The Public Art for Spatial Justice Grant supports public art that creatively expresses and embodies a more just version of what’s possible in public.
Donor Name: New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA)
State: Massachusetts
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 12/04/2023
Size of the Grant: $15,000-$30,000
Grant Duration: 2 years
Details:
Public Art for Spatial Justice aims to support public artmaking that helps us see, feel, experience and imagine spatial justice now, while they are still on this journey towards realizing more just futures for the public spaces and public culture.
Program Goals
Through public art grantmaking and field-building opportunities NEFA aims to:
- Invest in artists and the creative process. Foster public art practices that are dynamic and aesthetically impactful, and authentically honor the integrity of the people, places, stories, and ideas that are engaged in the process and presentation of the artmaking.
- Cultivate artists as civic leaders. Support public art that positions artists to directly inspire, disrupt and engage the public sphere to strive for greater equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in the public culture.
- Strengthen a community of practice by fostering partnerships that facilitate knowledge building and sharing to support the evolving field of public art throughout the New England region.
Priorities
Priority will be given to projects that are:
- Led or co-led by Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), and more specifically BIPOC artists and creatives. They believe the path to dismantling the legacies of racism and white supremacy culture includes centering BIPOC-led creative exploration and expression in public spaces.
- Rooted in community and/or demonstrates a deep relationship to place – particularly rural places, and/or places where folks are experiencing/have experienced displacement.
- Disrupting harmful historic narratives that uphold structural inequities; decolonizing and/or indigenizing spaces; and/or centering BIPOC creativity, imagination, and expression in public spaces.
Funding Information
Public Art for Spatial Justice grants range from $15,000-$30,000, for up to two-year grant period beginning March 2024 through February 2026.
Eligibility Criteria
- Lead applicant may a be:
- Community-based anchor organization in Massachusetts, working in collaboration with a particular artist(s); organizations may be a 501c3 or fiscally sponsored
- Massachusetts-based Artist(s). Individual artist applicants must be 18+ years old. Artistic collaborations may be a group of artists informally working together for this particular project, or an artist collective that regularly works together on projects.
- Recognizing the intersectionality of identities, they acknowledge that artists may also identify as cultural practitioners, activists, and community-rooted collaborators, and may be self/community-taught, institutionally trained, or a combination of both. All are welcome to apply.
- Proposed public art projects must:
- Be located in Massachusetts.
- Engage the public realm and/or be available to the general public to happen upon.
- Cultivate expressions of and/or embodiments of spatial justice through public artmaking. Projects of all artistic disciplines –visual, performative, rooted in ritual, etc.– are eligible.
For more information, visit NEFA.
