McKnight Fellowships for Book Artists Grant

McKnight Fellowships for Book Artists Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Minnesota Center For Book Arts
Amount: US $27,000
Last Updated: January 19, 2026

Summary

The McKnight Fellowships for Book Artists, administered by the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, offers significant support for talented, mid-career book artists in Minnesota. Each year, two fellowships are awarded, providing $25,000 unrestricted grants, studio access, and professional development opportunities. This program aims to cultivate artistic excellence in book arts while benefiting the community. Eligible artists must demonstrate professional achievements and sustained experience in the field, contributing to Minnesota's vibrant cultural landscape.

Overview

About the McKnight Artist & Culture Bearers Fellowships Program Founded on the belief that Minnesota thrives when its artists and culture bearers thrive, the McKnight Foundation’s arts and culture program is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. Support for individual working Minnesota artists and culture bearers has been a cornerstone of the program since it began in 1981. The McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships Program provides annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in 15 different creative disciplines. Program partner organizations administer the fellowships and structure them to respond to the unique challenges of different disciplines. Currently, the foundation contributes about $1.7 million per year to its statewide fellowships The McKnight Fellowship for Book Artists supports the conviction that the arts cannot ourish or enhance community life without the ideas, energy, and drive of individual artists, and that artists cannot make these contributions without unfettered creative time. The goal of the McKnight Fellowship for Book Artists program is to identify talented Minnesota based book artists whose work is of exceptional artistic merit and who are at a career stage that is beyond emerging. The fellowship program supports two established artists per year by providing signicant nancial assistance, creating opportunities to meet with local and national art professionals, organizing a panel featuring the fellows and invited critics, and working with the fellows to create an individualized professional development plan. McKnight Fellowships for Book Artists Minnesota Center for Book Arts is pleased to partner with the McKnight Foundation to offer two fellowships to beyond-emerging artists living and working in Minnesota who show sustained experience in the book arts. They demonstrate achievement, commitment, and high level proficiency in their practice that contributes to the book arts field while impacting and benefiting people in Minnesota. Fellowship Benefits Include: Unrestricted $25,000 awardStudio visits from a national critic/curator $1,000 travel stipend to attend a conference Opportunity to participate in public artist panel $1,000 educational stipend Two years of MCBA studio access Opportunity to attend an artist residency with stipend Group exhibition in MCBA’s Main Gallery

Eligibility

We've imported the main document for this grant to give you an overview. You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Artists who are eligible for this fellowships: Create work that falls within a book arts context. Book arts is a family of processes that includes but is not limited to letterpress printing, screen printing, intaglio, bookbinding, box-making, papermaking, or paper decoration. Book art, broadly defined, includes work that embodies narrative, instruction, reference, mapping, guides, documentation, and more. It is work that engages the viewer and propels the experience forward through narrative, sequencing, spatial elements, visual or verbal language, temporal, mechanical, aural, typographic, symbolic or material means. As an interdisciplinary art form, book arts may include other mediums such as photography, other forms of printmaking, installation, sculpture, and film.Are at least 18 years old and a resident of Minnesota, as determined by voting and/or payment of taxes in the state. Applicant must also have a street mailing address within Minnesota to be eligible to apply.Have lived in the state of Minnesota at minimum the twelve months prior to the application deadline and will live in Minnesota for the duration of the fellowship period.Be able to provide evidence of professional achievements, such as inclusion in regional or national museum and gallery exhibitions and receipt of other awards, grants, and fellowships.Have at least eight years of professional experience, preferably in group and/or solo shows. Exhibitions undertaken as part of a degree-seeking program at an institution of higher learning will not be considered, i.e. senior or thesis exhibitions, juried student shows, etc.Sustained experience in book arts and demonstrate achievement, commitment to the field, and a high level of proficiencyBe willing to participate in all aspects of the fellowship program, including meetings, studio visits by art critics, and a public panel with visiting critics.