Deadline: 17-Oct-22
The New England Foundation for Arts (NEFA) has launched the Public Art for Spatial Justice Grant Program to support public art that creatively expresses and embodies a more just version of what’s possible in public.
Public Art for Spatial Justice aims to support public art making that helps them see, feel, experience and imagine spatial justice now, while they are still on this journey towards realizing more just futures for our public spaces and public culture.
Program Goals
Through their 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 their 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
- 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
Starting in 2022: Public Art for Spatial Justice grants range from $15,000-$30,000, for up to two-year grant period beginning in January 2023.
Eligibility Criteria
- Lead Applicant must be based in Massachusetts.
- Lead applicant may 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:
- 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 art making. Projects of all artistic disciplines –visual, performative, rooted in ritual, etc. are eligible.
Ineligible
- Lead applicants based outside of Massachusetts.
- Proposed projects based outside of Massachusetts.
- Current PASJ grantee (lead applicant) who has not completed their respective grantee report.
- NEW starting in 2022: Past PASJ Grantees are not eligible to apply to PASJ again for a full calendar year from completing their grantee report.
Criteria
- Relevance: Context is important in public artmaking. Why this project? Why here? Why now? Public spaces are not neutral. And public art made in public spaces is not neutral. Reviewers are looking to understand the context of the project as well as the lead applicant’s intentions for public artmaking.
- Integrity: Public art practices that reduce people, places, and stories to tools for artmaking are harmful. Reviewers are looking for projects that are built on trust, accountability, and reciprocity and honor the integrity of the people, places, stories, and ideas – past, present, and future engaged in the artmaking.
For more information, visit https://www.nefa.org/CreateSpatialJustice