Call for Proposals: Collections Grant Program (US)

Recognizing current and historical inequities in presentations and understandings of American art history, the Terra Foundation encourages permanent collection projects that address these disparities and exclusions at institutions worldwide.

The Terra Foundation encourages proposals from organizations (e.g., museums, art centers, and community-based cultural organizations) of varying sizes and annual budgets and representing the full spectrum of geographic regions, within and outside the United States.

Goals

• The Terra Foundation supports visual arts projects with a focus on art of the United States and Indigenous art of North America that question and broaden understandings of American art and transform how its stories are told.
• They encourage projects that:
  • generate knowledge and interpretive frameworks that reflect the range and complexity of American art and its histories through the diversity of artists represented, voices included, and stories told
  • center artists, scholars, and communities who have been systemically excluded from narratives, practices, and presentations of American art
  • commit to inclusive and equitable practices across project development and implementation in order to lead to structural change
• They also encourage multilingual written materials when possible and relevant to the project and/or its audiences.

Funding Information

• They anticipate that individual grants will range between $25,000 and $75,000.

Eligible Costs

• Grants will offset planning and/or implementation costs for:
  • research and planning for permanent collection reinstallations or temporary exhibitions drawn primarily from an institution’s permanent collection (e.g., convenings, travel, research fellows or assistants, advisory groups)
  • temporary exhibitions drawn primarily from an institution’s permanent collection
  • permanent collection reinstallations

Eligibility Criteria

• For this program, the Terra Foundation accepts proposals only from institutions with United States 501(c)(3) status or its international equivalent. Only the project organizer(s) may apply for support; if co-organizing with a presenting partner institution, the co-organizers must apply jointly. Grants are not made to individuals.
• If an organization has received a Collections planning grant, it may apply for Collections implementation support for the same project.
• Through its Collections program, the Terra Foundation is pleased to provide support for organizations to plan and/or present permanent collection reinstallations or temporary exhibitions drawn primarily from an institution’s permanent collection. Grants may be used for costs associated with planning and research (including short-term positions, convenings, advisory committees, etc.); interpretation; signage/labels; artist fees (except for commissions); shipping, crating, couriers, insurance, and loan fees for any loaned objects; construction of temporary gallery walls; conservation/framing; rental equipment; programs and events; marketing; evaluation; and dissemination of research, whether digital or print. They are also happy to support related staff positions (up to 25% of the award amount) and indirect costs (up to 15% of the award amount).

Ineligibility Criteria

• Currently, the Collections grant program at the Terra Foundation does not accept proposals for:
  • the creation or acquisition of existing or commissioned artwork
  • acquisitions or capital expenditures or permanent equipment (including technology, construction other than temporary gallery walls, contracted exhibition or architectural design, exhibition furniture/vitrines, etc.)
  • presentations that are exclusively online
  • presentations previously opened that are touring to new venues
  • projects comprised primarily of loans
  • projects previously declined by the Terra Foundation through this program.

For more information, visit Terra Foundation for American Art.