Terra Foundation for American Art – The Terra Foundation fosters intercultural dialogues and encourages transformative practices to expand narratives of American art.

Jessica Winters, born in Makkovik, Nunatsiavut, Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1996, Lichen (Hopedale 1), 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 91,5 x 91,5 cm, MMFA, purchase, the Paradis family fund in memory of Claude Paradis, Photo MMFA.

Chicago Grants Awarded Summer 2024

Andrea Carlson, Perpetual Genre, 2024. Oil, acrylic, gouache, ink, color pencil, and graphite on paper; overall: 45.5 × 61 in. (115.6 × 154.9 cm). Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Block Board of Advisors Endowment Fund purchase, 2024.2a-d. © Andrea Carlson. Courtesy of the artist and Bockley Gallery.

Art Design Chicago

Lala Rukh, Untitled, circa 1976 (MFA Graduation artwork, University of Chicago). Collection of Seemin Khan. Photo by A. Moratinos.

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The Terra Foundation fosters intercultural dialogues and encourages transformative practices to expand narratives of American art.

Our grant program, art collection, and initiatives support visual art projects engaged in reshaping how the story of American art is told.

Grant & Fellowship Opportunities

Announcements & Deadlines

Convening Grants: Letters of Inquiry Due February 17, 2025

Grant support is available for programs that foster exchange and collaboration, such as workshops, symposia, and colloquia.
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Exhibition Grants: Letters of Inquiry Due March 7, 2025

Grant support is available for organizations to plan and present temporary exhibitions comprised primarily of loans.
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Terra Foundation Collection

The Terra Foundation collection of American art includes over 750 paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and sculptures by 242 artists.

Frederic Edwin Church, The Iceberg, 1875

Impressionist painting of a street scene in Paris. Two individuals and a dog are in the foreground, and a domed building is in the background. The sky is gray and cloudy.

Henry Ossawa Tanner, Les Invalides, Paris, 1896

Isabel Bishop, Noon Hour, 1935

Painting of an Laotian boy wearing a red shirt.

Jamie Wyeth, Kalounna in Frogtown, 1986

Painting of letters, newspapers, notebook, a feather, stamp, and other memorabilia held to a brown bulletin board by pinned, thin red tape.

John Frederick Peto, Old Time Letter Rack, 1894

Painting of a telephone wires above a house.

Joseph Stella, Telegraph Poles with Buildings, 1917

Painting of a white woman wearing a pink shirt with a black tie.

Lilla Cabot Perry, Self Portrait, 1889–96

Painting of a boy and a cow, with buildings in the background and a black sky.

Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Boy with Cow, 1921

View the Collection Loans

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News

From left to right: Stephanie Harris; Amina Dickerson; Ric Estrada.

Terra Foundation Adds Ricardo Estrada to Board of Directors, Stephanie Harris Elected Chair, Amina Dickerson Elected Vice Chair

December 4, 2023

A group of people looking at a painting on a wall as they walk by at an exhibition.

Terra Foundation Launches Art Design Chicago: A Citywide Event And Exhibition Series

November 3, 2023

Headshots, clockwise from top left, of Kaywin Feldman, Henry P. Johnson, Catherine Sarr, Victoria Rogers

Grants Awarded Summer 2024

Chicago Grants Awarded Summer 2024

Art Design Chicago

The Terra Foundation fosters intercultural dialogues and encourages transformative practices to expand narratives of American art.

Announcements & Deadlines

Convening Grants: Letters of Inquiry Due February 17, 2025

Exhibition Grants: Letters of Inquiry Due March 7, 2025

Terra Foundation Collection

Stay connected

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News

Terra Foundation Adds Ricardo Estrada to Board of Directors, Stephanie Harris Elected Chair, Amina Dickerson Elected Vice Chair

December 4, 2023

Terra Foundation Launches Art Design Chicago: A Citywide Event And Exhibition Series

November 3, 2023

Terra Foundation adds Kaywin Feldman, Henry P. Johnson, Victoria Rogers, and Catherine Sarr to Board of Directors

May 3, 2023