OVERVIEW: The Terra Foundation for American Art makes broad grants for exhibitions and academic programs in order to increase access to and appreciation of American Art in the U.S. and around the world. The foundation also runs local grantmaking programs for art and artists local to the Chicago area, including exhibitions, public programs, and research and learning resources.
IP TAKE: The bulk of Terra’s grants support art museums and institutes working in the field of historical American visual arts, not necessarily grassroots outfits that work at the local level with vulnerable groups. However, it does make grants to a range of grantees, so there’s some hope despite its preference for established institutions and scholars. Its grantees range from the world’s largest and most famous art museums to small local art venues and galleries. Terra also supports academic American art history by funding symposia, conferences and fellowships at institutions around the world.
Terra is very accessible and runs open application programs for all its grant and fellowship programs and offers specific instructions, guidelines and due dates on its individual program pages. Some grant opportunities require LOIs, while others do not, so please refer to each grant’s application guidelines on how to approach. Grants are highly competitive here, so plan accordingly when editing your proposal and make sure to have your application peer-reviewed, if appropriate. It’s worth noting that in a statement from President and CEO, Sharon Corwin, Terra announced refinement of its grantmaking programs to best respond to “cultural institutions being tested, and with them the freedoms of thought, inquiry, and expression that form the bedrock of American democratic society.” Grants for K-12 Education, university students and scholars and Chicago-based arts programming have been de-emphasized on the Foundation’s new website, however, tax records indicate these grants are still being made under newly titled programs.
PROFILE: Art collector, businessman and former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Cultural Affairs Daniel Terra established the Terra Foundation for American Art in 1978. Based in Chicago, the foundation “is dedicated to fostering exploration, understanding and enjoyment of the visual arts of the United States for national and international audiences.” Terra supports exhibitions, gatherings and exchange, collections, and publications, as well as invite-only funding through strategic initiatives.
Formal programs for academics, fellowships and visiting professorships, as well as Chicago-based K-12 education and public programming appear to have been archived.
Grants for Visual Arts
The Terra Foundation’s grantmaking largely focuses on visual arts produced in “what is now the geographic United States” circa 1500 to 1980. The foundation’s three main goals are increasing public access to and appreciation of American art, supporting the field of American art scholarship and increasing appreciation of American art in Chicago. Visual arts grantmaking programs include the following:
- Exhibition grants support temporary exhibitions that primarily include art on loan and that address “current and historical inequities in presentations and understandings of American art history.”
- Grantees have ranged from the world’s most prestigious museums to many smaller, specialized arts organizations both within and outside the United States.
- One recent grant supports an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, focusing on “African American potters in the nineteenth-century American South… and the contemporary artists who have responded to this body of work.”
- Another grantee, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, used funding to organize an exhibit of American artist Simone Leigh’s work, to be displayed at the United States Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia and at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston.
- Other recent grantees include Denver Art Museum, Grey Art Gallery, Copenhagen Contemporary, and Centre Pompidou, to name a few.
- Similarly, collections grants support reinterpretations of permanent collections focused on the foundation’s goals. These grants, ranging from $25,000 to $75,000, seek to fund permanent collection re-installations and temporary exhibitions drawn from permanent collections.
- Terra also awards grants for publishing and translation projects on American art.
Grants for Higher Education
The Terra Foundation also makes grants to colleges and universities, as well as scholarships and fellowships for individuals studying or researching historical American art. Grants to institutions support academic workshops and symposia in the field of American art across the globe.
- The Convening Grants program typically provides between $10,000 to $25,000, up to 20% of which can be used towards administrative costs and up to 15% of which can be used for indirect costs.
- Please note that the Terra Foundation prefers not to be the sole funder of such activities.
- One recent grant under this program supported a four-day conference at the Athens campus of Hellenic American University, focused on exploring the relationship between modern American art and iconic aspects of Greek culture.
- Terra has additionally supported higher education through its individual grants and fellowships program, which appears to have been archived.
- Terra’s publication grants program, which supports the publication of manuscripts on American art as well as the translation to or from English of books on American art. Book publication projects at Yale University, the University of Illinois and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland are among the program’s recent recipients.
Grants for Chicago & Other Grantmaking Opportunities:
The Terra Foundation makes grants for K-12 education and public programs in the Chicago area. The Foundation once hosted formal grantmaking programs for both of these Chicago-based priority areas, but these appear to have been archived.
- Education grants support both in- and out-of-school learning opportunities in American art, and public program grants focus on exhibits, installations and events with broad reach and that have the potential to develop the public’s interest in American visual arts.
- The Terra Foundation also makes grants for local art and artists in the Chicago area, including funding for exhibitions, public programs, and research and learning. A formal grantmaking program, called Art Design Chicago, aimed to “strengthen the local visual art ecosystem and encourage new and deeper partnerships between cultural organizations, creatives, and communities.” It appears to have been archived.
Important Grant Details:
The Terra Foundation makes about $7 million a year in grants. The foundation’s exhibition grants are made in amounts from $25,000 to $250,000, while academic grants generally remain under $25,000.
- This funder supports a broad range of visual arts organizations, including some of the world’s largest landmark venues to local art museums and galleries in smaller towns and cities.
- The foundation maintains a searchable database of its past grants.
- Terra runs open application programs for all of its grantmaking programs and provides specific information, guidelines and due dates on the individual program pages that are linked to its grant and fellowship opportunities page.
- General inquiries may be directed to the foundation’s staff via email at grants@terraamericanart.org or telephone at (312) 664-3939.
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