Criteria & eligibility
RESEARCH GRANTS
Eligibility and Requirements:
- Applicants must live within the greater Washington area either in DC, Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Montgomery, or Prince George’s counties.
- Applicants must be visual artists, or artists with a history of presenting their work in visual arts contexts/venues (performance, film, text, and sound artists are eligible if their work explicitly engages visual arts discourses).
- Artists can choose to apply for either a Research Grant or Project Grant (not both) depending on which best supports your practice at this time.
- If you are applying as a collective, one person must serve as the Lead Applicant/point person and be responsible for the receipt, management, and distribution of the funds, handle all communications with WPA, and be responsible for grant reporting.
- A minimum of $3,500 of the grant should be set aside as compensation for the time you will spend on research and development (reading, writing, communicating with other artists and/or scholars).
- The remaining $1,500 can be used to pay collaborators or thinking partners and for other research-related expenses (travel, book, or journal purchases, workshops and classes, photocopying from archives, subscriptions, etc.).
- Grants can be used to support new or ongoing research.
- WPA asks that grantees prepare a public-facing presentation of their research to be given in the summer 2023, more information will be provided upon award.
- The remaining $1,500 can be used to pay collaborators or thinking partners and for other research-related expenses (travel, book, or journal purchases, workshops and classes, photocopying from archives, subscriptions, etc.).
- Grants can be used to support new or ongoing research.
Ineligible:
- Full-time undergraduate or graduate student
- 501(c)(3) organizations and for-profit organizations (LLC, corporations, partnerships, etc.)
- Research for already-scheduled exhibitions, performances, or presentations at 501(c)(3) organizations and for-profit organizations
Evaluative Criteria:
Successful applicants will excel in one or more of the following:
- Artistic Impact: The inquiry is experimental, imaginative, innovative, or unconventional, and furthers the applicant's practice in meaningful ways
- Context/Relevance: The research is considerate of its context; it engages with other artists/thinkers in relevant discourses
- Feasibility: The applicant demonstrates the ability to carry out the proposed research within the grant period
PROJECT GRANTS
Eligibility and Requirements:
- Applicants must live within the greater Washington area either in DC, Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Montgomery, or Prince George’s counties.
- Applicants must be visual artists, or artists with a history of presenting their work in visual arts contexts/venues (performance, film, text, and sound artists are eligible if their work explicitly engages visual arts discourses).
- Projects must be shared publicly during the grant period. These public presentations can take a variety of forms, including but not limited to: in-person or virtual events, exhibitions, performances, publications, interventions, screenings, readings, round-table discussions, installations, lecture series, curated dinners, festivals, and walking tours.
- The project, as described, should have a clear beginning and end date, either or both of which can fall outside of the grant period.
- Projects must take place in DC or in the eligible surrounding counties (Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Montgomery, or Prince George’s counties), or take place virtually.
- Grantees are responsible for organizing and managing their projects as well as finding sites and venues.
- If you are applying as a collective, one person must serve as the Lead Applicant/point person of the project and be responsible for the receipt, management, and distribution of the funds, handle all communications with WPA, and complete grant reporting.
- This $5,000 grant can be used to pay for your time and that of your collaborators, production, and material costs, etc. It can entirely fund a small-scale project or event, or contribute to the funding of a larger project with multiple sources of funding.
- Grantees are required to submit a final report on outcomes and reflections at the end of the grant period.
Ineligible:
- Full-time undergraduate or graduate students
- 501(c)(3) organizations and for-profit organizations (LLC, corporations, partnerships, etc.)
- Projects that will take place in/at 501(c)(3) art organizations or for-profit art organizations (LLC, corporations, partnerships, etc.)
Evaluative Criteria:
Successful applicants will excel in one or more of the following:
- Artistic Impact: The project has a core idea/inquiry/theme and its presentation is experimental, imaginative, innovative, and/or unconventional, and furthers the applicant's practice in meaningful ways
- Context/Relevance: The project ideas are considerate of their context and the project engages artists/thinkers and audiences in relevant discourses and meaningful ways
- Collaboration: The project engages multiple artists and thinkers in the development and presentation processes
- Feasibility: The applicant demonstrates the ability to carry out the proposed research within the grant period
- Accessibility: The applicant has a robust plan to ensure the project is publicly accessible
- Budget: The budget is reflective of the scope of the proposed project
Key dates and contact
2023 GRANT CYCLE
Virtual Information Session: Thursday, October 27 from 6:30–7:15 pm
Office Hours: October 25–November 9
Application Deadline: Monday, November 14, 2022 at 11:59 pm EST
Independent panel convenes: early December 2022
Notifications: mid-December 2022
Grant Period: January–December 2023
Research Grant In-Process Presentations: Summer 2023
QUESTIONS?
Contact Regrants Manager Nathalie von Veh at nvonveh@wpadc.org or follow @wherewithalgrants on Instagram
Apply now
2024 Grant Cycle
Applications will open for the 2024 funding cycle on Monday, September 25, 2023.
2023 GRANT CYCLE
The application portal is now closed. Applications will be reviewed by an independent panel of artists and arts professionals with up to 12 grants awarded. Notifications will be sent to applicants in mid-December. The grant period is from January–December 2023.
RESEARCH GRANTS
Research Grant funds compensate you for your intellectual labor and idea development, to pay other artists and thinkers for their time and contributions, and for other research-related expenses.
PROJECT GRANTS
Project Grant funds support ongoing or new artist-organized projects that are presented publicly either in unconventional or D.I.Y. artist-run spaces in the DC-area or virtually during the grant period. Projects cannot take place in established commercial galleries, museums, or non-profit art spaces.
QUESTIONS?
Please email Regrants Manager Nathalie von Veh at nvonveh@wpadc.org.
For updates, follow @wherewithalgrants on Instagram and sign up for WPA's newsletter here.
Wherewithal Grants
Wherewithal Grants are a funding source for artists in the DC-area. Generously funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts as part of its Regional Regranting Program and managed by Washington Project for the Arts, these grants are intended to support a wide range of experimental and multidisciplinary practices, particularly those that emphasize collaboration and discourse. Since launching in 2019, Wherewithal Grants has supported 136 visual artists with a total of $280,000 in grants.
2024 Grant Cycle
Applications will open for the 2024 funding cycle on Monday, September 25, 2023.
2023 Grant Cycle
On February 16, 2023, we announced the 12 grant recipients for the 2023 funding cycle. Each artist or artist collective will receive $5,000 for either a project or research.
The recipients of Research Grants are: Ama BE, Alina Collins Maldonado, Andy Johnson, Cecilia Kim, Stephanie Mercedes, Athena Naylor, and Anisa Olufemi & Jada-Amina.
The recipients of Project Grants are: Niki Afsar, Safiyah Cheatam & Hope Willis, Neha Misra & Fid Thompson, Mojdeh Rezaeipour, and The Shmutzik Shmates.
Over the next year, these artists will organize projects and conduct research around fascinating and timely topics such as Black gospel tradition in DC and Chicago, practices of care, futurity, invisible transnational labor, eco-art, and the women-led Iranian revolution.
An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 124 applications and recommended the final twelve for funding. The panelists were Fabiola R. Delgado, Experience Developer, Anacostia Community Museum (Washington, DC); Curry Hackett, Artist & Educator (Washington, DC); Thomas F. James, Executive Director, The Last Resort Artist Retreat (Baltimore, MD); and Taylor Roberts, Special Projects & Research Manager, 3Arts (Chicago, IL).
For updates, follow @wherewithalgrants on Instagram and sign up for WPA's newsletter here.
Washington Project for the Arts (WPA)
Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) is a platform for collaborative and experimental artist-organized projects, dialogue, and advocacy. Artists curate and organize all of their programming—as an extension of the artist's research. Projects can take many forms, from conversational dinners, exhibitions, field trips, film screenings, grass-roots organizing meetings, performances, publications, symposia, and more. Wherewithal Grants furthers WPA’s commitment to supporting artist-organized culture.
The Andy Warhol Foundation
Established in 1987 in accordance with Andy Warhol’s will, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ mission is the advancement of the visual arts. The primary focus of its grant making activity is to support the creation, presentation, and documentation of contemporary visual art, particularly work that is experimental, under-recognized, or challenging in nature.
The foundation’s Regional Regranting Program, launched in 2007, aims to support vibrant, under-the-radar artistic activity by partnering with leading cultural institutions in communities across the country. The program allows the Warhol Foundation to reach the sizable population of informal, non-incorporated artist collectives and to support their alternative gathering spaces, publications, websites, events and other projects.
The regranting programs are facilitated by 516 Arts in Albuquerque; Baltimore Arts Realty Corporation in Baltimore; Gallery 400 and Three Walls in Chicago; DiverseWorks, Aurora Picture Show, and Project Row Houses in Houston; Charlotte Street Foundation and Spencer Museum in Kansas City; Locust Projects in Miami; Midway Contemporary Art in Minneapolis; Antenna and Ashe’ Cultural Fund in New Orleans; Portland Institute of Contemporary Art in Portland (OR); Spaces Gallery in Portland (ME), Southern Exposure in San Francisco, and Washington Project for the Arts in Washington, DC.