Local Grant Opportunities

  • Arts Midwest GIG Fund: The GIG Fund provides grants of up to $15,000 for nonprofit organizations to offer public-facing arts projects and activities in Midwestern communities.
  • Awesome Foundation (Chicago chapter): Unrestricted microgrants on a monthly basis for projects in multiple disciplines, with an additional fund specifically for projects by artists with disabilities (more here).
  • Chicago Dancemakers Forum (CDF): Chicago Dancemakers Forum Dance Project Grants. This new funding program provides ten individual dancemakers with $10,000 USD to produce a dance performance or event within one year of the grant agreement. In addition to the project funding, Chicago Dancemakers Forum will provide basic marketing support and video documentation of the final project.
  • Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Cultural Grants (DCASE): Grants for projects and professional development needs for local artists.
  • The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts: Project-based grants for individual artists interested in architecture and its role in the arts.
  • The Ignite Fund: Supports experimental and groundbreaking visual arts-based work by Chicago-area artists and artist-led collectives (six project grants of $10,000).
  • Illinois Arts Council Agency: Fellowships, project, and professional development grants in all disciplines (state budget dependent).
  • Luminarts Fellowship: Grant and fellowship opportunities for young artists (18-30) working in the disciplines of visual art, music, or writing.

National Grant Opportunities

  • A Blade of Grass: An annual fellowship that includes project support for artists who are working in leadership roles and in partnership with communities to enact social change.
  • Aaron Copland Fund for Music: Three grant programs in support of contemporary American music, including for recording, performing ensembles, and more.
  • The Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant: Grants are available only to individual painters, sculptors, and printmakers who have worked in a mature phase of art for 20 years or more.
  • Alexia Foundation: Production grants to students and professional photographers.
  • Artadia: Grants on a rotating basis to visual artists in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
  • Barbara Deming Memorial Inc. Fund: Provides grants to individual feminists in the arts (writers and visual artists).
  • Creative Capital: Project grants for artists and arts writers in various disciplines on a rotating basis.
  • Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists: Minimum of $30,000 grants to individual artists who have developed a sustained and intentional practice of working through dance and movement-based modalities to address social change.
  • Harpo Foundation: Grants for visual artists; new work project grants for organizations; Native American fellowships; and Emerging Artist Residency Fellowships.
  • Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists: This new annual $10,000 grant, awarded to draw attention to an existing body of work, sheds light on the under-recognized contributions of Black trans women visual artists and provides critical support for their continuing work.
  • MacDowell Fellowship: MacDowell's mission is to nurture the arts by offering talented individuals an inspiring residential environment in which to produce enduring works of the creative imagination. A Fellowship that consists of exclusive use of a private studio, accommodations, and three prepared meals a day for two to eight weeks.
  • Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation: Supports performances by American artists at important cultural festivals and arts marketplaces around the globe.
  • New Music USA: Supports individuals and organizations with project-support grants, which cover "any kind of activity that involves new music getting out into the world through a live performance or recording."
  • PEN America: PEN America offers distinct grants each year to support writers and works-in-progress in diverse genres including translation, YA and middle grade writing, and oral history.
  • Poets & Writers: Poets & Writers is a leading U.S. nonprofit literary organization dedicated to supporting creative writers. Founded in 1970 and headquartered in New York City, it promotes the professional development of poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers through publications, grants, and community programs.
  • Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc.: Grants for artistic merit and financial need to visual artists who are painters, sculptors or artists who work on paper, including printmakers.
  • Puffin Foundation: Grants to artists working in a variety of disciplines, with an emphasis on supporting art that educates the public on topical issues.
  • Relentless Award: Annual cash prize awarded to a playwright in recognition of a new play..
  • Vilcek Foundation: Awards to immigrant artists in theater.

Funding Search Engines & More

  • ARTSEARCH: Powered by Theatre Communications Group (TCG), ARTSEARCH is a free online platform for job seekers and job postings. 
  • CaFE (Call for Entry): Searchable database of artist calls for shows, exhibitions, and residencies, as well as grants and awards. 
  • Chicago Artists Resource: Job and grant opportunities, professional development resources, space, and more.
  • Fractured Atlas Blog: Frequently publishes grant opportunities and articles. Two useful archived articles include "5 Tips for Grant Research" and "6 Commonly Asked Questions on Grant Applications."
  • The Independent Television Service (ITVS): The Independent Television Service (ITVS) is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that funds, produces, and promotes independently created documentaries and series for public television and digital platforms. 
  • National Performance Network: The National Performance Network (NPN) is a U.S.-based arts organization that supports the creation and touring of contemporary performing and visual arts. Founded to promote equity and access in the arts, it connects artists, presenters, and communities through residencies, commissions, and partnerships.
  • New York Foundation for the Arts: National database of grant opportunities for artists working in all disciplines (visit the NYFA Source section).
  • Philanthropy News Digest (PND):  Publishes RFPs (requests for proposals) and awards opportunities.
  • Sundance Institute: The Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting independent film and storytelling across film, theater, and emerging media. Founded by actor and filmmaker Robert Redford in 1981, it serves as a creative incubator that fosters artistic freedom and diverse voices in global cinema.
  • WomanArts: Funding resources and newsletters geared for women artists in theater, film, writing, and visual art.

Emergency Resources

  • Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Emergency Grant: intended to provide interim financial assistance to qualified artists whose needs are the result of an unforeseen, catastrophic incident, and who lack the resources to meet that situation. 
  • CERF+ (Craft Emergency Relief Fund): provides rapid relief and career recovery loans through their own grants (for artists working in craft disciplines) as well as a list of emergency resources for artists in other disciplines.
  • Entertainment Community Fund: national human services organization (with a Chicago office) that provides emergency financial assistance, affordable housing, health care and insurance counseling, senior care, secondary career development. These services are designed for performing arts and entertainment professionals.
  • Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grants: in addition to a year-round Emergency Grant program for visual or performing artists, FCA announced a temporary fund to meet the needs of experimental artists who have been impacted by the economic fallout from postponed or canceled performances and exhibitions in the wake of COVID-19.
  • Jewish Free Loan Chicago: Chicago-metro area residents can apply for a small personal loan that is interest-free and can be paid back on a timeline that meets each borrower's individual needs. (Check out this interview with an artist who benefited from their loan services.)
  • Malcolm Ewen Emergency Fund: provides short-term emergency financial assistance to members of the Chicago theater community (union and non-union alike) who are in need due to incapacitating illness, injury, or health-related circumstance.
  • Musicians Foundation: provides one-time assistance to professional musicians in the US for periods of acute need (e.g. medical crisis, crime victimization, catastrophic events, etc.)
  • National Coalition for Arts' Preparedness & Emergency Response (NCAPER): a voluntary task force of national, regional, state, and local arts organizations, public agencies, and foundations, NCAPER helps ensure that artists, arts/cultural organizations, cultural funders, and arts businesses have the capacity and ability to respond effectively to disasters and emergencies affecting the arts and culture sector.
  • New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA): offers a list of emergency relief resources.  
  • Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grants: this national fund administered by the New York State Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) provides one-time grants of up to $5,000 for recent unexpected medical, dental, and mental health emergencies to artists in financial need who are practicing in the visual arts, film/video/electronic/digital arts, and choreography. 
  • Season of Concern: Chicagoland theater community’s fundraising effort in providing compassionate care to those in our community who are experiencing the effects of incapacitating illness, injury, or circumstance. 

Crowdfunding

There are multiple opportunities available to artists who seek to fund projects through crowd-sourcing initiatives. See the following for a selection of resources.

Tips from 3AP Artists on Crowdfunding
[DOWNLOAD PDF]

Fiscal Sponsorship

Some resources about fiscal sponsorship:

A selection of fiscal sponsorship programs: