Rocket Grants
VISION:
With support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Charlotte Street Foundation and the Spencer Museum of Art have partnered to fuel the dynamism of our region’s art ecology by providing direct support for innovative, experimental, artist-driven, and artist-centered projects. Rocket Grants fund projects that exist outside of established institutions, occur outside of traditional forms of support, challenge traditional methods of production or presentation, add energy and diversity to the field of arts activity in our area, and provide opportunities for the creative growth of those involved. Elevating the presence of unconventional or under-recognized art forms is a strong priority for this grant program.
Rocket Grants are intended to enable individuals and groups of artists to take new risks with their work, push the scope and scale of their activities, develop and pursue collaborative projects, and/or engage with the public and public realm in inventive and meaningful ways. In doing so, these Rocket Grants seek to create ripple effects, as artists, processes, and supported projects engage, inspire, and propel other artists; spark new ideas and ways of working; and contribute to a regional culture characterized by unconventional and expansive forms of interaction, exchange, provocation, and surprise.
ELIGIBILITY:
Artists, curators, collectives, collaboratives, partnerships, and artist-run spaces residing within an 80-mile radius of the Kansas City metropolitan area, including Lawrence, Kansas, are eligible to apply. If applying as a group, the artistic group can be long-standing or created specifically for this project. Please identify one participant to serve as the lead contact for the project. Non-profit organizations, current students or recent undergraduate students are NOT eligible, and artists may not receive a Rocket Grants award for two years in a row.
DESCRIPTION:
Rocket Grants are annually providing $40,000 in cash awards of up to $4,000 each to area artists, curators, and writers, as individuals and groups, to support the creation and presentation of new work/projects. Supported projects may include visual art, performance, programming, publications, video, new media, social practice and interdisciplinary projects. Performing artists and writers are eligible to apply if their work includes a strong visual component or involves meaningful collaboration with a visual artist or artists.
Projects must have a public life – i.e., they must engage and be made accessible to the public via process, presentation, production, or publication. Manifestations may include exhibitions, public art projects, public programs, events, performances, screenings, online projects, publications, residencies, programming of artist-run spaces, etc. Support for curatorial and publication projects will be for original projects involving significant collaboration with artist(s) from the geographic region and substantially contributing to this region’s contemporary art and cultural discourse. Projects that will reach or connect artists and/or communities from different parts of the region (i.e. Kansas City and Lawrence) are encouraged.
Venues for all projects must be outside of traditional or established art galleries, districts, studios, theaters or museums, and spaces run by either of the partnering institutions may specifically not be used.
To find out more information about this opportunity, please visit the Rocketblog, and be sure to download the complete Application Guide for a full description of funding priorities, eligibility, and the application process.
Oversight + Administration:
David Hughes, Founder/Co-Director, Charlotte Street Foundation
Kate Hackman, Co-Director, Charlotte Street Foundation
Raechell Smith, Charlotte Street Foundation Board of Directors
Saralyn Reece Hardy, Director, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas
Julia Cole, Rocket Grants Program Coordinator, julia@charlottestreet.org
