Grant Programs

Emergency Grants is the only program that accepts applications. FCA does not consider requests for funding outside of program guidelines. Unsolicited submissions of work samples or other materials will not be returned. Thank you for understanding.

Since the Foundation's inception, more than 3,000 grants awarded to artists and arts organizations—totaling over $13 million—have provided opportunities for creative exploration and development. FCA supports individual artists and collectives working in dance, music/sound, performance art/theater, poetry, and the visual arts through ten grant programs: Grants to Artists, the John Cage Award, the Merce Cunningham Award, the Ellsworth Kelly Award, the Roy Lichtenstein Award, the Robert Rauschenberg Award, the Dorothea Tanning Award, the Cy Twombly Award for Poetry, the C.D. Wright Award for Poetry, and Emergency Grants.

Foundation for Contemporary Arts distributed $1,010,000 in 2017. Seventeen Grants to Artists of $40,000 each, including the Merce Cunningham Award, Robert Rauschenberg Award, and Dorothea Tanning Award, were made—a total of $680,000. In addition, a $40,000 Ellsworth Kelly Award was made; $250,000 was disbursed for 166 Emergency Grants; and $40,000 was awarded in Contemporary Visual Arts Scholarships.