Rocket Grants provide opportunities for Kansas City area artists to make and share experimental work and ideas in public spaces around the region – by providing direct support for exceptional, under-the-radar, artist-driven, and artist-centered projects.
Donor Name: Charlotte Street Foundation
State: Missouri and Kansas
City: Kansas
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/26/2023
Size of the Grant: up to $6,000
Details:
Rocket Grants Fund Projects that
- add energy and diversity to the arts in the region
- happen in unexpected places
- challenge mainstream methods of thinking, making or presentation
- encourage the development of new kinds of audiences
- connect with, and provide opportunities for creative growth, to either the artist community, or the general public (projects could address both).
Funding Priorities
Rocket Grants give individuals and groups of artists the opportunity to take new risks with their work, push the scope and scale of their activities, develop and pursue collaborative projects, and engage with members of the public, the public realm and other artists in inventive and meaningful ways.
Rocket Grants seek to create ripple effects – so that supported artists, processes, and projects will engage, inspire, and propel other artists; spark new ideas and ways of working; and contribute to a regional culture characterized by unconventional and expansive forms of interaction, exchange, provocation, and surprise. They anticipate that awarded artists will remain in the Kansas City region for the entire duration of their award.
Projects must have a public life – they must be made accessible to the public via process, presentation, production, or publication. This could include:
- exhibitions and curatorial projects, with a strong, inventive public component, occurring outside of traditional or established arts venues/districts, and involving local artists in some significant way
- temporary art projects in public spaces, especially ones that may not secure more traditional types of arts funding
- public programs
- events
- performances, outside of traditional or established arts venues/districts
- film or video screenings or festivals that challenge or go beyond mainstream presentations
- online projects
- programming and development of residency programs
- programming and development of artist-run spaces
- publication projects with a strong visual focus, involving significant collaboration with artist(s) from this geographic region, and contributing substantially to this region’s contemporary art and cultural discourse.
Funding Information
- The Rocket Grants program for 2023-24 will provide grants in the amount of $60,000 total
- Full Project Awards: Cash grants of up to $6,000 each, to area artists, performers, curators, and writers – as individuals or groups – to support the creation and presentation of NEW work/projects. Artists with ongoing projects or practices are welcome to apply, providing the application proposes significant evolution or adaptation that will open up entirely new directions in the work – even if for only one year. The majority of grants are awarded at or near the $6000 level.
Eligibility Criteria
- Artists, curators, collectives, collaborative groups, partnerships, and artist-run spaces residing within an 80-mile radius of the Kansas City metropolitan area are eligible to apply
- If applying as an artistic group, this group can be long-standing or created specifically for this project.
- Nonprofit, 501(c)3 organizations are NOT eligible to apply
- All artists must be over 21 at the time of the application, and may not be full-time students at any time during the application or award period (May 15, 2023 to October 1, 2024)
- All exclusions apply for the entire period of the application and award (May 15, 2023 to October 1, 2024)
- Artists may not be awarded a Rocket Grant for two sequential rounds of funding. Artists who are part of incomplete projects may not reapply until a year after the project is completed.
For more information, visit Charlotte Street Foundation.
