Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grants

Overview

Emergency Grants provide urgent, project-based funding for visual and performing artists and poets with sudden, unanticipated opportunities to present their work to the public when there is insufficient time to seek other sources of funding, or who incur unexpected or unbudgeted expenses for projects close to completion with committed exhibition or performance dates.

Who Can Apply

• Individual artists or artists representing collectives living in the United States or U.S. territories
• Must have U.S. Tax ID Number (SSN, EIN, ITIN, or other)
• Must have committed performance or exhibition opportunities with specific dates at time of application
• Not enrolled in any degree-granting program (high school, undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral)
• Work must be innovative and experimental, pushing against or expanding upon established artistic practices, or subverting mainstream norms, narratives, or aesthetics

Project Eligibility

• Ineligible: work-in-progress or informal showings
• Ineligible: projects presented by commercial galleries or art fairs
• Ineligible: youth or educational programming
• Ineligible: professional trainings, workshops, lectures, symposiums, conferences, or competitions
• Ineligible: production/publishing of CDs, albums, music videos, or books

Eligible Expenses

• Ineligible: non-project-related life expenses (food, rent, medical bills, childcare, other basic necessities)
• Ineligible: expenses paid prior to submission
• Ineligible: residency program fees or educational program living expenses
• Ineligible: deposits and registration fees for exhibition, fair, or other presentation opportunities
• Ineligible: exhibitions or fairs requiring artist payment to participate

Award

• Grant amounts: $500 to $3,000
• Average grant: $2,200
• Approximately 15-20 grants awarded each month
• Recipients may receive full or partial funding of requested amount

Application Timeline

• Apply 8-10 weeks (no earlier than 10 weeks) before project's public presentation date
• FCA will review applications with shorter timelines, but applications received less than 6 weeks in advance may not receive a response until the project is underway
• Must wait 3 years (36 months) after Emergency Grant, Creative Research Grant, or Grants to Artists award before reapplying (does not apply to relief grants)

Process

FCA receives approximately 100 Emergency Grant applications per month. Staff members and panelists review work samples, project description, explanation of experimental nature, venue history, and artist's community context to determine if work aligns with FCA's mission of supporting experimental, contemporary work.

Supported By

The 2025 Emergency Grants are supported in part by grants from The Amphion Foundation; Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation; The Aaron Copland Fund for Music; The Cowles Charitable Trust; Mertz Gilmore Foundation; The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation; Jerome Foundation; Louisa Stude Sarofim/The Brown Foundation of Houston, Inc.; Trust for Mutual Understanding; individual supporters; a bequest from the estate of Margo Leavin; and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.