The Ignite Fund supports the creation and presentation of experimental, innovative, public-facing, and accessible visual arts-based projects by Chicago-area artists and artist-led collectives.
Donor Name: 3Arts
State: Illinois
County: Selected Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 05/26/2023
Size of the Grant: $3,000 and $6,000
Grant Duration: 1 year
Details:
The Ignite Fund is a Regional Regranting Program administered by 3Arts and supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
The Ignite Fund prioritizes projects that:
- Center the visual arts in form and content
- Promote collaboration and connection to community
- Center the Chicago metropolitan area through process and/or participation
- Have accessible public presentations
The Ignite Fund provides two types of grants:
- Project Grants ($3,000 and $6,000)
- Project Grants support the creation and implementation of new, public-facing projects that engage audiences through process, presentation, production, or publication. The projects must be ambitious, experimental, and visual arts focused.
- Research & Development Grants ($1,500) Research & Development support the early stages of a new, public-facing project that may require time to be developed. The projects in development must be ambitious, experimental, and visual arts focused.
Types of projects are eligible
- Projects must center contemporary visual arts practice as the primary root and impulse; other media and performing arts aspects are eligible if visual arts will be the central element of the finished work.
- Projects that can be completed within a one-year grant term.
- Projects that have a clear public component and robust community engagement. Eligible examples include exhibitions, public events/talks, roundtables, community collaborations, public art projects, screenings, publications, festivals, workshops, etc.
Eligibility Criteria
Individual artists and artist-led collectives (up to 6 people) are eligible to apply for Ignite Fund grants. Throughout the application process, individual artists and the main contact for an artist-led collective will be referred to as the Lead Applicant.
If you are applying as an individual artist, note that Ignite Fund grants are not intended to support the creation of new solo work as part of an individual’s ongoing practice, but are intended to support an opportunity to produce one-time art projects with strong public-facing components and the capacity to have an impact on communities.
If applying as an artist-led collective, your group can be either long-standing or formed specifically for this opportunity. Each collective must identify one Lead Applicant to serve as the primary applicant and grantee contact.
Lead Applicants must meet the following criteria:
- Visual artists or artists with a history of presenting their work in visual art contexts/venues. (Performance, film, text, and sound artists are eligible if their proposed projects center the visual arts.)
- Current residents of the Chicago metropolitan area (Cook, DuPage, Kane, McHenry, Lake, and Will counties).
- 18 years or older.
- Not currently enrolled in a full-time degree-granting program.
- Have an active artistic practice and be able to demonstrate recent work.
If you are applying as an artist-led collective, the Lead Applicant is the person designated by your group to be responsible for: the receipt, management, and distribution of the funds; handling all communications with Ignite Fund; and completing all necessary grant reporting.
Type of projects will NOT be funded
- Projects that are not based in the Chicago metropolitan area.
- Projects led by incorporated entities (LLCs, B Corps, 501(C)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations), universities and schools (private, public, charter), and religious entities.
- Projects led by full-time students currently enrolled in high school, college, or university.
- Projects with Lead Applicants who are younger than 18 years old. (Projects can include collaborators who are under the age of 18, but the Lead Applicant and collective members must be at least 18 years old.)
- Projects seeking support retroactively or seeking reimbursement for a past project.
- Proposals for funding for a solo exhibition, individual artist’s ongoing work, travel costs, etc.
- Projects proposed by an individual artist to present their own work.
- Projects that do not have a substantial public component.
For more information, visit Ignite Fund.
