The Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grants program provides one-time grants of up to $5,000 for recent unexpected medical, dental, and mental health emergencies to artists in financial need who are creating in the visual arts, film/video/electronic/digital arts, and choreography.
Donor Name: New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Territory: Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 01/06/2026
Size of the Grant: $1000 to $10,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
Disciplines
Please review the definitions for the eligible disciplines:
- Choreography
- All choreographic styles, including mixed-media or multi-genre performance works in which choreography and/or organized movement is primary. Choreography performed solely within an instructional/training setting; for competitions; or for music videos, TV, and commercial films is not eligible.
- Visual Arts
- Crafts/Sculpture: All forms of craft, including ceramics, glass, wood, metal, fiber, textiles, and mixed media. This category accepts work in all forms of sculpture, including kinetic works and installations.
- Painting: Painting of any kind upon any surface.
- Photography: Work in traditional and experimental photography or any work in which photography or photographic techniques are pivotal, if not exclusive.
- Printmaking/Drawing/Book Arts: Work in visual media other than painting, including artist’s books, aquatints, collages, engravings, etchings, lithographs, monotypes, prints, serigraphs, woodcuts, and drawings.
- Film/Video/Electronic/Digital Arts: Film/video directors and producers of independent work are eligible to apply. The applicant must be the primary maker of the creative work – the individual with final creative control. For film/video, only the publicly named director and/or producer or credited co-maker are eligible; they must be the individual with the primary day-to-day responsibility for creating the work in its entirety. Performing artists in film/video or television/live performance, performing arts recorded digitally, and performances/writing distributed online are not eligible. Editors, cinematographers, assistant/line/field producers, television producers, screenwriters, television/film performers and crew members, dance performers, et al are not eligible. Also not eligible are television shows, graphic and fashion design, commissions and industrial films.
- Film/Video: Any work in which film/video or film techniques are pivotal, if not exclusive. This category also accepts work that has been initially shot with a film camera. Filmed material that has been transferred to a digital format for editing and processing is acceptable.
- Electronic/Digital Arts: Work in which technology is an essential element of the work’s creation, presentation, or understanding. Examples include: work created on video whether manipulated or not, works created or displayed on computers or other electronic media; work created with computer models such as sculptural works; interactive installations including immersive virtual environments; internet projects; hypertext documents; other image, text, audio, or video works rooted in technology
- Crafts/Sculpture: All forms of craft, including ceramics, glass, wood, metal, fiber, textiles, and mixed media. This category accepts work in all forms of sculpture, including kinetic works and installations.
Eligibility Criteria
There are three eligibility criteria in this program: Individual, Artistic, and Emergency. You need to meet all three areas, as of the cycle’s deadline, to apply.
- For Individual
- Applicants must be a generative artist creating work in visual arts, film/video/digital/electronic arts (not a performer), or choreography
- Applicants must be 21 years or older on the cycle’s deadline
- Applicants must reside in the United States, the District of Columbia, a Tribal Nation, or a U.S. Territory
- Applicants must be an artist in need, having an adjusted gross income of $80,000 or lower for an individual, or $160,000 for joint filers, averaged over the last two federal tax returns
- Applicants’ medical emergency and treatment must occur in the U.S. (including D.C., Tribal Nations and U.S. Territories)
- Applicants must not have received a Rauschenberg Medical or Dancer Emergency Grant within the last five years (since their original grant award date)
- Applicants must not be enrolled in any degree-seeking program
- Applicants must demonstrate current and ongoing activity in their artistic discipline
- For Artistic
- Applicants must be artists with a demonstrated commitment to the eligible artform(s). You need to create original work in at least one of the eligible disciplines, AND have recent and sustained artistic activity. If the work in the eligible discipline is tangential, incidental or infrequent, it is not eligible.
- Recent and sustained is defined as activity over the course of at least the last five years, since 2020, with multiple opportunities for the public to experience your work during this time (at least one opportunity annually). This can be through exhibits/screenings/performances/activities in art spaces, galleries, local businesses, art houses/film series, public art installations, public spaces, museums, fairs/festivals, community projects, and/or residencies with public-facing components. Works in progress are eligible; student exhibits, performances, and other activities are not, nor are publications/papers/interviews in print or online. They do not accept portfolios/work samples. Reduced activity during the pandemic (2020/21) or for another period of up to 12 months due to medical or personal reasons is acceptable if, in such cases, you are able to demonstrate public activity prior to 2020.
- Work that is created for online distribution and consumption is eligible IF it is a creative work, and was actively marketed to the public for showing at a specific date and time. If self-produced online presentations or sales of your work are your sole platform, such as Instagram or YouTube, or your work is only available on-demand, they cannot consider your application eligible.
- For Emergency
- In this program, an emergency is a one-time, unexpected, non-chronic condition as a result of illness, violence, an accident or triggering event, or sudden medical event, that requires treatment to ensure your health or life, and which without treatment has extreme impact on your daily life and ability to carry out/return to your creative practice. In each cycle, they can consider emergencies that have occurred within approximately the last six months. The earliest date for an eligible emergency is listed in the Cycles information. The medical emergency and treatment must occur in the U.S. (including D.C., Tribal Nations and U.S. Territories).
For more information, visit NYFA.
