Currently 6 active visual and media arts grants, fellowships and residencies open to applicants in the US. Hand-curated and updated weekly. Almost every entry is funded; a few notable unpaid open calls and festival submissions are included as clearly flagged exceptions. Browse the list below, or use the interactive desk for filtering and shortlisting.
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Residency for artists across seven disciplines (architecture, film/video, interdisciplinary, literature, music composition, theatre, visual arts). Sole selection criterion is artistic excellence. Applications open 15 August 2026. February deadline of the following year covers the Fall/Winter cycle.
Long-running post-production grant from Frameline, the San Francisco organisation behind the world's longest-running LGBTQ+ film festival, for films that represent and reflect LGBTQ+ life in all its complexity and richness. Grants run up to USD 5,000, typically USD 1,000 to 5,000, and the jury may recommend more or less than that range. WHAT IT COVERS: any post-production cost, explicitly including editing, special effects and graphics, music licensing, photo licensing, and, notably, closed captioning and audio description, so accessibility work is fundable rather than an afterthought. STAGE GATE, the thing that disqualifies most applicants: your project must be at least 90 percent complete with a rough cut available, and in or about to enter post-production. Work still in development or mid-production is not eligible. WHO AND WHAT: all formats, lengths, genres and nationalities are welcome, spanning documentary, narrative, experimental, animated and episodic work, so long as the film is about LGBTQ+ people and their communities. Directors must have creative and financial control of the project. NO APPLICATION FEE, which is worth flagging given how many completion funds charge one. TIMING: the submission window opens 31 August 2026 and closes 9 October 2026, with decisions in January 2027. The 2026 cycle's grantees have already been announced ahead of Frameline's 50th festival, so this is the next round.
Humanity AI, an initiative of ten leading philanthropies, opens a USD 10 million call for community-led initiatives that shape how AI affects people's lives. ISSUE AREAS: Education (student and educator-centered work shaping AI's educational impact); Labor and Economy (worker-led efforts to ensure AI enhances rather than replaces employment); and Humanities, Arts, and Culture (artist and creator-focused work protecting cultural contributions). ELIGIBLE APPROACHES: shaping the rules for AI governance and deployment; building AI controlled by communities rather than corporations; and challenging misaligned AI deployments. Community-led means the affected community defines the goals and shapes the approach. Priority goes to open-weight and open-source AI models over proprietary ones. OUT OF SCOPE: AI literacy training, AI adoption promotion, and research-only work. GRANTS: three tiers from USD 75,000 to 1,000,000, up to three years. ELIGIBILITY: US-based 501(c)(3) organizations as lead applicants; individuals via fiscal sponsors or collaborations; Tribal governments treated as States under IRC Section 7871; for-profit entities only as collaborators, not leads; all proposals must serve US-based communities. TIMELINE: launched 10 September 2026; applicant webinar 14 September 2026; initial applications due 21 October 2026 at 4:59pm PT; finalists notified December 2026; awards announced early spring 2027. Apply via Submittable; an organizational readiness tool on the site helps assess eligibility first.
The American-Scandinavian Foundation's award program for study and research abroad is its longest-standing commitment to educational exchange: over the past 100 years, more than 4,000 fellowships and grants have gone to Americans working in the Nordic region and Scandinavians in the US engaged in study, research, or creative arts projects. Fellowships for Americans in the Nordic Countries support projects in Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Sapmi. AMOUNTS: long-term fellowships of up to USD 23,000 for 4 to 12 months, and short-term grants of up to USD 5,000 for 1 to 3 months; awards are given in all fields, with graduate students (preferably dissertation-related), academic professionals, and creative artists eligible. In 2026, 31 American Fellows were granted over USD 277,390 in total. REPORTING: fellows abroad more than six months submit an interim report mid-project, and all fellows submit a final narrative report within 60 days of the fellowship period's end. DEADLINE: 1 November 2026 for the 2027-28 cycle. See ASF's Program Guidelines for full requirements and apply via the ASF application portal.
The MIT Museum seeks proposals for compelling digital content exploring humanity's relationship with the BRAIN, the museum's thematic focus from April to September 2027 bringing together art, science, technology and design on cognition, neurotechnology, brain-computer interfaces, mental health and the boundaries of ability. Selected proposals run as ambient content on the two-story digital screen (3840x3024, 80:63 aspect ratio, 20'3" x 16'2") in the museum's central Exchange amphitheater. The museum wants immersive, non-linear, experimental, non-didactic work, such as artful visualizations of data or scientific phenomena; interactivity (touchscreens, QR codes) is out of scope and content-critical audio is discouraged. Content must run on the museum's existing hardware (Windows PC with RTX 3090, NEC LED wall with Analog Way 4K system). WHO CAN APPLY: artists, scientists, engineers, designers and other creative practitioners, from MIT or the broader community. SUPPORT: flat honorarium of USD 2,500-5,000 per selected proposal; no additional development funding. Applications reviewed from 2 November, accepted list finalized January 2027. Deadline: 1 November 2026.
apexart's Open Calls turn a curatorial idea into a funded apexart exhibition, selected by a crowdsourced international jury of more than 600 people in 70 countries. WHO CAN SUBMIT: anyone, from anywhere, with no fees at any level: trained and student curators, artists, writers and creative people regardless of experience, background or location. HOW: a 500-word proposal for a focused, idea-driven, original group exhibition, submitted through the online form during the proposal window. TWO ANNUAL WINDOWS: every October for exhibitions in apexart's NYC space, and every February (to early March) for exhibitions taking place anywhere in the world except NYC; for the international call you must propose a location you have actually visited, with the specific venue settled after selection. SELECTION: jurors vote anonymously online (each proposal gets an equal number of views, submitter names hidden); proposals are judged on the strength of the idea and how well it is communicated, not on connections or CV. WHAT WINNERS GET: a USD 10,000 budget (USD 8,000 for expenses, up to USD 2,000 curator honorarium, plus up to USD 1,000 venue-rental match outside NYC), with apexart covering insurance, publicity, the printed brochure, the opening reception and most logistics including loan agreements and shipping, and staff working closely with the guest curator. Winning proposals become part of apexart's next exhibition season. Check the site for the current window's exact dates; submission forms only go live during the proposal periods.