John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships Grant

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Last Updated: August 08, 2025

Summary

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships support exceptional individuals in the arts and scholarship. Open to U.S. and Canadian citizens, the fellowship promotes innovative projects through a rigorous selection process by experts in the respective fields. Grant amounts vary, and recipients may hold other fellowships. Notably, students and organizations are ineligible. This prestigious fellowship aims to foster creativity and scholarly contributions while ensuring equitable funding across various disciplines.

Overview

About the Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. Fellowships are awarded through two annual competitions: one open to citizens and permanent residents of the United States and Canada, and the other open to citizens and permanent residents of Latin America and the Caribbean. Candidates must apply to the Guggenheim Foundation in order to be considered in either of these competitions. During the rigorous selection process, applicants will first be pooled with others working in the same field, and examined by experts in that field: the work of artists will be reviewed by artists, that of scientists by scientists, that of historians by historians, and so on. The Foundation has a network of several hundred advisers, who either meet at the Foundation offices to look at applicants’ work, or receive application materials to read offsite. These advisers, all of whom are themselves former Guggenheim Fellows, then submit reports critiquing and ranking the applications in their respective fields. Their recommendations are then forwarded to and weighed by a Committee of Selection, which then determines the number of awards to be made in each area. Occasionally, no application in a given area is considered strong enough to merit a Fellowship. The United States & Canadian Competition The Fellowship competition was at first open only to citizens of either the United States or its possessions. In keeping with the Guggenheims’ intentions, as expressed in their First Letter of Gift, the awards were originally titled the “John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships for Advanced Study Abroad.” Beginning with the inaugural class of fifteen Fellows in 1926, all Fellows were required to spend their terms outside of the United States. But eager to place as few restrictions as possible on the Fellows, the Foundation rescinded that requirement with the competition of 1941. Canadians became eligible for the Guggenheim Fellowships in 1940, and the name of the competition changed to “United States and Canada.” Residents of the Philippines were eligible from the establishment of the Foundation (for the Philippines were a U.S. territory at that time) until 1988, when the Philippine program was discontinued; applications from the Philippines were considered by the Committee of Selection for the United States and Canada through 1949, when that responsibility shifted to the Latin American Committee. Grant Amount The amounts of grants vary, and the Foundation does not guarantee it will fully fund any project. Working with a fixed annual budget, the Foundation strives to allocate its funds as equitably as possible, taking into consideration the Fellows’ other resources and the purpose and scope of their plans. Members of the teaching profession receiving sabbatical leave on full or part salary are eligible for appointment, as are those holding other fellowships and appointments at research centers. Please see FAQs for additional guidelines.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. All applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. or Canada at the time of application.Our awards are intended for individuals only;

Ineligibility

Guggenheim Fellowships are not open to students (undergraduate, graduate, or postgraduate).Awards are not available to organizations, institutions, or groups.Persons who have already received a Guggenheim Fellowship are not eligible to apply for another.Guggenheim Fellowships are not available for the creation of residencies, curriculum development, or any type of educational program, nor are they available to support the development of websites or blogs.We regret that our awards are not available to support the writing of literature for children or young readers, or support any other type of work (e.g., films, plays, etc.) intended for young audiences.Anthology, oral history, e-book, or textbook projects are not supported by our awards.Published writing not regarded as appropriate for our competition includes self-published works, publications for which the author has paid, and publications by publishers who do not engage in a process of critical review of submitted work.In addition, genre work (e.g., mysteries, romance, fantasy, etc.) is not within our scope.For all writers, if you have mainly published in periodicals, or on websites, it might be premature for you to apply here at this stage of your career, given the rigorous nature of our competition.The Latin American and Caribbean competition is currently suspended while we examine the workings and efficacy of the program.The U.S. and Canadian competition is unaffected by this suspension.