Public Art for Spatial Justice Grant Program

Deadline: 18-Oct-21

Do you have a project that creatively engages important and timely conversations, brings healing to space and place, and/or fosters public imagination for a more just version of what is possible? While they are still on this collective journey towards realizing more just futures for their public spaces, do you have a great idea for a public art project that offers creative ways to see, feel, and experience spatial justice through your artistic/creative practice in public spaces? If yes, then apply for Public Art for Spatial Justice Grant Program.

Public Art for Spatial Justice aims to support public art that helps them see, feel, experience and imagine spatial justice now, while they are still on this collective journey towards realizing more just futures for their public spaces and public culture.

Funding Information

Public Art for Spatial Justice grants range from $5,000-$15,000.

Funding Criteria

Eligible projects will be reviewed according to the following funding criteria:

Artists/Artistic Collaborations share in New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) values and commitment to the work of dismantling the legacies of racism, anti-Blackness, and white supremacy culture. Priority will be given to projects that:
- Are led or co-led by artists who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). The path to dismantling the legacies of racism and white supremacy culture includes centering BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color)-led creative exploration and expression in public spaces.
- Disrupt harmful historic narratives that uphold structural inequities, decolonize and/or indigenize spaces, and/or centers BIPOC creativity, imagination and expression in public spaces
Relevance: Projects creatively engage important public conversation(s) that are or need to be happening in this particular moment, in this particular place. Context is important in public art making. Public spaces are not neutral. And public art made in public spaces is not neutral. Priority will be given to projects that are rooted in community and/or demonstrate deep relationship to place –particularly rural places and/or places where folks are experiencing/have experienced displacement.
Integrity: Projects honor the integrity of the people, places, stories, and ideas – past, present, and future- engaged in the art making. Public art practices that reduce people, places, and stories to tools for art making are harmful. Also, artists are collaborators and co-conspirators on this journey towards justice, not saviors.

Eligibility Criteria

Lead Applicant must be a Massachusetts-based artist or artistic collaboration.
- Lead applicant may be an individual(s), fiscally sponsored collective, and/or 501c3 organization.
  - Individual artist applicants and payees must be 18+ years old.
  - Artistic collaborations applying may consist of 2-3 individual artists working together, or more formal collectives/collaborations that have fiscal sponsorship or 501c3 status.
  - Organizations working in partnership with an artist(s) must be able to demonstrate that the relationship between the artist(s) and organization is built on trust, accountability and reciprocity. Artists are collaborators and co-conspirators on this journey, not saviors.
- Recognizing the intersectionality of artists’ 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. Note: Public Art for Spatial Justice grants are taxable income to individual recipients and reportable to the IRS. All grantees will receive a 1099 from NEFA.
Proposed public art project must:
- Be located in the state of Massachusetts.
- Engage the public realm and be available to the general public.
- Projects may include public-facing elements that are engaging both physical and/or virtual spaces. Ideally projects will engage physical places/spaces, but they recognize public health standards continue to evolve during this pandemic. If necessary, they will work with grantees to determine safe protocols to meet current public health standards.
- Creatively cultivate expressions of and/or embodiments of spatial justice through public art making. Projects of all artistic disciplines –visual, performative, rooted in ritual, etc.-are eligible.

Not eligible

Applicants based outside of Massachusetts.
Proposed projects based outside of Massachusetts.
Current PASJ grantee (lead applicant) that has not completed their respective grantee report.

Note: If you are applying for a Collective Imagination for Spatial Justice and a Public Art for Spatial Justice grant in the same grant round, each application will be reviewed independent of each other and funding is not guaranteed (i.e. you may be funded for one but not the other).

For more information, visit https://www.nefa.org/CreateSpatialJustice