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Finding Artist Grants & Residencies printer icon

A CCA Libraries guide to finding artist grants and residencies using resources in the CCA Libraries and online. The resources below can help you find, apply for, and obtain funding, studio space, and art work opportunities in the Bay Area and beyond. [updated: Oct 3, 2008]

Contents:

Local funding opportunities

  • Alameda County Art Commission
    The "ARTSFUND Grants Program provides support [$1000 grants] to Alameda County arts organizations that have demonstrated artistic merit and excellence both in achievement and in community involvement."
  • Alliance for California Traditional Arts
    Various grants from $1,500 to $10,000 for practitioners in folk and traditional arts and crafts, including an apprenticeship program.
  • Artadia
    Awards from $15,000 to $1,500, which "can be used however the artist sees fit," for visual artists who live and work in San Francisco. Available once every three years.
  • Arts Council Silicon Valley
    Offers six $4,000 grants per year to professional working artists (including writers) "to enable them to continue to pursue their creative work."
  • Bay Area Video Coalition
    Offers fiscal sponsorship to "independent artists/producers who are soliciting funding from private foundations, government agencies, and individual donors for their non-commercial, video-based projects" and a number of grants for established video and media artists.
  • Black Rock Arts (SF)
    Grants from $1,000 to $6,000 for "community-based interactive art" projects.
  • California Arts Council
    A listing of current CAC funding opportunities including "Artists in Schools" and "Creating Public Value through the Arts" grants.
  • City of Oakland Cultural Arts and Marketing Dept
    Includes listings of artist opportunities for city of Oakland projects, and grants from the Cultural Funding Program in performing, visual, and literary arts (ranging from $1,000 to $5,000). These grants seek "to provide access to financial support... to a wide range of Oakland-based artists and nonprofit organizations providing arts and cultural services in Oakland."
  • Djerassi Resident Artists Program - Santa Cruz Mountains
    One month residencies available for emerging and established artists in the visual arts, literature, music composition, and choreography.
  • Exploratorium - San Francisco
    A variety of opportunities for "artists to create artworks, installations, films, and performances that can augment large-scale thematically-based exhibitions" at the Exploratorium. Exploratory (one-week) and Full residencies available.
  • Film Arts Foundation
    Grants for Bay Area emerging and mid-career film and video artists up to $7,500. Some grant awards include free classes, access to production and post production equipment, project mentoring by an established director, and Film Arts Foundation membership, in addition or in lieu of cash.
  • Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
    One month studio residencies for Bay Area artists, focusing on visual artists in all media.
  • Headlands Center for the Arts - Sausalito
    A variety of live-in and non-live-in residencies for international visual, literary, film/video, dance, and performance artists.
  • Intersection for the Arts
    "Manuscripts from eligible young [California] authors are invited for two $2,000 literary awards and one $3,000 literary award."
  • Kala Art Institute - Berkeley
    Residency and fellowship opportunities for artists working in printmaking, book arts, and digital media.
  • Marin Arts Council
    Offers a range of grants for community arts projects (arranged through non-profits) and to mid-career and established artists in Marin County.
  • Northern California Grantmakers
    Does not offer grants, but rather an "Arts Loan Fund" which seeks "to provide quick-turnaround, low-cost financial assistance to San Francisco Bay Area arts organizations." Loans must be repaid within one year.
  • Pacific Pioneer Fund
    Offers emerging film and video documentarians in California, Oregon, and Washington grants from $1,000 to $10,000.
  • San Francisco Arts Commission
    SFAC offers "grants of up to $10,000 to individual artists living and working in San Francisco," Special Project grants "up to $1,000, for very small, volunteer-based arts groups throughout San Francisco’s neighborhoods in order to stimulate the production and dissemination of works of art," and more. See also SFAC's Community Arts and Education grants.
  • San Francisco Community Challenge Grants
    The CCG provides grants for "projects that directly engage residents and businesses in working together to create green spaces, gathering places, public art, and other neighborhood amenities."
  • San Francisco Foundation
    Six awards per year for California-born artists of all ages working in film, video, photography, or printmaking. Range from $2,500 to $7,500 each.
  • SF Recycling
    Four-month residencies include studio space, monthly stipend ($1800 for full-time, $900 for part-time), and 24/7 access to the dump for career-level Bay Area artists who are currently working professionally.
  • Stanford University Stegner Fellowships
    Five poetry and five fiction fellowships with a $57,000 two-year stipend are awarded each year.
  • Visual Aid
    Supplies vouchers for art supplies for professional visual artists with a life-threatening illness and residence in one of the nine San Francisco Bay area counties.
  • Yosemite Renaissance Artists-in-Residence - Yosemite Natl Park
    One-month residencies for ten to fifteen established visual artists each year.

National and International funding opportunities

  • Academy of American Poets
    Book awards for poets in the U.S., including college and university awards.
  • Arts Writers Grant Program
    "A three-year pilot program designed to support writers whose work addresses contemporary visual art through project-based grants issued directly to individual authors." Awards 15 to 20 grants of $3,000 to $50,000 per year.
  • Association of Performing Arts Presenters
    International travel subsidies and campus grants for performing artists.
  • The Brown Foundation
    Yearly grants of $1,000 for gay-positive arts projects by playwrights.
  • Center for Craft, Creativity and Design
    Over 30 yearly grants of up to $15,000 "to encourage, expand and support graduate research in United States Craft (contemporary and decorative arts)."
  • College Art Association
    The Professional Development Fellowship Program offers one-time awards of $15,000 "to help MFA and PhD candidates in art and art history bridge the gap between their graduate study and professional careers."
  • Fondation des Etats-Unis, Paris, France
    "The Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship is a private grant awarded annually to up to four graduate and post-graduate American students in the visual fine arts and music... Successful candidates propose a unique and detailed project related to their study which requires a one-year residency in Paris."
  • Frameline, Inc
    "The Frameline Film & Video Completion Fund provides [$5,000 to $10,000] grants to emerging and established lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender filmmakers."
  • George Sugarman Foundation
    "The George Sugarman Foundation offers annual grants [of $500 to $3,600] to painters and sculptors who are engaged in creating new works of fine art, whose work shows promise, and who are in need of financial assistance."
  • The Getty
    Getty "grants support a diverse range of projects all over the world that strengthen the understanding and preservation of the visual arts." Focus on research, preservation, and arts education.
  • Graham Foundation
    Provides "project-based grants to individuals and institutions working to address issues in architecture and the built environment."
  • National Foundation for Jewish Culture
    Offers grants in the arts and humanities for projects concerning Jewish scholarship and/or culture.
  • The Pollock-Krasner Foundation
    Grants ranging from around 1,000 to $30,000 for "visual artists who are painters, sculptors and artists who work on paper, including printmakers."
  • Puffin Foundation
    Grants from $1,000 to $2,500 for "emerging artists in the fields of art, film, music, theater, photography, and public interest whose works due to their genre and/or social philosophy might have difficulty being aired."
  • A Room of Her Own
    A biennial grant of $50,000 for women authors (poetry, playwriting, fiction, and creative nonfiction).
  • Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarships
    Offering "several types of scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students as well as for qualified professionals pursuing vocational studies" in other countries.
  • UrbanGlass
    "Three Visiting Artist Fellowships to national and international artists wishing to work in glass." Includes "access to all areas of the Studio [in Brooklyn] on a scheduled basis, technical support and materials" and a $1,500 honorarium.
  • United States Artists
    "Distributes 50 unrestricted fellowship grants of $50,000 each to a diverse array of artists across the United States... The program supports artists in all career stages, including emerging and midcareer artists, as well as individuals who have achieved master artist status."
  • Women in Film
    Film Finishing Fund (FFF) offers cash awards from $1,000 to $5,000 to assist filmmakers who make thoughtful and provocative films by or about women.

Directories of art opportunities

  • Alliance of Artists Communities
    A searchable directory of North American residency opportunities.
  • American Art Directory (OAK REF N51 A54 2007)
    Annual directory of art organizations, museums, libraries, and schools. Includes extensive listings of art scholarships and fellowships, art magazine contacts, open exhibitions, and more.
  • Art Calendar (OAK PER)
    This monthly title is "the business magazine for visual artists" and covers art marketing, juried competition and grant opportunities. Includes detailed current arts deadline listings.
  • Art Opportunities Monthly (OAK REF & PER)
    This monthly newsletter compiles current opportunities for artist "competitions, grants, shows, public art commissions, residencies, and more." Find the most recent issue (and the open deadline supplement) in the Oakland current periodicals, and the past year on top of the Oakland reference shelves.
  • Artdeadline.com
    A service listing current artist grants, residencies, employment, juried exhibits, fellowships and more.
  • Artists Communities: A directory of residencies... (OAK REF NX110 .A767 2005).
    A detailed and up-to-date guide to residencies for visual artists, media artists, writers, and more.
  • Artists & Writers Colonies (OAK REF NX110 B69 1995).
    Directory of North American residency, retreat, and fellowship opportunities for artists and writers.
  • Cranbrook Academy of Art Online Grant Directory
    Links to grants and other funding sources for individual artists.
  • Documentary.org
    A HUGE list of grants available to documentarians.
  • Foundation Center San Francisco
    "The Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. grantmakers and their grants," operating a library in San Francisco with free classes for individuals in the arts, and lots of online and hardcopy resources.
  • Foundation Grants to Individuals (OAK REF N5205 F66 1993)
    A comprehensive listing of private U.S. foundations which provide financial assistance to individuals - art and non-art grants and scholarships included. You can also subscribe to this publication online for $10/month (or access it for free at the Foundation Center Library in SF, see above).
  • Grant$ for Arts, Culture & the Humanities (NX 396.6 G68 2003/2004).
    Lists over 22,000 grant opportunities in arts education, performing and visual arts, dance, film and video, music, theater and drama, literature and writing, historic preservation, humanities, museums, architecture, public radio and television, journalism and media, linguistics, and foreign language.
  • Grants for Individuals: Arts (MSU library)
    "A compilation of web pages and books of potential interest to individuals seeking funding opportunities related to arts and cultural activities." Maintained by Michigan State University Libraries.
  • National Alliance for the Media Arts & Culture
    Links to over 70 organizations with grant/funding opportunities in the media arts.
  • National Directory of Arts Internships (OAK REF NX396.6 N38 2005)
    State by state listings for arts organizations with internship programs, and a brief guide to the application process.
  • National Guide to Funding in Arts & Culture (OAK REF NX396.6 N385 2004).
    A hefty volume "for grantseekers looking for foundation, corporate and other charitable support in arts and culture." Includes over 9,500 descriptive listings of organizations offering grants in the Arts.
  • NYFA Source
    An extensive searchable national directory of awards, services, and publications for artists.
  • Res Artis
    Searchable directory of worldwide artist residency opportunities.

The grant process