Hey, I’ve been hitting the grant applications hard, and felt inspired to share what I have found.
‘Ere they are… Grants, prizes and paid residencies, each checked against the funder’s own page rather than a listings site. Deadlines are UK time unless I say otherwise. Most close this month; two run into 1 October and one has no deadline at all. Everything here is free to apply except MacDowell, Art Omi, Hayama and the Tom Stoddart Award, and I’ve listed those fees where they are.
Where to start
If you’re self-taught or your CV is thin: Art Omi states on its own page that it accepts self-taught professional artists. Hayama and Tokyo Biennale judge the work and the proposal rather than your credentials.
If you have a decade of shows behind you: Pollock-Krasner is the largest single sum here and needs ten exhibitions in ten years. Radcliffe, Platform Dalí and Ars Electronica also pay properly and enforce their eligibility rules to the letter.
If you hold a UK passport and no EU work rights: read the Ars Electronica entry before you start. It’s the one hard eligibility wall on this list.
If you need money rather than time: Radcliffe, Columbia, Unlimited, Ars Electronica, The Supporting Act and Pollock-Krasner put cash in your hand. MacDowell and Art Omi mostly give you space and food.
If you work with archives or documents: Embassy of Foreign Artists in Geneva and the European Cultural Foundation in Florence are built for it, and both will reject a general practice pitch.
If you’re a photographer: the Tom Stoddart Award is the one aimed squarely at you. Note that Pollock-Krasner explicitly excludes photography as a primary medium.
If you can’t travel: Unlimited, The Supporting Act and Pollock-Krasner can all be done from home. Unlimited covers England, Scotland and Wales only.
1. Platform Dalí, Barcelona
Residencies 2027, “What is real?” Fee paid, costs covered
Closes tonight, Monday 7 September, 10.59pm here (23.59 CET).
You get a EUR 7,500 fee plus a production budget of up to EUR 25,000 for a new work. Travel, accommodation, subsistence and insurance are covered for artists based outside Barcelona, within a set budget.
You need at least eight years of professional practice. Any nationality, any discipline, and collectives may apply, though the fee and budget are then shared.
Be aware this is a 12-month programme, not a short residency: a three-day introductory visit, up to 45 days on site, then roughly ten months of remote development and production. Five artists are selected, one at each of five partner institutions: the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, ICFO, the Institute of Marine Sciences, the Institute for High Energy Physics and the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park.
Worth it for the production budget, which is larger than most UK project grants. No scientific background is required and they say they welcome first-timers, so the eight years of practice is the only real gate.
2. Harvard Radcliffe Institute
Radcliffe Fellowship 2027-28 Salary
Closes Thursday 10 September, 10pm here (5pm ET). Apply under Creative Arts.
You get a $78,000 stipend for the academic year plus $5,000 for project expenses, an office or studio in Byerly Hall, and a Harvard visiting fellow appointment. Relocation, housing and childcare funds exist but you may or may not be eligible, so don’t budget on them.
You need, in visual arts, at least five years of work as a professional artist, several curated group shows and at least two professional solo exhibitions. You must live in the Cambridge or Boston area from September to May. Anyone currently enrolled in a degree programme is ineligible, as are former Radcliffe fellows.
Be aware this is a heavy application: a 1,400-word proposal, a CV, twelve images and three letters of recommendation. Start the reference requests today or don’t start at all.
Worth it if the CV is there, and a wasted fortnight if it isn’t. Read the eligibility twice before you write anything.
3. MacDowell, New Hampshire
Fellowships, spring and summer 2027 Time, board and help with travel
Closes Thursday 10 September at 5pm EDT, which is 10pm on Thursday here. Not the early hours of Friday. Check this one against the clock, because it closes earlier in the day than almost everything else on the list.
You get a studio and accommodation for a residency falling between 1 March and 31 August 2027. There are no residency fees, and need-based stipends and travel reimbursement grants are available.
You need only to be an artist. MacDowell takes applications from artists of all backgrounds and all countries across seven disciplines including visual arts, and about 300 fellowships are awarded a year.
Be aware the panels weigh three things: your record of professional achievement, a current work sample and your project proposal. It isn’t purely the work. Check the application fee on the guidelines page before you start, as the main page states only that there is no residency fee.
Worth it and fiercely competitive. It rewards a strong sample and a clear, specific proposal.
4. Tsung-Yeh Arts and Cultural Center, Tainan, Taiwan
AIR in Tainan 2027 A fee, a flat, and a budget you don’t control
Closes Thursday 10 September, 4.59pm here (23.59 Taiwan time).
You get up to NT$30,000 a month for a maximum of three months, so NT$90,000 at most, roughly £2,200. Accommodation is a suite at no charge, plus a bicycle, an exhibition space, a shared studio and basic tools.
Read this carefully. The NT$150,000 materials budget is not paid to you. The centre procures materials and services itself through government process. Your grant is taxed, at 6 to 20% for foreign artists, plus health insurance contributions, and you pay a stamp duty of 0.1% in cash on top. Payment arrives in instalments on government reimbursement timelines, and they advise bringing NT$15,000 to 20,000 to cover your first month. Flights are not mentioned anywhere, so budget for your own.
You need a project responding to the 2027 theme, Site-Specific Art, engaging Tainan’s hydrology, physiography, ecology or local culture. Minimum 45 days, maximum 90, across three possible terms between January and August 2027. Basic English or Chinese. At least one signed letter of recommendation, uploaded before the system closes.
You must deliver one achievement exhibition and at least one parent-child workshop before you leave.
Worth it for three funded months in Taiwan with real production support behind you, as long as you go in understanding that the big number is a procurement budget rather than cash.
5. Art Omi, New York
Artists residency 2027 Board and meals, travel possible
Closes Monday 14 September. The page gives no closing time, so file on Sunday.
You get a studio, a private room and all meals at no cost from Thursday 17 June to Monday 12 July 2027. This is a single fixed session, the only one they run each year, so you can’t pick your dates.
You need to have been professionally active for at least five years. Having studied art is not a requirement, and they say explicitly that they accept self-taught professional artists. Disciplines include visual arts, sound art, performance and social practice.
Fee $15.
On travel: several fellowships include a travel grant and a $500 stipend, and international applicants are automatically considered for the two Larkin Dawn fellowships without applying separately. The Every Page Foundation fellowship carries $2,000. So a flight may well be covered, but plan as though it isn’t.
Worth it, with eyes open on the odds. Art Omi aims for roughly 75% of residents to come from outside the US, which helps, but in 2026 they took 24 artists from around 1,395 applicants. There’s no public transport from the campus.
6. Embassy of Foreign Artists, Geneva
Artistic research residency 2027 Stipend and a room, you pay travel and materials
Closes Tuesday 15 September. No time given.
You get CHF 1,400 a month for three months, roughly £1,250, as a daily allowance, plus a private room and shared common areas. Run with the Centre for Digital Humanities and Multilateralism at the Geneva Graduate Institute, who provide access and guidance.
You need to be over 28 at the time of application, have a professional practice with a substantial body of work behind it, speak French or English, and not be enrolled in a basic art training programme. You must accept that travel and production costs are yours.
Your project must use the archives of Geneva-based international organisations as its primary resource, the UN Archives Geneva or the ICRC archives for example. This is the whole application, so a general practice pitch will sink.
Worth it if you already work with documents. Duos and groups can apply, but the stipend doesn’t increase.
7. Unlimited
Partner Awards 2026/27 Project funding
Closes Monday 28 September, midday.
You get one of eleven awards from £15,000 to £40,000, £280,000 in total, each tied to a partner venue. Eight in England, two in Scotland, one of £20,000 in Wales. Visual art partners include the Sainsbury Centre, Scottish Sculpture Workshop and Creative Folkestone.
You need to be a disabled artist, or a disabled artist leading the creation of work within a disabled-led company, aged 18 or over, based in England, Scotland or Wales, and not in full-time education. Northern Ireland is not covered by this round.
Worth it as the biggest pot here for anyone who qualifies, and the only one you can do without leaving the country. Each award has its own page with its own eligibility and criteria, so pick your partner venue first. Guidance is available in audio, BSL, Easy Read and large print, in Gaelic for Scotland and Welsh for Wales, and they offer access support to apply.
8. Ars Electronica
Ars Biologica ArtXScience residency, České Budějovice 2028 Fee and production
Closes Monday 28 September, 11pm here (midnight CET).
Check this before anything else: applicants may be of any nationality but must be eligible to work and travel in the EU. If you hold only a UK passport with no EU work rights, this one is closed to you.
You get EUR 24,000 in total: EUR 6,000 fee, up to EUR 15,000 production, up to EUR 3,000 for travel and subsistence. Accommodation for a one-month stay comes from a separate budget.
You need more than five years of professional practice and prior experience in interdisciplinary collaboration, art-science production and community engagement. 18 or over. Individuals or collectives.
They want two things, not one: a spatial artwork that goes beyond the screen, and public engagement formats involving the local community. The science partner is the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, working on soil and freshwater microorganisms.
Be aware of the commitment. Two positions only, running January 2027 to April 2028, with a month in February or March 2027, an optional month in August or September 2027, and a month in March 2028 for the festival.
Worth it for the production budget, and the first-round application is unusually light: a 250-word proposal, a few 100-word answers and some images.
9. Columbia University Institute for Ideas and Imagination, Paris
Fellowship 2027-28 Salary
Closes Wednesday 30 September. No time is given, so file the day before.
You get $75,000 for the academic year at Reid Hall in Paris, September 2027 to May 2028, with your own office, administrative and research support, and access to Columbia’s libraries and research facilities in Europe.
You need to apply under the creative arts category, be unaffiliated with Columbia, and, regardless of nationality, not be permanently resident in the United States. They cannot accommodate groups.
Be aware the cohort is up to 15 fellows and only half are outside artists and writers, so this is a handful of places. The application needs a 1,500-word project description, a work sample and three letters of recommendation.
Worth it as a year in Paris on a salary, if you can line up three referees in three weeks.
10. European Cultural Foundation
Artistic Research Fellowship, Florence Costs covered
Closes Wednesday 30 September, 4pm here (17.00 CET).
You get EUR 10,000 for a research stay at the Historical Archives of the European Union, covering travel, accommodation, living costs and artistic production. You work at Villa Salviati, within the European University Institute’s scholarly community.
The subject is narrower than it looks. This is not general access to the EU archives. Fellows are expected to work substantially with the European Cultural Foundation’s own historical holdings, which opened to the public in June 2026, and to engage with ECF’s history, networks and ideas and what they say about culture in Europe now. Material is primarily in English, with a good deal in French, German and Dutch.
You must complete and publicly present or publish the outcome within two years of signing the grant agreement. That’s a binding condition, not a nice-to-have.
Worth it if archives are already your material and the ECF’s own story gives you something to work with.
11. Tokyo Biennale, “Social Dive”
Site-responsive proposals, “From Me to Us” Costs covered, small honorarium
Closes Wednesday 30 September, 3.59pm here (23.59 JST).
You get a ¥100,000 honorarium, about £500, return travel to Tokyo up to ¥300,000, about £1,500, for one person only, accommodation in Tokyo, a project development budget capped at ¥200,000, about £1,000, plus interpretation and translation support and an invitation letter.
You need a proposal for one of eleven designated Tokyo sites, from temples and business districts to Ueno Station and Akihabara. Open to artists, curators, researchers and collectives, 18 or over, with no nationality or residence rules. One proposal per applicant, in English or Japanese.
Be aware of the timeline. Despite the name, the presentation period runs roughly 45 days between October and December 2028, and you must commit to a minimum one-month stay including the opening, on top of research visits and preparation beforehand.
Also note that by applying you agree your proposal may be published even if it isn’t selected, once it clears the first screening.
Worth it for the biennale line on your CV and the covered costs, but go in clear-eyed: £500 and a £1,000 budget against a month in Tokyo and two years of commitment.
12. The Tom Stoddart Award for Excellence, with GOST Books
Long-form documentary photography A published book and £5,000
Closes Wednesday 30 September. The entry page displays 10.59pm, which appears to be UTC, so 11.59pm here. File the day before rather than test it.
You get a photobook produced by GOST Books, clothbound hardback and distributed worldwide, edited alongside GOST’s director Stu Smith. Plus £5,000 towards expenses, a trip to Verona to see the proofs and check them, publicity through The Guardian as media partner, and a run across the award’s own channels.
You need a long-form documentary project that is nearing completion and substantial enough to carry a book. 18 or over. Submit up to 40 representative images, a short biography and a concise project synopsis. No AI-generated imagery.
Fee £50 per entry.
Worth it if you have a body of work sitting unpublished. This is one of very few open calls where the prize is a real trade book rather than a group show, and the Guardian tie-in is worth as much as the money. Run by the Ian Parry Photography Grant, with Don McCullin as patron emeritus.
13. Hayama Artist Residency, Japan
June 2027 Costs covered
Closes Wednesday 30 September, 11.59pm US Eastern, which is 4.59am on 1 October here.
You get a return flight to Narita or Haneda, a private bedroom in shared accommodation at Hôtel ami hayama for four weeks, 1 to 30 June 2027, and $800 for meals and local transport. Staff meet you at the airport.
You need to be a visual artist over 21, anywhere in the world, any medium. Applications in English only, via Submittable, and you can’t edit once submitted. Up to ten work samples.
Fee $95 for first-time applicants, waived if you apply again the following year after missing out.
Be aware they provide no art materials, you buy your own food from the $800, and visas are entirely your responsibility. No partners, family or pets.
Worth it for the flights, which almost nobody else here pays for. The distinctive thing is that you are not required to make any work at all: they recommend rest, research and reflection. If that’s what you need, nothing else on this list offers it.
14. The Supporting Act Foundation
Artist Grant 2026 Unrestricted cash, no travel required
Closes Thursday 1 October, 10am here (11.00 CET). A morning deadline, so this one is effectively 30 September for practical purposes.
You get one of ten unrestricted grants of EUR 10,000, paid as EUR 1,000 a month across the year. No restrictions on how you spend it, though it’s intended for living costs and artistic development. Grantees also join a network with online events, workshops and peer exchange.
You need to identify as an emerging artist with between two and ten years of professional experience, be at least 21, and have a practice involving collaborative or community-focused creative processes. You must identify as belonging to one or more underrepresented groups, or as someone facing systemic barriers to equal opportunities in the arts. You must be based in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain or the UK, and hold an IBAN bank account in one of those countries.
Worth it as the rare grant that funds your life rather than a project. Monthly instalments rather than a lump sum is the point: it buys twelve months of not panicking. Free to apply.
15. Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
Grants for artists The biggest sum here, and no deadline
No deadline. Applications are open year-round on a rolling basis. Expect the review to take nine to twelve months, so apply now and forget about it.
You get an unrestricted grant of up to $50,000, though most land around $35,000, intended to cover a year. The amount is set by your circumstances, and you state what you’re asking for and why in a one-page cover letter.
You need to work primarily in painting, sculpture or works on paper including printmaking, and to have a minimum of ten exhibitions in the past ten years at professional galleries, museums or recognised exhibition spaces, while actively exhibiting now. That is the hard bar.
Not eligible: students, and anyone working primarily in photography, video or film, performance, graphic or commercial art, illustration, craft, or generative and AI-generated work. Craft here means functional objects: jewellery, clothing, pottery, furniture. A small video or photographic component within a painting or sculpture is fine.
Be aware the application is exacting and will be disqualified for getting the details wrong. Ten JPEGs at exactly 2100 pixels on the longest side, named to their format, a matching image list, an artist statement, a CV with solo and group shows separated, and three professional references. Two-person collaborations only. One application every 24 months, and if you’re declined you wait two years.
Worth it as the largest unrestricted sum available to a painter or sculptor anywhere on this list, decided on merit rather than need, with grantees in more than 80 countries. Free to apply. If you clear the ten-exhibition bar, there is no reason not to.
Cheers me dears,
SLART