Up to $50,000 available to support Visual Art Writers (US)

These grants support projects addressing both general and specialized art audiences, from short reviews for magazines and newspapers to in-depth scholarly studies. They also support art writing that engages criticism through interdisciplinary methods or experiments with literary styles.

By “contemporary visual art,” they mean visual art made since World War II. Projects on post-WWII work in adjacent fields—architecture, dance, film, media, music, performance, sound, etc.—will only be considered if they directly and significantly engage the discourses and concerns of contemporary visual art.

Funding Information

• Ranging from $15,000 to $50,000 in three categories—articles, books and short-form writing.

Eligible Funding

• Expenses related to the realization of your project can include:
  • Writer’s fee;
  • Research;
  • Travel (airfare, car rental, ground transportation, lodging, meals, per diem);
  • Living expenses including child-care;
  • Image permissions and fees; reproduction and copying costs;
  • Costs related to editing, transcription, or translation.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible for this grant, an arts writer must be:
  • an individual;
  • applying for a project about contemporary visual art;
  • an art historian, artist, critic, curator, journalist, or a writer in an outside field who is strongly engaged with the contemporary visual arts;
  • a U.S. citizen, permanent resident of the United States, or holder of an O-1 visa;
  • at least twenty-five years old by Oct 1 in the application year;
  • a published author (specific publication requirements vary depending on grant category).

Ineligibility Criteria

• An arts writer is NOT eligible for this grant if they are
  • applying on behalf of an organization;
  • applying for a project in which their primary involvement will be as an editor;
  • a full-time student in a degree-granting program (with the exception of those students who are simultaneously maintaining professional careers as arts writers);
  • an artist, writer, or curator writing an interpretive essay on their own practice;
  • applying for a project that is primarily fiction, poetry (including ekphrasis), or memoir;
  • applying for a project based on a PhD dissertation or MA thesis;
  • applying to conduct a Q&A interview (or series of Q&A interviews);
  • applying to assemble an archive or database;
  • applying for a project on Andy Warhol;
  • applying for a project that will be published by a commercial gallery;
  • applying for a Creative Capital Award for any project in the same grant year (including as a collaborator);
  • applying with the same project for which they have received a Creative Capital Award (including as a collaborator);
  • applying with the same project for which they have received a curatorial research fellowship from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (including as a collaborator);
  • a grantee of The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant;
  • a recent juror of the program (evaluators are eligible to apply after one grant cycle; panelists are eligible after two grant cycles);
  • a current employee, consultant, board member, or funder of Creative Capital or The Andy Warhol Foundation, or an immediate family member of such a person.

For more information, visit The Andy Warhol Foundation.