Currently 11 active open calls open to applicants in the US, across AI, arts, film, journalism, research, tech and cross-disciplinary practice. 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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Data Through Design, the annual exhibition of artworks that creatively analyze, interpret and interrogate data from New York City's Open Data portal, opens its 10th anniversary call, held in conjunction with NYC Open Data Week. THEME: reflections, reverberations and the arc of data over time; the evidence of time (footprints, traces, scars, markers of change), temporal mirrors and kaleidoscopes, messages from the past and future, fractals of time and visuals of scale. Artists may also respond to a previous DxD theme in light of time, and alumni artists are particularly encouraged to apply, including by revisiting past projects. FORMATS: digital, analog, physical, performance, sound works, walks, installations, creative coding, participatory mapping, drawings and more; the organizers highlight participatory data collection, radical and cognitive mapping, and data experienced through time, sound and the senses. REQUIREMENT: projects must reference or use at least one NYC Open Data dataset; other data, including novel and experimental collection systems, is welcome alongside it. WHAT YOU GET: USD 900 stipend, half before and half after the exhibition, plus inclusion in the multi-media group show in New York City, tentatively 26 March to 11 April 2027. Work must be installation-ready by 19 March 2027 and delivered to the venue 22 to 24 March. ELIGIBILITY: open to artists, civic technologists, data enthusiasts, city dwellers and creative practitioners; applicants must be approved to work in the US to be paid the stipend. The submission process has been revamped for this edition, with a new rubric and submission materials to review. APPLICATION: free, via the submission form on the DxD website. DEADLINE: 15 November 2026 at 23:59 EST.
Code:ART is the City of Palo Alto's digital art festival celebrating creative technology in public space, returning 13 to 16 October 2027. This call commissions one artist or team to create a signature interactive installation for Lytton Plaza with a USD 20,000 budget. ELIGIBILITY: open to individual artists and teams based in the US or internationally; individuals must be over 18, and for teams at least one member must be over 18 and able to contract with the City; applicants in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties are particularly encouraged. You may also apply to the parallel Interactive Media Installations call, but can receive only one commission across both. APPLICATION: via SlideRoom. DEADLINE: Monday 16 November 2026, 23:59 Pacific Time.
Code:ART is the City of Palo Alto's digital art festival celebrating creative technology in public space, returning 13 to 16 October 2027. This call selects up to five interactive media installations for the festival, each with a budget of up to USD 9,000. ELIGIBILITY: open to artists nationally and internationally, individuals and teams. You may also apply to the parallel Lytton Plaza Installation call (USD 20,000), but can receive only one commission across both. APPLICATION: via SlideRoom. DEADLINE: Monday 16 November 2026, 23:59 Pacific Time.
The Kennedy Center's Access/VSA Emerging Young Artists Program (2027 theme: Thrive) awards 15 young disabled visual artists a USD 3,000 stipend, an all-expenses-paid career development week in Washington DC (14 to 18 June 2027) and exhibition of one work. ELIGIBILITY: aged 16 to 25 on the deadline date; US-based with the right to work in the US; have a disability as defined by the ADA and be willing to disclose it publicly; submitted work made in the last three years and after the onset of disability; no generative-AI work; previous winners ineligible. OBLIGATIONS: attend three virtual workshops (April to June 2027) and the DC week to receive the stipend. APPLICATION: free, via CaFE (artist.callforentry.org); accommodation and alternative-format requests by 30 October 2026. Winners notified by 13 January 2027. Questions: vsainfo@kennedy-center.org. DEADLINE: 19 November 2026, 23:59 ET.
Annual design commission for an ambitious, technically challenging large-scale public artwork or structure, built over summer 2027 by more than 100 young people working with Beam staff. The selected designer collaborates through bi-weekly remote planning meetings and may visit the build with travel reimbursed, making this genuinely remote-friendly for a physical commission. A strong fit for creative-technology and installation practices. AWARD: USD 5,000 to the proposer plus roughly USD 15,000 in fabrication budget. ELIGIBILITY: open worldwide, any age, individuals or teams. DEADLINE: 30 November 2026, 11:59pm EST.
CURRENTS presents one of the leading art and technology festivals in the United States, held every summer in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 2010, bringing together established and emerging new media artists from the USA and worldwide. The 2027 edition (11-20 June 2027) accepts submissions in: installations (interactive and non-interactive); audio experiences; virtual, augmented and mixed reality environments; robotics, kinetic and electro-mechanical objects and installations; multimedia performance; fabrication, 2D/3D printing and wearables; and experimental single channel video, documentary and animation. The festival is a collaboration between the non-profit Parallel Studios, partners throughout the city, and interns and volunteers. SUPPORT: selected artists may be eligible for travel, lodging and shipping support, though the festival warns it may not be able to cover international shipping given costs and risks, and may instead be able to supply needed equipment; no artist fee is published. SUBMISSION FEE: USD 30 single, USD 25 each for multiple. DEADLINE: 8 December 2026; participating artists announced March 2027. Questions to connect@currentsnewmedia.org.
VisArts, a nonprofit arts center in Rockville, Maryland, pairs one emerging curator with mentoring curator Fabiola R. Delgado for a year-long program culminating in an exhibition at the Kaplan Gallery. WHAT YOU GET: a USD 10,000 budget covering exhibition costs and curatorial fees, year-long mentorship, and staff support for printing, promotions and exhibition programming. The mentoring curator's exhibition runs 27 August to 10 October 2027; the Emerging Curator's exhibition runs 15 October 2027 to 9 January 2028. ELIGIBILITY: emerging curators or artists with an interest in exhibition-making or curating; international applicants must be eligible to work in the United States (VisArts cannot provide or assist with visas). APPLICATION: free, via Submittable; application form, CV, evidence of past curatorial projects (up to 10 images, up to 5 minutes of video/audio, image list and supporting PDFs) and a statement on goals, curatorial interests, audience enrichment and community engagement. TIMELINE: finalists notified 8 January 2027, interviews 13 to 15 January, selection announced 20 January 2027. DEADLINE: 18 December 2026, midnight.
The Netherland-America Foundation funds professional artistic and cultural projects that show a clear exchange between Dutch and American artists, institutions or audiences, such as exhibitions, performances and other cultural initiatives that promote dialogue and collaboration. Both emerging artists and established organisations may apply. NOT FUNDED: applicants who are not working cultural professionals, seminar attendance, degree tuition, residencies, research, projects without a Dutch-American connection (these are not forwarded to the committee), and projects already underway or finished at the time of review. TIMING: apply at least 6 months before the money is needed; a letter of intent is optional and encouraged for projects 9 or more months out, after which the committee may invite a full application. Recent grantees must wait three years before reapplying. Letter and budget in English, addressed to the NAF Cultural Committee; include visuals where relevant. QUARTERLY CUT-OFFS: 1 February (window 2 Nov-1 Feb, results mid-March), 1 May (results mid-June), 1 August (results mid-September) and 1 November (window 2 Aug-1 Nov, results mid-December). This listing covers the 1 February 2027 cut-off (window 2 November 2026 to 1 February 2027, results mid-March 2027). Submit via Submittable.
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.
The Roger Tory Peterson Institute's artist-in-residence program nurtures nature artists with a week in Jamestown, New York, and facilitated access to the Peterson Collection, inclusive of Roger Tory Peterson's original field guide art, fine art, films, slides, and personal papers. WHAT YOU GET: a USD 1,000 honorarium, with housing, per diem, and travel reimbursement for out-of-town artists. AFTERWARDS: residents create a body of work inspired by their time at RTPI, featured in a solo exhibition at the institute the following year. APPLICATION: rolling; applications are always accepted but residency slots are limited. Email the curator (rkosinski@rtpi.org) a statement of interest in Roger Tory Peterson, birds, or nature, a project proposal detailing research themes and planned artworks, and portfolio images representing your practice. DEADLINE: rolling.
Run by Seattle's Northwest Film Forum as part of the Warhol Foundation's Regional Regranting Program, the Collective Power Fund supports visionary new arts projects that incite public dialogue, push boundaries, explore genre fluidity, and are often non-traditional, anti-institutional, socially responsible or disruptive of existing structures. AWARDS: one USD 10,000 grant for an artist team or artist-run collective and ten USD 5,000 grants for individual artists, USD 60,000 in total. ELIGIBILITY: artists aged 21 or older living in incorporated or unincorporated King County, Washington (proof of residency at finalist status); work grounded in the visual arts or with a strong visual context; applicant must be the primary creator, able to receive income in the US, and hold creative control and rights; projects must include a publicly accessible component and be completed by 31 December 2027; one project per cycle. APPLICATION: via Submittable (nwfilmforum.submittable.com). DEADLINE: the 2026 application is open but the closing date was not published at the time of listing; the 2025 cycle closed mid-November, so apply early and confirm the deadline with grants manager jade@nwfilmforum.org.