2024 BAC Grants & AIE Open Calls
Deadline: October 8, 2023
Brooklyn Arts Council's 2024 Grants & AIE (SU-CASA Creative Aging, Global Rhythms, and AIE Performing Groups) applications are now open! Additional information can be found here.
Draft Narrative Reviews
“This is How We Remember” by Zoe Rabinowitz, 2022 Brooklyn Arts Fund Grantee. Photo by Effy Gray.
Want a BAC Program staff member to review your narrative? You're in luck! Sign up for one-on-one time with Desiree Gordon, Didintle Ntsie, or Mai-Elka Prado. Both Spanish and English speakers are welcome to reserve a time with Mai-Elka. During your review, there will be 20 minutes to talk through strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement in your application. Then you can go on to implement any changes and press submit well in advance of the October 8th deadline!
Desiree’s Availability (English)
Didintle’s Availability (English)
Mai-Elka’s Availability (English & Spanish)
Upcoming Grants Info Sessions
Michelle Thompson Ulerich & Caleb Paterson for CreateART, 2023 Brooklyn Arts Fund Grantee. Photo by Effy Grey.
Join BAC for a 2024 Grants Info Session ahead of the application deadline. We’ll tell you everything you need to know about how to write a successful proposal and win a BAC grant. Can’t make it? Info sessions are also available on-demand until the October 8th deadline.
September 7 | 5 - 6:30pm | BAC Office
In-person Info Session with Live Q&A co-hosted by Life of Hope, Parachute Literary Arts, & Umwelt Studio
RSVP
September 14 | 12:30 - 2pm
Virtual Info Session with Live Q&A co-hosted by NARS Foundation, Brooklyn Fam & Asia Art Archive in America
RSVP
September 21 | 5 - 7pm | Location TBA
In-person Info Session with Q&A co-hosted by Exiled Tongues
RSVP
October 3 | 12:30 - 2pm
Virtual Info Session with Live Q&A co-hosted by Center for Performance Research & Octavia Project
RSVP
2024 Grants: Artist Highlights
BAC put together a mini series of Artist Highlights to give you quick pointers for your 2024 Grant Application! We spoke with four Grantees who shared tips on how they scored really high with panelists on certain parts of the application.
Work Samples, Non-duplication & Narrative with Benjamin Akio Kimitch
Budget & Narrative with Marj Kleinman
Work Samples with Yasmin Mistry
Narrative & Community Support with JP Howard
2024 Grants: Wellness Care Package
BAC's 2024 Grants Wellness Care Package highlights wellness practitioners across Brooklyn in mini motivational demos, workshops, and exercises that calm anxiety, promote courage, and interrupt procrastination/stagnation during the grant application process.
What Is In the Way? Creative Arts Intervention for Self-Awareness & Momentum with Cheryl Walpole-Tiku
Combination Sound Experience: Breathwork, Vocalizations & Mantra with Maraliz Campos
Breath, Movement, & Libation for Courage and Revitalization with Oluadare Bernard
Somatics and Mantras for Release & Flow with Salomé Egas
Words & Breath: Rituals for Self-Definition with Olaronke Akinmowo
Arts in Education Digital Banner Contest
Deadline: September 25, 2023 via AirTable
BAC invites Brooklyn students grades 1-12 to submit new banner designs for our Global Rhythms program. The digital banner will be used for various marketing and promotional materials including on BAC’s website, social media, letterheads, brochures, posters and flyers, souvenir trinkets and gifts, and/or anywhere else BAC chooses. The first-place contest winner will receive a $400 gift card. Second and third place will receive a $50 gift card. All winners will also receive a BAC canvas tote bag, pencils, and a sketchbook.
BAC Grantee & Partner Events
Iviva Olenick & ART YARD BKLYN present: Earth Mothering
Iviva Olenick & ART YARD BKLYN are 2023 Local Arts Support Grantees.
Exhibition Opening: September 8 | 6pm | 180 Franklin Ave.
Exhibition Closes: October 25
Earth Mothering celebrates acts of nurturance as resistance against political and social destruction. Come view select works from ART YARD BKLYN (AYB) and Iviva Olenick's series of Earth Mother/Mother Earth art-making workshops as well as artworks by Stitchcraft participants, Olenick’s interdisciplinary, social practice artwork responding to Roe v. Wade’s reversal and climate change.
Rovaco Dance Party 2023
Rovaco Dance Company is a 2023 Brooklyn Arts Fund Grantee. Photo by Alice Chacon.
September 9 | 5pm | Brooklyn Ballet & Mark O'Donnell Theater
Rovaco Dance Company presents their fifth annual Rovaco Dance Party. This evening of music, dance, and cultural exchange begins with an informal social at the Brooklyn Ballet Studio inspired by Indian hospitality traditions. After the social, we transition next doors to the Mark O'Donnell Theater for live music and dance performances, curated and MC'ed by Rovaco’s Artistic Director, Rohan Bhargava. The evening ends with a DJ dance party for all!
Issue Project Room FALL OPENING: ROSCOE MITCHELL & JOHN MCCOWEN / BEAM SPLITTER
ISSUE Project Room’s Fall Opening event is proudly supported by Brooklyn Arts Council.
September 9 | 8pm | First Unitarian Congregational Society
ISSUE celebrates its 20th Anniversary and Fall 2023 season with internationally renowned musician and composer Roscoe Mitchell, joined by composer/clarinetist John McCowen. The evening also features a performance from BEAM SPLITTER, the duo project of Audrey Chen and Norwegian musician Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø.
Iviva Olenick & Danielle Moore: Plant Dye, Food and Medicine Workshop
Iviva Olenick is a 2023 BAC Grantee.
September 10 | 3pm | Old Stone House
Join herbalist Danielle Moore and local artist, Iviva Olenick for a deep dive into local plants that make food, medicine and dye. After learning about traditional medicine and food, we will dye fabrics and threads. Materials provided. Please note that they are sharing cultural and traditional medicinal practices rather than providing medical advice.
HIVEWILD presents: A Sigh of Origin
Hivewild is a 2022 BAC Grantee. Photo by Taylor Antisdel.
September 14 | 6:30pm | Nitehawk Cinema
Join Hivewild for the world premiere screening of their dance film, a sigh of origin. Directed and Choreographed by Hivewild’s founding Artistic Director Katherine Maxwell, a sigh of origin is situated within an aging psyche, invoking multi-dimensional experiences of identity, perspective and memory throughout a lifetime. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with some of the cast and crew and an after party at Nitehawk’s Trees Lounge!
SABINA SETHI UNNI & NIKOLAS MICHAEL: A Fun Play about How Scary Climate Change Is
Sabina Sethi Unni & Nikolas Michael are 2023 BAC Grantees.
September 15 | 6pm | Gowanus Dredgers Boathouse
Are you scared about the future? Do you feel climate despair? What’s your first memory of a storm? What’s a time you’ve leaned on a neighbor during a disaster? Do you think the world has ended, or has it just begun? Sabina Sethi Unni & Nikolas Michael are excited to present A Fun Play About How Scary Climate Change Is to answer these questions, creating a performance that draws from our personal and cultural stories of climate, flooding, rain, and community, in a way that is authentic, personal, intimate, and comedic.
Canarsie FAM 2023: Festival of Arts & Music
Brooklyn FAM is a 2023 Local Arts Support & Brooklyn Arts Fund Grantee.
September 16 | 12pm | Canarsie Park House
Join Brooklyn FAM at the Canarsie Park stage at Seaview Ave and 86th St for free, family-friendly music and dance performances, hands-on workshops, wearable art-making activities, and Taste of Canarsie bites. BYO picnic, blanket, & chairs and spend a day in community. RSVP to enter a free drawing for cool prizes.
The Neurodivergent New Play Series presents: The Flight Patterns of Migratory Birds
The Neurodivergent New Play Series is a 2023 Brooklyn Arts Fund Grantee. Poster design by Maggie Dunn.
September 17 | 2pm | Vino Theater
The Neurodivergent New Play Series debuts September 17 at the Vino Theater with a reading of "The Flight Patterns of Migratory Birds,” written by Andy Boyd and directed by Maggie Dunn. Presented the 3rd Sunday of each month at 2pm, the Neurodivergent New Play Series is dedicated to promoting the work of rising neurodivergent writers who identify as having autism, ADHD, OCD, dyslexia, Tourette syndrome, etc. 50% of proceeds go to the Autistic Self-Advocacy Fund for our first performance.
Foster Care Film and Community Engagement Project (FCFCEP) & City Living NY present: Absence/Presence
Illustrations by Sherry Xiao and Phillip Sun. Design by Yasmin Mistry, 2023 Local Arts Support & Brooklyn Arts Fund Grantee.
October 10 | 6:30pm | Wythe Hotel
The Foster Care Film and Community Engagement Project (FCFCEP) and City Living NY invite you to a free screening to celebrate the PBS premiere of Absence/Presence, a documentary short film that highlights the stories of youth growing up in the foster care system. Tackling issues such as substance abuse, parental incarceration, grief, and loss, Absence/Presence provides an inside look into the impact of the foster care system through the eyes of those who have experienced it first-hand.
Events & Workshops
nyfa presents: Every Artist Insured: Understanding Healthcare Options
Alison Elizabeth Taylor (Fellow in Craft/Sculpture ’20), "The Sum of It," 2017, marquetry hybrid on panel, 72 x 52 inches
September 27 | 3pm
Feeling at a loss when looking for affordable health insurance? Have no idea how to identify a quality plan, and wonder how your immigrant status changes your healthcare options? Wonder how the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency impacts your healthcare options? In this virtual seminar presented by Renata Marinaro, National Director of Health Services at Entertainment Community Fund, you will learn what your health insurance options are, and receive a clear, step-by-step guidance on how to enroll in the most affordable coverage.
The Socrates Annual 2023
Opening Celebration: September 30 | 2pm | Socrates Sculpture Park
Closes: March 24, 2024
The Socrates Annual exhibition marks the culmination of the 2023 Socrates Annual Fellowship awarded to six artists, Ashley Harris, Ndivhuho Rasengani, Bat-Ami Rivlin, Kate Rusek, Maryam Turkey, and Stefania Urist. The Socrates Annual 2023 Fellowship prompted artists to create artwork from the theme “transformation.” These five projects reflect on diverse stages of growth, change, and renewal while also invoking a keen understanding of how visitors use this space.
nyfa presents A Series For Filmmakers: Adapting to a Time of Change
From Celmentina Ojie and Orire Nwani (NYC Women's Fund Fiction Feature '23)'s "Love in Seclusion" (working title); Tope Olowoniyan (lead actress), Efa Iwara (lead actor), and Adebowale Raji (DP
Adapting to a Time of Change is a three part series designed for independent filmmakers at a time of uncertainty in the marketplace for films.
September 28 | 6pm | RSVP
SINK or SWIM: What Documentary Filmmakers Need to Know to Survive and Thrive -- presented by Peter Broderick
October 19 | 6pm | RSVP
Beyond Streaming: Distribution, Social Impact, and the Power of Grassroots Audiences -- presented by Caitlin Boyle
October 26 | 6pm | RSVP
Every Screening Counts: Strategies for Showing Your Film at Festivals and Indie Venues -- presented by Ruth Somalo
BRIC Jazz Fest
October 19-21 | BRIC House
BRIC JazzFest brings together jazz world legends, rising stars, and emerging musical geniuses that are are pushing the boundaries of the jazz genre, some through the lens and influence of Hip-Hop and others through a musical style all their own. This year’s stellar lineup features Terrace Martin, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Amina Claudine Myers Trio, Melanie Charles / Orrin Evans Duo, BIGYUKI, B. Cool-Aid, Isaiah Collier, George Burton, Miki Yamanaka + many more to be announced soon!
Artist Opportunities
LMCC’s Manhattan Arts Grants
Deadline: September 12
Manhattan Arts Grants celebrate the importance of the arts to a resilient New York City and contribute to the sustainability of our diverse communities that call Manhattan home. In 2023, LMCC awarded over $1.7 million in support of 340 cultural events and activities across Manhattan by individual artists, groups, and organizations. There are three grant programs: Creative Engagement, Creative Learning, and UMEZ Arts Engagement.
Design Trust for Public Space: Photo Urbanism fellowship
Youth Photographer Workshop: Myron Mitchell by Natalie Roach
Deadline: September 12
The Design Trust for Public Space, in partnership with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the Public Housing Community Fund, and NeON Photography, is now accepting fellowship submissions from photographers to join our latest public space initiative: Green Space Connections. The project aims to create and activate community-designed green space at four NYCHA public housing developments for 14,000 residents in Brooklyn and the Bronx.
Women’s Studies Quarterly Call for Papers
Deadline: September 15
This peer-reviewed journal is open to interdisciplinary submissions that explore the literary, theoretical, and cultural lifeworlds created by and about unbearable being(s) for an issue published in the fall of 2024.
Foundwork Artist Prize
$10,000
Deadline: September 26
The Foundwork Artist Prize is an annual juried grant that recognizes outstanding emerging and mid-career artists working in any media. Honorees receive unrestricted $10,000 grants. The honoree and three shortlisted artists will also be invited for interviews as part of our Dialogues program to further public engagement with their practices.
National Theater Project Creation & Touring Grant
$80,000 - $130,000
Preliminary Application Deadline: September 27
Theater artists apply to receive support for both the development and U.S. touring [virtual or in-person] of artist-led, ensemble, devised theater projects. Grants support the development of the project, costs and incentives needed to establish a plan for touring, and subsidies for presentation of the work.
New York Public Library: Cullman Center Fellowship
Deadline: September 29 at 5pm
The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers offers Fellowships to people whose work will benefit directly from access to the research collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Renowned for the extraordinary comprehensiveness of its collections, the Library is one of the world’s preeminent resources for study in anthropology, art, geography, history, languages and literature, philosophy, politics, popular culture, psychology, religion, sociology, sports, and urban studies.
Eyebeam Fellowship Open Call
Stipend: $20,000
Deadline: October 1
In this digital-first fellowship, Eyebeam calls on artists to bring their innate mental, spiritual, and physical aspects of what it means to be human into play with technology to affirm humanity’s role as creators, not spectators, of our collective techno-future. This open call invites artists working within tech that focuses on decolonization, reframing history, language, care, the digital divide, and the future of tech to participate in a six-month program.
Monument Lab Re:Generation Initiative
$100,000
Deadline: October 2
Thanks to the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Monument Lab is seeking applications for another round of our Re:Generation initiative. Monument Lab Re:Generation supports teams of two or more individuals working together to create a new or expand an existing public-facing project. Each selected Re:Generation team will receive a total of $100,000 in unrestricted funding towards their commemorative campaign or project.
KUNSTRAUM Open Call for Artist-in-Residence 2024-2025
Deadline: October 15
KUNSTRAUM is a community of artists by artists with the goal of redefining the collaboration between artists and curators. Through our program, we aim to explore the relationships between artists and curators by opening our gallery spaces to those interested in exploring unconventional, engaging ideas and taking risks. The Artist-in-Residency program offers three-month residencies for national and international artists on a quarterly cycle.
Queens Museum: QM-Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists
$20,000
Deadline: October 29
This fellowship will grant two visual artists $20,000 each, individual studio space, professional development consultations, and close mentorship from Museum staff members working toward the artists’ projects. Fellows will have individual studio space from January 2024 through January 2025, as well as a solo-exhibition in 2025.
NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre
Image Credit: Courtesy the City of New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.
Deadline: November 1
The NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre, administered by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) in partnership with the City of New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME), provides grants to encourage and support the creation of digital, film, music, and live or online theatre content that reflects the voices and perspectives of all who identify as women.
A.I.R. FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
Deadline: November 1
The A.I.R. Fellowship Program was established in 1993 by former artist member Stephanie Bernheim in order to support underrepresented and emerging women and non-binary artists in New York City. Each year, six artists are awarded a year-long fellowship to develop and exhibit a project at A.I.R. Gallery.
What We're Reading
“‘Spread love, it’s the Brooklyn way’: Beep Unveils Biggie Smalls Statue in Honor of Hip-Hop’s 50th Anniversary”
by Isabel Song Beer | Brooklyn Paper
“A Night of Tribute to Iconic Brooklyn Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat Comes to Green-Wood Cemetery”
by Ximena Del Cerro | Brooklyn Paper
“Brooklyn Museum Hires First Full-time Indigenous Art Curator”
by Marisa Guthrie | WWD
“Scenes from Afropunk 2023’s Weekend of Music, Style and Culture in Greenpoint”
Scott Lynch | BK Mag
“Moving on Up: 34 Museum Curators and Art Leaders Who Took on New Appointments in the First Half of 2023”
by Victoria L. Valentine | Culture Type
Cover Image: “Hedgehog” at the Little Lawn at The Old Stone House by Mookntaka, 2023 Brooklyn Arts Fund Grantee.
Empowering Artists. Empowering Communities.
The arts are a lifeline to sustain wonder, inspiration, healing, and a sense of community in our lives. Please join Brooklyn Arts Council in our mission to empower Brooklyn artists and arts organizations that bring life and joy into our home borough.