadline: April 17, 2024)

Harvard Radcliffe Institute's Radcliffe Fellowship Program

This program offers year-long fellowships to scholars from a broad range of fields and perspectives, allowing them access to Harvard's resources.  The program has two application deadlines, with the first for applications in humanities, social sciences, and creative arts.  

(Deadline: TBA, check webpage in Spring 2024)

Pollock-Krasner Foundation's Grant Program

This program provides financial resources for visual artists who are painters, sculptors, and artists who work on paper including printmakers.  Grants amount up to $30,000.  

(Deadline: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.)

Southern Documentary Fund's Filmmaking Grants

This program supports nonfiction documentaries in production by Project Directors in one of twelve Southern states including Florida.  

(Deadline: TBA)

Terra Foundation Exhibition Grants

This program provides support for organizations (e.g., museums, art centers, community-based cultural organizations, etc.) to plan and present temporary exhibitions comprised primarily of loans.  Individual grants range between $25,000 and $250,000.  

(Deadline for required Letter of Inquiry: March 8, 2024)

Wellesley College's Suzy Newhouse Center for the Humanities Fellowship

This program is a residential fellowship for scholars or artists with a stipend of $50,000.  Residencies are ordinarily for the full academic year, but one-semester residencies may also be considered.  Resident fellows devote themselves primarily to their own research, but they also participate actively in the intellectual life of the institution, attending fellows' lunches and sharing their work in progress with one another and with the larger Wellesley community.  

(Deadline: TBA, tentatively Dec. 2024)

Yale University Institute of Sacred Music's (ISM's) Fellowships

This program brings scholars to the interdisciplinary ISM center to pursue scholarly and creative projects at the intersection of religion and the arts.  Long- and short-term fellowships are available.

(Deadline: TBA, likely Oct. 2024)

3. Internal Funding Opportunities

Grant Program and Link to Website

Arts & Humanities Program Enhancement Grant (AHPEG)

This program from the FSU Council on Research & Creativity (CRC) Internal Funding Programs provides funding up to $20,000 for arts and humanities research and creative activity.

(Deadline: Feb. 8, 2024 at 4:59pm ET)