The Wallace Foundation is requesting proposals for its Landscape Study in Youth Arts/Workforce Programs.
Donor Name: Wallace Foundation
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/18/2025
Size of the Grant: $500,000 to $1 million
Grant Duration: 2 Years
Details:
Research has documented the important ways that community-based youth arts programs can support youth, including older adolescents. In addition to developing young people’s interests and skills in various artistic mediums, programs have been shown to develop important 21st century work skills, such as creativity, collaboration, and communication skills. Moreover, research has documented how such programs provide powerful sites for the development of relationships and bonding capital for young people. Collaborative art making, whether on a stage or in a studio or community setting, provides a context for both vulnerability and self-expression that may make it especially powerful for development of identity, belonging, and connection. Indeed, a recent retrospective longitudinal study has found that strong relational bonds and friendships are one of the most enduring aspects of participation in youth arts programs.
Foundation defines community-based youth arts programs with a paid work component as programs that (1) provide arts-based opportunities for learning and development, for developing a sense of belonging and community, building arts interests and skills, including skills such as creativity and communication, and forging strong connections and (2) also offer older youth opportunities for paid employment, internships, or apprenticeships in a wide variety of workplace settings. Workplace/internship settings could include arts organizations, businesses, academic contexts and others. They expect that the landscape study will expand and refine this definition.
Funding Information
Up to $1,000,000.
Grant Period
January 1, 2026-December 31, 2027.
Criteria
The Wallace Foundation anticipates a two-phased, two-year project, beginning in January 2026.
- Phase 1 will involve a landscape analysis to characterize the existing field of community-based youth arts programs that include a paid workforce/internship/apprenticeship component. Phase 1 will produce an internally-focused report to Wallace that identifies different types of program designs and strategies that characterize the field.
- Based on insights from the Phase 1 landscape analysis, Phase 2 will involve the identification of a set of 6-8 exemplar community-based youth arts programs with a workforce component. Researchers will collaborate with the Wallace arts team to identify these organizations, which will serve as subjects of case studies exploring the structures, processes, challenges, and opportunities driving programmatic goals and outcomes. Wallace intends to convene and provide requested supports for these organizations, and they will budget for that separately.
- At the end of Phase 2, the team will produce a public report for the field that will identify the types of approaches, strategies, outcomes, and opportunities these programs generate. In addition to informing the broader youth workforce and youth arts sectors, the report will inform the direction of the forthcoming Wallace youth arts initiative planned to launch upon the completion of Phase 2. For this reason, the ability to adhere to the proposed two-year timeline is an important criterion for selection.
For more information, visit Wallace Foundation.
