Creative Project Grants support artistically and programmatically excellent, distinctive, and substantive performances, exhibitions, and interpretation projects designed for diverse publics.
Donor Name: The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
State: Pennsylvania
County: Bucks County (PA), Chester County (PA), Delaware County (PA), Montgomery County (PA), Philadelphia County (PA)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 05/15/2025
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
The Center offers Creative Project grants through two funding areas: Performance and Exhibitions & Public Interpretation (“EPI”). These grants are designed for Philadelphia-area organizations with operating budgets above $150k annually, whose mission and defining purpose is the presentation of art and public history programs for public audiences.
- Performance
- The Performance funding area considers projects that include original works or new treatments of existing works in all forms of performance. Works may be live performances in public spaces and venues; may feature or be drawn from film, video, and other moving images interpreted through performative intentions; or may be installations of performance that use experimental media or include technological innovation, archival sources, or virtual programming. They welcome use of participatory strategies that benefit audiences.
- Exhibitions & Public Interpretation (“EPI”)
- The EPI funding area considers projects that include public display and/or interpretation of artworks, historical artifacts, scientific objects, living collections, archives, buildings, stories, or ideas; film, video, or other time-based media presentations and technology platforms; and all other forms of exhibitions and public cultural interpretation. Projects may take place live or virtually and may make use of participatory strategies to explore and deepen audience experiences.
Grant Types
- Creative Project grants support art and history-based cultural projects that grow directly out of mission and demonstrate excellence, care, and conceptual rigor. All funded projects must be conceived for and offered to diverse public audiences. Applicants may engage with other organizations as additional venues or project collaborators.
- Grants are available up to $300,000 for single organizations whose projects—
- will be presented publicly to audiences in the five-county Philadelphia region of Pennsylvania (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia county).
- have adequate administrative structure, staff, and expertise to realize the project to its maximum public impact.
- reflect a commitment to multiple perspectives and inclusive practices in program design, development, and impact.
- demonstrate awareness of leading practices in the field and provide inspirational models for cultural practice in the region and beyond.
- Special Opportunity Grants are available up to $400,000 for single organizations, and $600,000 for co-applying organizations whose projects additionally—
- represent a demonstrably new level of ambition in content, scope, and scale for applicants;
- are driven by artist/creative practitioners and involve new commissions;
- include one major creative contributor from outside the United States; and
- consider audience experience as integral to the design, realization, and impact of the project.
Eligibility Criteria
- All applicants, including those serving as a fiscal sponsor, must be organizations that have a 501(c)(3) designation and be located in the five-county Philadelphia region of Pennsylvania (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia county). Individual artists are not eligible for Creative Project grants.
- Organizations applying independently (without a fiscal sponsor) must—
- Have a minimum annual budget of $150,000 (as of FY24, at least, and continuing into FY25).
- Primarily serve public audiences. (The Center does not fund K–12 educational programming, curricula at any academic level, projects primarily rooted in education, or projects where the primary audiences are students and educators.)
- Have adequate, paid, professional, artistic/curatorial and managerial staff to realize the project.
- Have a demonstrated record of presenting professional public programs in the genre or content area identified in the grant proposal.
- Provide three years of financial audits/reviews to determine financial eligibility for funding.
- Not have an open grant in the project-funding area from which they seek funding in the 2025 cycle.
- Not be managed by current employees of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage or The Pew Charitable Trusts; members of such employees’ households; or people closely related to such employees through blood, marriage, or domestic partnership.
For more information, visit The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
