2023 Transformation Award for Individual Artists in Pennsylvania

The Leeway Transformation Award (LTA) provides unrestricted annual awards of $15,000 to women, trans, and gender nonconforming artists and cultural producers living in greater Philadelphia who create art for social change and have done so for the past five years or more, demonstrating a long-term commitment to social change work.

Donor Name: Leeway Foundation

State: Pennsylvania

County: Selected Counties

Type of Grant: Award

Deadline: 05/15/2023

Size of the Grant: $15,000

Grant Duration: 12 months

Details:

The award is unrestricted (it is not project-based) and open to artists and cultural producers working in any medium, including traditional and nontraditional as well as multimedia and experimental forms.

The Foundation encourages you to apply if you are a woman, trans, and/or gender nonconforming artist who:

Creates art for social change that impacts a larger group, audience, or community.
Has been creating art for social change for the past five years or more, demonstrating a long-term commitment to this work.
Has lived for the past two or more years in Greater Philadelphia: Bucks, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia County.

Leeway supports artists and cultural producers involved in art for social change that positively affects and engages communities and audiences. Creating social change must be integral to the ideas, beliefs, and goals that are woven throughout your art and your process of creating and sharing your art.

Categories

Crafts and Textiles
Media Arts
Performance
Folk Arts
Music
Visual Arts
Literary Arts
Multidisciplinary

Impact of Art with Vision

Art for social change is art with a vision and an intentional analysis. It is an artistic or creative cultural practice that may operate in traditional or nontraditional mediums, modes, or disciplines. Art with a vision impacts people in many ways. It can:

Raise consciousness
Alter how they think about themselves, their society, or their culture
Create a vision of a more just world
Be a tool or strategy for organizing and movement building
Preserve or reclaim traditional cultural practices using your artistic practice as a form of resistance or empowerment
Create space for expression and build a sense of community
Challenge racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, ageism, ableism, or other oppressions
Question mainstream culture and beliefs
Shift or transform the perception of power and/or privilege and the dynamics associated with justice, equality, and/or accountability
Value healing justice practices focused on strengthening communities, not just individuals
Engage and utilize a reciprocal process — where there is teaching and learning simultaneously and the consent for engagement is mutual, as is the benefit for yourself as an artist and the community you are engaging.

Project Period

The 2023 Leeway Transformation Award period is from January 2024 to December 2024.

Eligibility Criteria

Transformation Award applicants may apply and receive the Art and Change Grant in the same year.
Transformation Award applicants may not apply for the Media Artist + Activist Residency in the same year.
If you receive a Transformation Award, you may not apply for the Art and Change Grant and/or the Media Artist + Activist Residency during your award year.
You are eligible to apply if you:
- Have lived for the past two years or more in Bucks, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia County
- Are at least 18 years old
- Identify as a woman, trans, and/or gender nonconforming person
- Have been creating art for social change for the past five years or more

Age and Residency Documentation

All applicants must verify that they: