Proposals are accepted from 501c3 arts organizations on behalf of curators at any stage of their careers, with or without institutional affiliation, working towards projects that will manifest at least two years after a grant is made.

A letter of support from the director of the sponsoring organization must accompany the proposal.

Grants are up to $50,000 and are intended to cover expenses incurred during the research and development stage of an exhibition, public-facing project, or other visual arts-based initiative that contributes in an original way to contemporary visual arts discourse

Proposals should present the topic for which research is being undertaken in narrative form. It can be helpful to discuss the origin of the applicant’s interest in the topic, the work undertaken to date; it is expected that projects will evolve over the course of the research and outcomes need not be predicted.

It is important to situate the research project in relation to historical and contemporary art precedents and practices

Strong proposals explore topics that are understudied and artists whose practices (or aspects of whose practices) are experimental, hard to categorize, and otherwise less well known to the general public.

Budgets should reflect real costs of the research to be undertaken; they cannot include salary replacement or course release monies for academics. Examples of research expenses include but are not limited to the following

• Travel expenses: transportation, accommodation, per diem
• Costs associated with bringing colleagues together for private or public round table discussion, including honoraria for participation
• Remuneration for research assistants
• Recording, transcription and translation costs
• Acquisition of relevant publications, subscriptions, media