Grants & Fellowship Opportunities

$100,000 - $200,000

Smart Museum of Art
$110,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support Ruth Duckworth: Life as a Unity (September 2023–January 2024), an exhibition that explores the art and influences of Ruth Duckworth and features 50 sculptures she created in Chicago, repositioning Duckworth as a pioneering modernist deeply engaged with the natural world. The grant request includes support for an engagement fellow, who leads an outreach project co-developed with teaching artists and teens involved in the museum’s Smart Teens program. The project is part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

Museum of Contemporary Art
$125,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support Entre Horizontes: Art & Activism Between Chicago and Puerto Rico (August 2023–May 2024), an interdisciplinary exhibition that examines the affinities and relationships between the social-justice and anticolonial movements and artistic production of the Puerto Rican diaspora from 1960s to present. The grant request includes support for an engagement fellow, who facilitates programs developed for and with the Puerto Rican community. The project is part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

Hyde Park Art Center
$102,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support The United Colors of Robert Paige (April–August 2024), a 50-year retrospective exhibition of works in multiple media by Robert Paige, an artist/designer perhaps best known for his textile designs. The grant supports an engagement fellow, who leads a curriculum-development project and programs connected to the exhibition. The project is part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

Floating Museum
$110,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support Floating Monuments: Mecca Flats, a large-scale inflatable public work of art that references a historic building called Mecca Flats (no longer extant) on Chicago’s South Side that was significant to the city’s cultural and social history. The movable structure, installed in several Chicago parks sites in 2024, is accompanied by programs that celebrates the arts and artists associated with the Mecca Flats and Chicago’s Black Renaissance while at the same time addressing the legacy of displacement and disinvestment in several of the city’s neighborhoods. The project takes place as part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago.

Center for Native Futures
$150,000
Chicago, Illinois
2023

To support a series of activities, starting in summer 2023 through 2024, to inaugurate the center’s new gallery and workshop space in the Marquette Building in downtown Chicago. The activities that are part of the Terra Foundation initiative Art Design Chicago include an inaugural exhibition (September 2023–April 2024) showcasing art and poetry by the center’s six co-founders; a second exhibition (June–December 2024) featuring work by artists with ties to the Great Lakes region; public programs comprising artist talks, studio tours, and workshops; and the second biannual Mounds Summit (December 2023).  

El Museo del Barrio
$150,000
New York, New York
2023

To support IDENTITY REIMAGINED: Reframing La Colección at El Museo del Barrio. The year-long temporary exhibition focuses on El Museo del Barrio’s permanent collection. The exhibition’s narrative follows six main thematic groupings: Urban Experiences, Expanded Graphics, Indigenous and African Heritages, Crafts Intersection, Women Artists, and Representing Latinx. Such groupings were the subject of a series of interdisciplinary discussions held in the spring of 2022 with the support of the Terra Foundation. A publication accompanies the exhibition.

Brooklyn Museum
$150,000
Brooklyn, New York
2023

To support American Art at the Brooklyn Museum (working title) at the Brooklyn Museum. This exhibition is a critical reinstallation of the American galleries at the Brooklyn Museum. The reinstallation works to disrupt traditional approaches to collection display while charting a new landscape of possibility for collections of American art in the future. Managed by Stephanie Sparling Williams, the Andrew W. Mellon Curator of American Art, this project foregrounds Black Feminist approaches to institutional critique and inclusive space-making. A collection catalogue accompanies the exhibition.

Weisman Art Museum of the University of Minnesota
$100,000
Minneapolis, MN
2022

To support The Big River Continuum at the Weisman Art Museum. Karen Goulet (Anishinaabe, White Earth) and Monique Verdin (Houma) present the culmination of five years of collaborative work on the importance of preserving Indigenous ecological knowledge and traditions relating to the Mississippi. The exhibition is guest curated by Rebecca Dallinger (residing at White Earth Reservation).  

Palace of the Governors, The New Mexico History Museum
$148,000
Santa Fe, NM
2022

To support To Keep Them Warm: The Alaska Native Parka at the Museum of International Folk Art. The exhibition explores the art of the parka, a garment made for survival in the harsh environments where Alaska Native peoples live and thrive. The exhibition examines the continuum of Indigenous parka-making, with examples from Yup’ik, Iñupiaq, Unangan, Dena’ina Athabascan, and St. Lawrence Island Yup’ik cultures. A scholarly catalogue accompanies the exhibition. 

Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture
$100,000
Spokane, WA
2022

To support Joe Feddersen: Earth, Water, Sky (working title) at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the High Desert Museum. This major retrospective exhibition spans the breadth of Feddersen’s oeuvre (85–100 works) in several media, including printmaking, glass, weaving, and ceramics. A scholarly catalogue accompanies the exhibition. 

Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library
$200,000
Winterthur, DE
2022

To support Ann Lowe: American Couturier at the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library. The exhibition, the largest of Lowe’s work to date, draws from institutions and private collections across the country to position her influence within American fashion. This exhibition illuminates Lowe as a significant American designer and reinstates her contributions to fashion history. The exhibition is accompanied by a book, published by Rizzoli New York. 

Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery
$200,000
Washington, D.C
2022

To support The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The exhibition illuminates the influence of sculpture on the visualization and understanding of race and racial differences, positioning the medium as an underutilized resource for the study of changing racial attitudes in the United States from 1848 to the present. With a goal of promoting racial justice, this exhibition aims to spark conversation about the enduring power of American sculpture in the making of race, and it challenges the racist hierarchies often embodied in works of sculpture. A robust catalogue accompanies the exhibition.