The Best Grants Available for Young Artists

In the cutthroat art world, subsistence generated by one’s work is often the ultimate goal of the young artist. Of course, that entry into a broader, financially supportive sphere can be a tough slog—generating an audience is one thing, generating revenue entirely another. And yet artists somewhat consistently overlook the possibility of endowment to further their work, considering the marketplace the real socially valid point of entry into financial equilibrium. Grants and fellowships are both viable and variable. There are countless institutions out there ready to hand over wads of cash to further the arts. Then again, it’s hard for artists at the fore of their career to find funds available to them; many grants are set up to sustain already established artists. Complicating things further, organizations and foundations rarely give funding to individuals. With all that in mind, here are a few of The Best Grants Available for Young Artists.

RELATED: 25 Young Painters You Need to Know
RELATED: 10 Artists to Watch in 2013
RELATED: Green Label - 10 Interesting Art Contests for Scholarships and Awards

This is one of the best opportunities for young, high school-aged arts practitioners in various fields: cinematic arts, dance, design arts, jazz, music, photography, theater, visual arts, voice, and writing. The awards, too, are various, including $10,000 grants, educational opportunities with masters of the crafts, and travel to arts events around the nation. The deadline for the 2014 benefits application is October 18. For young people who want a boost right out of the gate, this could be the one.

Apply here

For New York state-based Artists, the New York Foundation for the Arts gives a ton of money away every year to artists at all levels, so it's perfect for a budding aesthete. There aren't any requirements to the one-time gift of $7,000 except to "fund an artist's vision or voice, regardless of the level of his or her artistic development." However, the categories of work the awards are given to vary year-to-year. Check their page to see if you're eligible.

Apply here

A lot of grants that are available to young artists are very specific to regions and micro-regions. Here's one for artists who live in Queens, New York. Here's another available to six people annually who live in Silicon Valley. Here's $3,000 available for artists living in Oregon. The Five Wigs Art Council in Missouri offers a bit of money for artists living and working there. Really, there are so many of these with so many options available for funding and living. The best course of action might just be to start searching for what's available in your area—there's bound to be something.

image via

Australian readers who have just left art school, the Australia Council for the Arts offers a grant that will kick you into the real world. Though it's not designed to fund a specific project, the ACA will give you up to $10,000 to set up a studio, to get some business tips, or to buy enough supplies to last you a few years. Get on it, Aussies.

Apply here

If globe-trotting is your style, another option to minimize living costs is to apply for and take up a residency in one of the many institutions, museums, galleries, or organizations that offers travel opportunities. Both ResArtis and The Alliance of Artists Communities offer strong searching tools for residencies that might be right for you. The Harpo Foundation Emerging Artist Fellowship, for example, shows just how specific these get: artists over the age of 25 are eligible for a one-month residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute, with room and board provided. The purpose of the fellowship is to give the artist an uninterrupted environment to pursue creative projects. Check it out.

Apply here and here

For New York City-based artists, this award, named for the Public Art Curator of the city's Department of Parks and Recreation, gives young artists the chance to permanently install a sculpture into one of New York City's parks. Considering this is open to any sculptor in the New York area, this could be the perfect opportunity to get your work, not just into public consciousness, but permanently in the public eye.

Apply here

Absolutely anyone in any field of art can apply for a grant from this national nonprofit, as long as you meet their super-basic criteria. You've got to be a U.S. citizen, at least 25, to have worked in the field for the last five years, and you cannot be a full-time student. Maybe not ideal for the youngest of artists, but its open-ended application criteria makes this an attractive option before you even turn 30. The foundation seeks out innovative work that pushes boundaries, which young people tend to be both quite good at and willing to do.

Apply here

For visual artists no longer in school, the Artadia Award is a good option, given you live in one of the cities they require you to live in: Boston, Chicago, Greater Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles or the Bay Area, Calif. They dole out between $3,000 and $15,000 to be used however the recipient wants.

Apply here

Paint company Liquitext will award you with $1,000 worth of ink and supplies if they deem your work valuable. However, you have to convince a mentor to apply to the scholarship for you after they do a Liquitex products demo. So, part promotion, part philanthropy, this is one option to receive for free the supplies needed to gird a visual artist's creative space.

Apply here

Depending on the scope of the young artist's vision, the Harpo Foundation gives between 10 and 15 grants annually. This is what they want: "projects that advance and cross the boundaries of visual media and artistic disciplines. Proposals are evaluated on the basis of the quality of the artist's work, the potential to expand aesthetic inquiry, and the strength of its relationship to the foundation's priority to provide support to visual artists who are under recognized by the field." Sounds perfect for a young artist with a strong vision.

Apply here

This grant is available for anyone who will graduate from MFA or PhD programs within the next year. The fellowship awards recipients with $5,000 grants to help with any stage or facet of a work. The funding is meant to ease the transition between academic and professional lifestyles. We know how hard that transition can be—now might be the time to check this one out.

Apply here