The Terra Foundation for American Art fosters intercultural dialogues and encourages transformative practices through grants and collection loans to cultural institutions worldwide.

Supported Projects

Transformative Practices

Transformative Practices

First Americans Museum is creating object-family reunions that provide deeper knowledge about the objects within the national collection, challenging the idea that institutionally collected objects no longer have familial ties to cultural communities.

A picture of three people looking at a breechcloth on a table.

Big Soldier family (Iowa Tribe) reunited with their grandfather’s breechcloth at First Americans Museum, 2023 [NMAI 027462.000]. Photo by James Pepper Henry.

Partnership and Collaboration

Partnership and Collaboration

We collaborate with partners to identify collection objects for loan that amplify their institution’s permanent collections and invite opportunities for new narratives, voices, and practices.

A group of people in an art gallery with a person in a blue shirt leading a discussion.

Gallery Talk led by Dr. Kimia Shahi, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California and 2022-23 Fellow at the Center for the Environment, Harvard University, at the Harvard Art Museums featuring Samuel Coleman's Ships Unloading, New York (1868), on loan from the Terra Foundation for American Art. May 3, 2023. Image courtesy of the Harvard Art Museums; © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Intercultural Dialogues

Intercultural Dialogues

New Art School Modality envisions an alternative model for art and art historical research and teaching, while solidifying a global, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational forum.

A group of people is seated around a long table with a screen at showing many people on a video call.

New Art School Modality module Arts Writing / Writing About Art, 2024

Annual Grant Programs

Two people looking at a painting on a well, with a sculpture to their left.

The Stories We Carry, collection reinstallation, Seattle Museum of Art, copyright: Chloe Collyer

Grants

Open

Collections Grants

Open to organizations working to re-interpret and re-present their permanent collections through re-installation or temporary exhibitions. Includes research and planning support.

Inquiry Due August 4, 2025
Proposal Due October 6, 2025
Grant Range $25K–$100K

Grant Guidelines

Person seated in a crowd asking a question into a microphone.

“How can we gather now?,” March 31–April 2, 2023, produced by Washington Project for the Arts, co-directed by Asad Raza & Prem Krishnamurthy, symposium attendee Anisa Olufemi asks a question during Stefanie Hessler’s keynote lecture, photo by McKenzie Grant-Gordon courtesy of Washington Project for the Arts.

Grants

Open

Convening Grants

Support for conferences, workshops, and gatherings that stimulate interdisciplinary and intercultural exchange, and nurture relationships across networks.

Inquiry Due September 29, 2025
Proposal Due December 1, 2025
Grant Range $10K–$25K

Grant Guidelines

Gallery installation with people viewing art.

Installation view of Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946–1962. Photo: David Heald. Courtesy Grey Art Museum, New York University

Grants

Closed

Exhibition Grants

Support for organizations planning and presenting temporary loan exhibitions. Includes research and planning support.

Inquiry Due March 6, 2026
Proposal Due May 15, 2026
Grant Range $25K–$200K

Grant Guidelines

American Art, Global Dialogues

The Terra Foundation Art Collection includes more than 750 artworks spanning 200 years, available for short- and long-term loans through innovative object sharing programs.

Quotation

It is important that our work encourages telling stories reflective of the multivocality and complexity of American art history.

Sharon CorwinTerra Foundation President and CEO

Terra Foundation Library for American Art

Sharing Histories, Connecting Cultures

Sharing Histories, Connecting Cultures

The Terra Foundation Library for American Art includes more than 12,000 books and catalogues on American art and culture, available for onsite consultation in our reading room in Paris.

A person standing in front of shelves of books.

The Terra Foundation Library for American Art is a non-circulating research library located in Paris, France, and open to the public.

Stories and News

Grants Awarded

Collections Grants

Grants Awarded Spring 2025

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An image of a girl in red dress. A dog is laying on the ground at her feet.

Ammi Phillips Girl in a Red Dress, c. 1835. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1992.57

Partner Stories

Terra Collection-in-Residence

Terra Collection-in-Residence: Ackland Art Museum’s Triple Take

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