Terra Foundation Convening Grants support programs that stimulate interdisciplinary and intercultural exchange through conferences, workshops, and gatherings worldwide.

Convening Grants

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.

Open

Convening Grant Deadlines

For programs taking place after May 1, 2026.
Inquiry Due September 29, 2025
Proposal Due December 1, 2025
Grant Range $10K–$25K
For programs taking place after October 1, 2026.
Inquiry Due February 16, 2026
Proposal Due April 24, 2026
Grant Range $10K–$25K

Convening Grants

We encourage convenings that seek to generate knowledge and nurture relationships across local and global networks, in service of broader efforts to engage in intercultural dialogues and transform practices in the field of American art. We welcome requests to support convenings at any stage of a project—whether in early planning or more developed phases. In-person, virtual, and hybrid formats are eligible for funding.

  • Convening grants typically range between $10,000 and $25,000.
  • Grant support through this program is awarded twice yearly.

Grant Overview

Convenings are powerful tools for fostering intercultural exchange and transformative dialogue. Such gatherings bring together multiple perspectives to produce expanded understandings of American art and how it is practiced, while developing shared commitment and mutual accountability to practice change.

Convening grant support is available for programs that:

  • advance innovative research and professional practice in American art
  • address critical issues that may deepen and expand the stories and voices within the field

Projects focused on influencing changes in practice should demonstrate a strong engagement with the field of American art.

For convenings connected to permanent collection reinstallations or temporary exhibitions, please see our Collections Grant program and Exhibition Grant program.

Introduction

Convenings are powerful tools for fostering intercultural exchange and transformative dialogue. Such gatherings bring together multiple perspectives to produce expanded understandings of American art and how it is practiced, while developing shared commitment and mutual accountability to practice change.

Convening grant support is available for programs that:

  • advance innovative research and professional practice in American art
  • address critical issues that may deepen and expand the stories and voices within the field

Projects focused on influencing changes in practice should demonstrate a strong engagement with the field of American art.

For convenings connected to permanent collection reinstallations or temporary exhibitions, please see our Collections Grant program and Exhibition Grant program.

What We Fund

Up to $5,000 of an awarded grant may be used for resulting proceedings or publications, whether online or in print; funds for this purpose need to be spent within one year of the event.

Up to 20% of a Terra Foundation grant may offset direct administrative costs, and up to 15% of a grant may be applied to indirect costs.

The Terra Foundation prefers not to be the sole outside contributor to an event.

Foundation Priorities

The Terra Foundation supports projects that engage the visual arts of the United States and Indigenous art of North America, while questioning and broadening understandings of American art and transforming how its stories are told.

We encourage projects that:

  • collectively reflect the full breadth and complexity of American art and its histories through the artists represented, voices included, and stories told
  • engage artists, scholars, and communities who present a plurality of perspectives and methods, including intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches
  • catalyze inclusive and expansive practices in the field of American art

Eligibility

All applicants must hold United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status or the international equivalent. Grants are not made to individuals.

This program is open to organizations within and outside of the United States. Convenings held in person, virtually, or in hybrid formats are eligible for support.

While the foundation welcomes requests from previous grantees, please note that we aim to fund a range of organizations over time.

These programs are intended for scholarly, professional, and public audiences. Programs designed primarily for the general public, travel grants, fellowship programs, research databases, alumni gatherings, and capital expenditures are not eligible for funding through this program.

How to Apply

Grant Inquiry Form
Use the Apply Now buttons to submit a grant inquiry form by the deadline listed on this page. After reviewing the inquiry, the foundation may invite you to submit a grant proposal.

Grant Proposal
If invited, prospective applicants submit a grant proposal. Formal proposals and all attachments must be written in English. Grant proposals are reviewed by an external panel made up of curators and other arts professionals who reflect a diverse range of backgrounds, perspectives, and approaches.

Contact Us

If you have questions about Convening Grants, please email Lucy Pike, Program Associate, Convening Grants and Initiatives, at [email protected].

Inquiry and Proposal Forms

The application process asks applicants to clearly and concisely describe their project’s intended impact and outcomes, as well as explain how grant funds will supplement existing resources to achieve institutional goals. Please refer to the blank forms provided and reach out with any questions.

Grant Resources

Grant Resources

For more information on timelines, how to apply, eligibility, and other common questions, please review our Applicant Resources.

Current grantees, please visit Grantee Resources for information about creating and managing a grant, as well as crediting guidelines.

Supported Convening Projects

Previous Award Cycle

  • $25,000 median grant
  • 14 grants
  • $325,000 awarded

Words for our grantees

Networks of Survival, Ecologies of Flourishing gathers artists and researchers to workshop critical and creative projects in progress relating to themes of creative social survival and ecological sustainability in a time of global and planetary crisis … By forging transnational connections between Filipinx and Philippine artists and local environmental advocacies, it will strengthen the Alfredo F. Tadiar Library’s emerging role as a progressive force for shaping new cultural ecologies.

Recent Convening Grants

View the database to learn more about previous Convening projects.

Additional Grant Opportunities

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

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

Stories and News

Grants Awarded

Collections Grants

Grants Awarded Spring 2025

Read

An image of a group of people sitting on stage.

From left to right, moderator Zada Ballew, Christine Rapp-Morseau, Jason Wesaw and David Martin share their experiences with expressing their Potawatomi culture through art. Photo by Aynslee Dellacca / The Observer.

A photograph looking down toward an auditorium stage on which seven people are seated. One person on the stage holds a microphone and addresses the room.

Musées partagés octobre 2022. Photo Anne Volery © Palais de la Porte Dorée