GUIDELINES

What is the Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program?

The Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant is a three-year pilot program designed to support writers whose work addresses contemporary visual art through project-based grants issued directly to individual authors. The first program of its type, it was founded in recognition of both the financially precarious situation of arts writers and their indispensable contribution to a vital artistic culture.

In its first year, the Arts Writers Grant Program issued awards for books, articles, and experiments in new and alternative media. This round, it introduces a new grant category for short-form writing (texts of 1,000 words or less). In addition, the program seeks an increased engagement in the coming grant round with article-based projects and with art of the current moment. Of particular interest are articles that identify and explore pressing issues in the contemporary visual arts. Also of interest are texts that illuminate the value contemporary art holds for all viewers through its ability to complicate and enrich our understanding of our world and ourselves and to offer a space of freedom from and critical engagement with prevailing norms.

Through all its grants, regardless of topic or category type, the Arts Writers Grant Program aims to honor and encourage:

• Writing about art that is rigorous, passionate, eloquent and precise
• Writing about art in which a keen engagement with the present is infused with an appreciation of the historical
• Writing about art that is neither afraid to take a stand, nor content to deliver authoritative pronouncements, but serves rather to pose questions and to generate new possibilities for thinking, seeing, and making
• Writing about art that is sensitive to both the importance and difficulty of situating aesthetic objects within their broader social and political contexts
• Writing about art that does not dilute or sidestep complex ideas but renders accessible their meaning and value
• Writing about art that challenges creatively the limits of existing conventions, without valorizing novelty as an end in itself

The Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant is spearheaded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts as part of its broader Arts Writing Initiative and administered by Creative Capital.

What is the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writing Initiative?

The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writing Initiative is a three-year, three million dollar pilot program to support independent, progressive, nonprofit arts publications and individual arts writers. The result of extensive research conducted by the Warhol Foundation into the current needs and challenges facing arts writing, the initiative amplifies the foundation’s longstanding support of critical writing about the arts by focusing attention on arts writing as an essential component of a thriving visual culture. The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writing Initiative takes a two-pronged approach to this task: It will improve the viability of a select group of invited independent arts publications through capacity-building grants administered directly by the Warhol Foundation. It will also sustain the work of individual arts writers through project-based grants awarded under the auspices of the Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program.

What is the Creative Capital Foundation?

The Creative Capital Foundation is a national nonprofit organization that supports artists pursuing innovative approaches to form and content in the performing and visual arts, film/video, emerging fields, and innovative literature. Creative Capital is committed to working in partnership with the artists it funds, making a multi-year commitment, and providing advisory services and professional development assistance along with financial support.

How does the Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program find the work it supports?

• Open call for inquiries
• Recommendations by arts writers, editors and other professionals in the field
  

Who is eligible to apply?
An arts writer must be:

• An individual
• An art historian, artist, critic, curator, journalist, or practitioner in an outside field who is strongly engaged with the contemporary visual arts.
• A U.S. citizen, permanent resident of the United States, or possessor of an O-1 visa
• At least 25 years old
• A published author (specific publication requirements vary depending on grant category; see below) Please note that work published in college newspapers and undergraduate student-run publications will not be considered toward this requirement
  

An arts writer cannot be:

• An individual acting on behalf of an organization
• Applying for a project in which one’s 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 writing an interpretive essay on his or her own work
• An artist whose proposed project does NOT directly address contemporary visual art (in other words, a piece of writing by an artist does not automatically qualify as a piece of “arts writing” in this context)
• Applying to conduct an interview (or series of 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
• A current employee, consultant, board member, or funder of Creative Capital or the Warhol Foundation, or an immediate family member of such a person
• A current grantee of Creative Capital
  

How many awards will the Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program make and in what amounts?

The program will support approximately 15-20 projects. Grant amounts will range from $3,000–$50,000, depending on the scope and complexity of the project.

What types of projects does the Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program support?

All projects must be in English. Texts being submitted to academic institutions to fulfill degree requirements will not be accepted. Projects involving collaboration between two writers or between a writer and a practitioner in another field are eligible for consideration. In the case of collaboration, only one application per collaboration will be accepted. Collaborations must select one member to be the main contact.

The program will fund projects in the following four areas:

• Books
• Articles
• Short-Form Writing
• New and Alternative Media
  

1. Books. To be funded, a book must promise to make a significant contribution to the field of contemporary art and to exemplify excellence in arts writing.
   
   Eligibility Requirements: Book grant applicants must have:
   
   
   • a letter of strong interest/intent to publish from a prospective editor, outlining the details and status of contract negotiations.
   
   Please note that applications will not be accepted for edited anthologies comprising essays written by a number of different authors. In such cases, individual authors featured within a single volume may apply separately to the “Articles Category” (see below).
   
   
2. Articles. Articles may be published in print or online and may range from ten to fifty manuscript pages. Eligible article types include essays, magazine features, and extended exhibition reviews. Catalogue essays will also be considered in this category as long as they are not for exhibitions held at commercial galleries; however, please note that grant monies may not be used for expenses typically borne by a museum, such as the design, production, printing, and distribution of catalogues. Although a confirmed publisher for a proposed article is desirable, it is not a pre-requisite for application. Of particular interest in this category are texts that will meaningfully advance current aesthetic debates, that will afford in-depth consideration of a complex issue or body of work, and that will have a broad public impact, enabling a greater appreciation of contemporary art by non-specialists.
   
   Please note that there is no restriction against applying to write an article intended to lay the groundwork for a future book; if you receive funding for such an article, you will be eligible to apply in a subsequent round for a book grant that covers the same material in a more in-depth manner.
   
   Eligibility Requirements: Article grant applicants must have published a minimum of one of the following:
   
   
   • One article of at least 2,000 words; or
   • two articles of at least 1,000 words each; or
   • seven exhibition reviews of at least 500 words each.
   
   Please note that the length of the proposed article should be in keeping with the author’s level of experience and demonstrated ability.
   
   
3. Short-Form Writing. This category is designed to support writers working on texts of 1,000 words or less that respond to current exhibitions, events, and issues in the visual arts (magazine and newspaper reviews, blog entries, etc.). Applicants to this category will propose to write an approximate number of texts over a fixed period of time, not to exceed one year. Of particular interest are writers who work outside established art-world centers; writers whose work is geared to non-specialized readers; and younger authors for whom the opportunity to spend an extended period of time devoted to writing would have a transformative impact on their careers.
   
   Eligibility Requirements: Short-form writing grant applicants must have published a minimum of one of the following:
   
   
   • five published pieces of arts writing of at least 500 words each; or
   • eight published pieces of arts writing of at least 250 words each; or
   • regular blog postings for at least a six-month period.
   
   
4. New and Alternative Media. This grant category is intended for projects that explore and/or make use of technology’s ability to expand the definition and process of writing and reading texts on the contemporary visual arts. Of particular interest are projects that deploy the potential of new and alternative media in response to the increasingly complex and hybrid nature of current artistic practice, that target new or wider audiences, and that advance innovative approaches to conducting a public dialogue on art. (Please note that the intention to publish your project online does not automatically make it eligible for this category; we also accept applications for articles and short-form writing that will be posted on Websites. For further clarification, please refer to the above descriptions of those categories and to the funded new and alternative media projects from our 2006 grant round.) Eligibility requirements: New and alternative media grant applicants must have either:
   
   
   • Prior experience in the proposed medium; or
   • meet the requirements laid out for article-grant applicants
   
   

By when should a project be completed?

Ideally, applications should have a completion date of three months to one year after the grant award date. (By completion date, we are referring to the date the text is finished—not the date of publication.) Although completion dates will vary depending on the nature of the specific project, it is worth noting that various factors regarding timing may contribute to the success of an application. Projects slated for completion too soon after the announcement of awards (i.e., late February 2008) do not allow for a high degree of engagement or assistance from the program, as funds cannot be retroactively applied to costs incurred prior to the receipt of a grant. Conversely, since the goal is to support the realization of new works of art writing, projects slated for completion too far after the announcement of awards are also less appropriate for this program.

What is the application review process?

All proposals are evaluated based on:

• The strength, clarity, and potential impact of the proposed project
• The capabilities of the applicant to realize the project effectively
• The feasibility of the project

The review has two steps:

Step One: Each application will be reviewed by a distinguished professional in the field of arts writing and read by the program director.
Step Two: Selected applications will advance to a final panel round. In this phase, a national panel of arts writers, editors and other distinguished professionals will consider the proposals. (Panel recommendations receive final approval by the board of Creative Capital.)