Sustainable Arts Foundation: Residency Grant

_NOTE: We will not be holding an open call this fall for 2024 residency grants._

Sustainable Arts Foundation

The Sustainable Arts Foundation supports artists and writers with children. We make annual unrestricted cash awards to individuals; at least half of these awards are made to applicants of color. We also support artist residencies in their efforts to make their programs more family friendly.

Overview

For many parents, the financial, emotional, and logistical demands of raising a family make attending a traditional artist/writer residency program impossible. Since 2013, we have made grants to residency programs to help them make their opportunities more accessible to parent artists and writers.

We’ve been so encouraged by the organizations that have applied to this program, and we’ve granted $630,000 to over fifty organizations in support of their ideas and innovations.

Eligible organizations can apply to support existing programs, or to modify or create programs that address the needs of parent applicants.

We are particularly interested in what residencies are doing to make their programs more diverse, from their staff to their review boards, and of course the residents themselves.

The goal of this program is not only to reward organizations for original and effective solutions, but to share the results, so that other residencies might learn from them as well.

Grant Funds

Organizations may apply for up to $6,000. Efficient use of funds directly benefiting parent residents is of the utmost importance. We admire organizations that bring some financial or operational commitment of their own for this proposal. We will not consider proposals asking for general operating funds.

Ideas That Have Proven Successful

We understand that every residency program is unique, and we don’t have a single set of expectations about how each one should address the needs of parents. We want to know how you’re thinking about parents and how you plan to make your unique program more accessible to them. That said, there are a handful of ideas that have proven particularly attractive to and successful with parents.

• Shorter residency periods, which make it much more likely that a parent could attend
• A residency “season” in which all the residents are parents; this offers built-in empathy from the entire group as well as the possibility of shared childcare
• Summer residencies with nearby camp or other opportunities for children
• Childcare as an acceptable request for financial aid
• Proposals that demonstrate a well-considered approach to equity and outreach
• Flexibility!

Eligibility

_You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website._

• Your organization must be a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) offering residencies to artists and/or writers.
• If your organization does not have tax-exempt status, but does have fiscal sponsorship, please contact us before applying.
• The program(s) funded by this award must support artists and writers with at least one dependent child under the age of 18.

Ineligibility

• We  will not consider proposals asking for general operating funds.
• Ideas That Are Less Successful
• Proposals that look to recoup ongoing or general administrative costs
• Proposals that offer very few specifics about a new program for parents, but are proposing to fund a spot for an applicant who happens to be a parent
• Proposals that do not consider how to publicize the opportunity to parents
• Proposals that don’t include any explicit promotion to reach parent artists; we do not consider a mailing list and social media sufficient.