Public Art for Spatial Justice Grants

Public Art for Spatial Justice Grants

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: New England Foundation For The Arts
Amount: US $15,000 - US $30,000
Last Updated: September 17, 2025

Summary

The Public Art for Spatial Justice Grants support Massachusetts artists in creating public art that embodies spatial justice and fosters community engagement. These grants prioritize projects led by BIPOC artists, focusing on disrupting harmful narratives and cultivating expressions of justice in public spaces. By encouraging artistic collaborations and community-rooted initiatives, the program aims to reimagine public culture and contribute to more equitable futures. Projects must take place in Massachusetts and engage the public realm.

Overview

Public Art for Spatial Justice Supports public art that creatively expresses and embodies a more just version of what’s possible in public. At NEFA, we believe public art has the power to shift public culture and change the future, for the better. Public Art for Spatial Justice aims to support public artmaking that helps us see, feel, experience and imagine spatial justice now, while we are still on this journey towards realizing more just futures for our public spaces and public culture. How It Works Public Art for Spatial Justice grants support Massachusetts artists and artistic collaborations to create public art in Massachusetts that fosters public imagination and contributes to more just futures for our public spaces and public culture. Funding Criteria & Priorities Public Art for Spatial Justice aims to support public art that helps us see, feel, experience and imagine spatial justice now, while we are still on this collective journey towards realizing more just futures for our public spaces and public culture. Eligible projects will be reviewed according to the following funding criteria: Artists/Artistic Collaborations share in NEFA’s values and commitment to the work of dismantling the legacies of racism, anti-Blackness, and white supremacy culture. Priority will be given to projects that:Are led or co-led by artists who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). The path to dismantling the legacies of racism and white supremacy culture includes centering BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color)-led creative exploration and expression in public spaces.Disrupt harmful historic narratives that uphold structural inequities, decolonize and/or indigenize spaces, and/or centers BIPOC creativity, imagination and expression in public spacesRelevance: Projects creatively engage important public conversation(s) that are or need to be happening in this particular moment, in this particular place. Context is important in public artmaking. Public spaces are not neutral. And public art made in public spaces is not neutral. Priority will be given to projects that are rooted in community and/or demonstrate deep relationship to place –particularly rural places and/or places where folks are experiencing/have experienced displacement.Integrity: Projects honor the integrity of the people, places, stories, and ideas – past, present, and future- engaged in the artmaking.  Public art practices that reduce people, places, and stories to tools for artmaking are harmful. Also, artists are collaborators and co-conspirators on this journey towards justice, not saviors. We recognize that feasibility may vary depending on how public health guidelines evolve during the pandemic. We ask that artists are realistic about feasibility, while acknowledging that this may change as public health guidelines change.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Massachusetts-based artist(s) and Massachusetts-based organizations working with artist(s), are welcome to apply for a project grant. Projects must take place in Massachusetts and creatively cultivate expressions or embodiments of spatial justice through public artmaking. All artistic disciplines are welcomed to apply.Lead Applicant must be based in Massachusetts and may be...Community-based anchor organization in Massachusetts, working in collaboration with a particular artist(s); organizations may be a 501c3 or fiscally sponsoredMassachusetts-based Artist(s). Individual artist applicants must be 18+ years old. Artistic collaborations may be a group of artists informally working together for this particular project, or an artist collective that regularly works together on projects.Recognizing the intersectionality of identities, we acknowledge that artists may also identify as cultural practitioners, activists, and community-rooted collaborators, and may be self/community-taught, institutionally trained, or a combination of both. All are welcome to apply.Proposed public art projects must:Be located in Massachusetts.Engage the public realm and/or be available to the general public to happen upon.Cultivate expressions of and/or embodiments of spatial justice through public artmaking. Projects of all artistic disciplines –visual, performative, rooted in ritual, etc.-- are eligible.

Ineligibility

Not eligibleApplicants based outside of Massachusetts.Proposed projects based outside of Massachusetts.Current PASJ grantee (lead applicant) who has not completed their respective grantee report.Past PASJ Grantees are not eligible to apply to PASJ again for a full calendar year from completing their grantee report. (E.g., If you submit a PASJ grantee report on June 1, 2022 that is approved, you are eligible to apply for PASJ again starting June 1, 2023.)