Right of Return Fellowship and Frieze Impact Prize 2024 (US)

In addition, Right of Return is excited to partner with Frieze and Endeavor Impact to present the Frieze Los Angeles 2024 Impact Prize recognizing a visual artist who contributes their talents towards issues of social justice and mass incarceration.

Only one application needs to be completed to be considered for both the Right of Return Fellowship and the Frieze Impact Prize. Creatives working in disciplines other than the visual arts and experimental film, including poets, documentary filmmakers, performance artists, creative writers, and designers, are eligible for the Right of Return Fellowship, but not the Frieze Impact Prize.

Program Details

• About Right of Return USA Fellowship
  • The Center for Art & Advocacy’s Right of Return Fellowship invites formerly incarcerated artists to propose art projects aimed at transforming the criminal legal and immigration systems and reducing their scale and reach. The fellowship is open to artists working in all creative disciplines, including but not limited to visual, performance, poetry, media, and design.
  • Artists have always played a critical role in social movements as culture-makers and catalysts for change. The work to end mass incarceration and criminalization is no exception. Right of Return Fellows exist and work at the forefront of social movements and have the unique power to translate complex and nuanced ideas into powerful experiences, helping audiences move toward action. In a world saturated with new challenges and rapidly growing divisions, the fellows are also organizers and advocates who connect people and communities to collectively reimagine the world they want to live in.
  • The goal of the Right of Return Fellowship is to support the creation of new bodies of work that uplift the voices of people directly impacted by the criminal justice system, reflect the humanity of criminalized and incarcerated people, and build public will for ambitious and visionary change.
  • Artist Retreat
    • If selected, Right of Return Fellows will be asked to commit to participating in a group retreat in spring 2024 and be invited to a multi-cohort retreat in fall 2024. The Right of Return retreats are meant to foster community, develop political advocacy skills, and support practice sustainability. If COVID-19 makes in-person convenings impossible, abbreviated versions of the retreat will be held online.
• About Frieze Los Angeles 2024 Impact Prize in Partnership with Right of Return
  • This year, the Center for Art & Advocacy has partnered with Frieze and Endeavor Impact to present the Frieze Los Angeles 2024 Impact Prize in partnership with Right of Return, to award $25,000 to a visual artist in a past or current cohort of the Right of Return Fellowship, platforming their practice’s contributions towards ending mass incarceration. Furthering the mission of both The Center and Frieze, this partnership intends to leverage art as a powerful tool to expose the inequities within the criminal justice system.
  • The Center will be the third partner for the Frieze Impact Award since it was established in 2020. The prize draws inspiration from Mark Bradford’s Life Size (2019), a work created on the occasion of the inaugural Frieze Los Angeles in 2019, which exposed the inequitable aspects of the criminal justice system.
  • Each Right of Return visual artist applicant will submit a body of work they would like the jury to consider.

Funding Information

• Right of Return Fellowship
  • Fellowship Grant: $20,000 total: $10,000 artist award, $10,000 for project materials and production.
  • Grant Timeline and Requirements: Funded Right of Return projects must be completed within 12 months of the award date. Selected Fellows will be asked to provide a proposed overall budget for the project.
• Frieze Los Angeles 2024 Impact Prize
  • The Impact Prize comprises a $25,000 award, as well as shipping and installation costs for the exhibition of artwork at Frieze Los Angeles 2024.

Eligibility Criteria

• Right of Return Fellowship
  • Applicant Eligibility
    • The Right of Return Fellowship seeks to support formerly incarcerated artists with a demonstrated capacity to advance social change and a clear vision for utilizing their creative practice to end mass incarceration.
    • More specifically:
      • They define the word “artist” in broad terms to include designers, musicians, visual artists, performers, photographers, spoken-word artists, poets, and storytellers.
      • Artists must collaborate with an advocacy organization during the development and/or execution of their proposed project (collaborating organizations do not need to be secured at the time of application).
      • Artists may be at any stage of their career.
      • Projects and applicants must be U.S. based.
      • The Center for Art & Advocacy seeks a diverse cohort of fellows with regard to race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and experience.
  • Who should apply?
    • U.S.-based formerly incarcerated artists of all creative disciplines, age 18 or older. They do not fund organizations or non-profits, only individual artists.
• Frieze Los Angeles 2024 Impact Prize
  • Applications to the Frieze Los Angeles 2024 Impact Prize are open to any U.S.-based, formerly incarcerated visual artist who is aged 18 or older, regardless of citizenship status, felony convictions, or formal training in art.

For more information, visit Center for Art & Advocacy.