Grants, Fellowships & Scholarships: Art

The following listings apply exclusively to current art students or very recent graduates.

Residencies provide time, space, and resources for artists to develop their own work. They are also a great way to meet other artists and create a sense of community.

  • Graduate School

    Antonio Cirino Memorial Scholarship
    Awards offered to Rhode Island residents/artists who need financial assistance to acquire education toward a master’s or doctorate in order to pursue a teaching career in the arts.
    Award: $2,000 - $12,000 USD (range; renewable)
    Eligibility: Rhode Island resident; financial need; graduate student
    Deadline: Visit website

    College Art Association, Professional Development Fellowships
    Supports promising artists, designers, craftspersons, historians, curators, and critics who are enrolled in MFA, PhD, and other terminal degree programs nationwide.
    Award: $10,000 USD
    Eligibility: Current CAA members; U.S. citizens or permanent residents
    Deadline: November 10

    Studio Art Centers International (SACI) In-House Scholarships
    Several scholarship opportunities are available for undergraduate and graduate study All SACI scholarships are based on both
    Award: Depends on scholarship
    Eligibility: Demonstrate financial need; outstanding artistic and academic ability
    Deadline: Depends on scholarship

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art Fellowships
    The Museum offers several art-related fellowships for students pursuing graduate or professional degrees in the arts.
    Award: Varies; based on fellowship
    Eligibility: Bachelor’s Degree; open to international students
    Deadline: Varies; based on fellowship

  • Practice / Project Support

    Artist in the Marketplace (AIM)
    Provides professional development opportunities to emerging artists residing in the New York metropolitan area.
    Award: Visit website
    Eligibility: Visit website
    Deadline: October 9

    Arts International Artists Exploration Fund
    Enables individual U.S. performing artists to pursue opportunities abroad that further their artistic development.
    Award: $1,000 - $3,000 USD

    Creative Time Fellowships
    Offers a number of different fellowship opportunities for young people in the visual arts.
    Award: Visit website
    Eligibility: Visit website
    Deadline: Visit website

    Ella Lyman Cabot Trust
    Supports persons with charitable, religious, artistic, educational, and scientific projects that promote the good of others.
    Award: No formal limit. Range of $15,000 - $25,000 USD
    Eligibility: Visit website
    Deadline: Early April and Early November

    Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts
    EFA is dedicated to providing artists across all disciplines with space, tools and a cooperative forum for the development of individual practice.

    Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation
    Aids artists in the early stages of their careers. Work must be representational.
    Award: Based on the information contained in the application form
    Eligibility: Work with painting, drawing, sculpting or printmaking
    Deadline: Available throughout the year

    Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant Program
    Emergency Grants provides prompt funding for innovative visual and performing artists.
    Award: $500 - $2,500 USD
    Eligibility: U.S. social security number; must have committed performance or exhibition opportunities
    Deadline: Within 6-8 weeks of your presentation date

    Ford Foundation
    Most foundation grants to individuals are awarded either through publicly announced competitions or on the basis of nominations from universities and other nonprofit institutions. In all cases, recipients are selected on the merits of their proposals and on their potential contribution to advancing the foundation’s program objectives.

    Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship
    Awarded annually to a select number of exceptional American artists and musicians who plan to pursue their studies in Paris.
    Award: €10,000 stipend; rent-controlled artist atelier; on-site performance and exhibition facilities
    Eligibility: U.S. Citizens; between 21 and 29 years of age; propose a unique and detailed artistic project; Bachelor’s degree
    Deadline: January 31

    Kala Art Institute - Printmaking Fellowship Program
    Awards artists time, space, and financial support for their work.
    Award: $3,000 USD; access to Kala’s facilities (up to 6 months); one Kala class
    Eligibility: Not enrolled in a degree granting program
    Deadline: Visit website

    LEF Foundation – New England
    Funds the work of independent documentary film and video artists in the region, and to broaden recognition and support for their work, both locally and nationally.
    Award: $5,000 USD pre-production; $15,000 USD production
    Eligibility: Projects must be long format; running times of 40 minutes or more; must reside in New England
    Deadlines: Production & Post-Production Letter of Inquiry January 26; Pre-Production Proposal June 1

    Pollock-Krasner Grant, Pollock-Krasner Foundation
    Grants for recognizable artistic merit and demonstrable financial need, whether professional, personal or both.
    Award: $5,000 to $30,000 USD
    Eligibility: Must complete eligibility quiz
    Deadline: Available throughout the year

    Recharge Foundation Fellowship for New Surrealist Art
    Promote cross-cultural craftsmanship preservation and create dialogues between antiques, high jewelry, fine arts, and technology.
    Award: $5,000 USD
    Eligibility: Must be working in the New Surrealist style; must be painters; bachelor's or master's degree programs are eligible
    Deadline: Visit website

    Rome Prize - American Academy in Rome
    Supports innovative and cross-disciplinary work in the arts and humanities.
    Award: Stipend; room and board; individual workspace
    Eligibility: U.S. Citizen; bachelor’s degree
    Deadline: November 1; November 15 for an additional fee

    Socrates Sculpture Park Emerging Artist Fellowship
    Opportunity for rising artists to experiment with ambitious, large-scale public art.
    Award: Open studio; monetary support; institutional guidance
    Eligibility: Visit website
    Deadline: Visit website

    The AAF/Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts
    Opportunity to study at the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts Salzburg in Austria.
    Award: Tuition; up to $1,000 USD of travel expenses; housing; stipend for meals
    Eligibility: Current graduate student; Non-U.S. Citizens welcome to apply
    Deadline: Visit website

    The Artists' Fellowship, Inc.
    Emergency aid to artists and their families in times of sickness, natural disaster, bereavement or unexpected extreme hardship.
    Award: Need based
    Eligibility: Professional fine artist; current and documented need
    Deadline: Available throughout the year

    The Bogliasco Fellowships
    Supports the Arts and Humanities by providing residential fellowships at its study center in Italy’s most vibrant, historic crossroads.
    Award: Living quarters; private studio; full board for study at the Study Center in Bogliasco, Italy
    Eligibility: Demonstrate significant achievement in your discipline; bachelor’s degree
    Deadline: January 15 (fall); April 15 (spring) – Residencies
    April 1 (fall); July 1 (spring) – Fellowships

    The Franklin Furnace Fund
    Award grants to emerging artists, allowing them to produce major performance art works in New York.
    Award: $2,000 - $10,000 USD
    Eligibility: Not a current full-time student
    Deadline: April 1

    The Jerome Foundation
    Supports the creation, development, and production of new works by emerging artists. The Foundation makes grants to not-for-profit arts organizations for artists in Minnesota and New York City.
    Award: Varies; based on program
    Eligibility: Reside in Minnesota and the five boroughs of New York City
    Deadline: Varies; based on program

    The Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship
    Provides meaningful opportunities for individuals in the fine and applied arts to enhance their professional status, to aid their pursuit of an advanced degree, or to finance a special project within the field.
    Award: Up to $20,000 USD
    Eligibility: Visit website
    Deadline: Visit website

    The Puffin Foundation
    Provide grants to artists and art organizations that are often excluded from mainstream opportunities due to their genre and/or social philosophy.
    Award: $1,250 - $2,500 USD
    Eligibility: Visit website
    Deadline: December 30

    The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program
    Provides a working studio space and community for artists.
    Award: Year-long rent-free non-living studio space
    Eligibility: U.S. Citizen, permanent resident or visa holder; 21 years or older; professional artist
    Deadline: Visit website

    The Stained Glass School Scholarships
    The SGAA actively works for the betterment of the craft of stained glass and architectural art glass through various programs.
    Award: $600 - $1,000 USD; depending on scholarship
    Eligibility: Current bachelor student
    Deadline: Visit website

    U.S. - Japan Creative Artists Fellowship Program
    Grant making agency that supports research, education, public affairs and exchange with Japan. Its mission is to support reciprocal people-to-people understanding, and promote partnerships that advance common interests between Japan and the United States.
    Award: $20,000 USD; up to $2,500 for one round trip flight
    Eligibility: U.S. Citizen or permanent resident; live and work in U.S.; professional creative artist
    Deadline: Visit website

    US - Mexico Foundation Dreamers without Borders
    Provides the opportunity to attain a greater understanding of the importance of the binational relationship, while strengthening the participants’ pride in their heritage.
    Award: Participants are hosted cost-free in Mexico
    Eligibility: DACA recipients; Permanent Residents and U.S. citizen of Mexican origin
    Deadline: Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis

    Whitney Museum of American Art - Independent Study Program (ISP)
    The ISP provides a setting within which students pursuing an art practice, curatorial work, art historical and architectural scholarship, and critical writing engage in ongoing discussions and debates that examine the historical, social, and intellectual conditions of artistic production.
    Award: $1,800 USD per year
    Eligibility: Graduate student; undergraduate students; international applicants
    Deadline: April 1

  • Female Artist Support

    Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program
    Supports women who wish to pursue independent work in academic and professional fields and in the creative arts.
    Award: $31,000 USD stipend; tuition and health fees; work space
    Eligibility: Visit website
    Deadline: Visit website

    Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund
    Grants to individual feminists in the arts (writers, and visual artists).
    Award: $500 - $1,500 USD
    Eligibility: U.S. Citizens; primary residence in U.S. or Canada
    Deadline: January 31, 2020 (Visual Art, Fiction and Mixed Genre); January 31, 2020 (Nonfiction and Poetry)

    The A.I.R. Fellowship Program
    Support underrepresented and emerging self-identified women artists in New York City.
    Award: Visit website
    Eligibility: Resident/commuting distance of NYC; 18 years or older; not enrolled in degree program
    Deadline: October 21

    The Shirley Holden Helberg Grants for Mature Women
    Support for talented women to pursue further education or other goals which affect their creative efforts. Established to promote professionalism in Art, Letters, and Music.
    Award: $1,000 USD
    Eligibility: Women artist; must be age 35 or older
    Deadline: September 30

    Women in Animation Scholarship Program
    Provides scholarship funds for female students who demonstrate artistic talent, a passion for animation, financial need, and a promising future in the field of animation.
    Award: $1,500 USD
    Eligibility: Sophomore – Seniors; 2.85 GPA; current member of WIA mu
    Deadline: September 30

 

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.