Artists & Scholars Project Grants
Artists & Scholars Project Grants (ASPG) are available to individual artists and scholars who reside in Montgomery County, MD. Grant awards support projects for artists and scholars who work in a wide array of arts and humanities disciplines including performing arts, folk and traditional arts, media arts, visual arts, literary arts, history, and philosophy. Grants for FY22 will be awarded for activities occurring between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022.
Award amounts range from at least $1,000 up to $5,000.
By awarding Artists & Scholars Project Grants, the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County (AHCMC) seeks to:
- Support the creation and production of new work;
- Provide artists and scholars with opportunities that strengthen their business, managerial, and artistic and/or scholarly skills;
- Nurture artists and scholars who represent the diverse, multicultural character of Montgomery County, MD;
- Support innovative and distinctive artistic and scholarly work by the County’s resident artists and scholars; and
- Encourage the use of intentional strategies for achieving Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access (DEIA) in the field.
We are no longer accepting applications for FY22 ASPG. Sign up for the Grants Newsletter below to receive updates about the FY23 grants cycle, other grant opportunities, deadlines, and webinars!
Important Dates
Questions?
- Dates + Deadlines
- Workshops + Webinars
- Guidelines + Eligibility
- Application + Templates
- Previous Grants Awarded
- FY21 Grantees
FY22 Important Dates
- Guidelines Published – Wednesday, December 23, 2020
- Application Deadline – Friday, February 5, 2021 at 11:59 p.m.
- This deadline has passed.
First-time applicants are highly encouraged to contact AHCMC grants staff. All applications and relevant materials must be submitted online through AHCMC’s grants portal, SurveyMonkey Apply (SM Apply).
Late applications and relevant materials will not be accepted.
Additional Dates Post-Application
- Panel Review (virtual) – 2 dates in April 2021
- Award Announcement – late June 2021
- FY22 Final Report Due – July 31, 2022
Webinars
- Friday, January 15, 2021 from 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
- Tuesday, January 19, 2021 from 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
- These events have passed.
All AHCMC webinars will be hosted through the Zoom platform. Go to our Workshops & Webinars page to see upcoming workshops and webinars for all open grant categories.
Webinars allow grant-seekers to ask AHCMC grants staff specific questions about the grant guidelines, application, and online grants portal.
At every webinar, grants staff will review major eligibility requirements, present an overview of the grant category, and offer technical assistance for both the application process and the online grants portal.
Guidelines
IMPORTANT
- This funding opportunity is designed to benefit individual artists and scholars, not groups; projects that involve collaborations with groups of artists may be eligible for a Programming & Capacity Building Project Grant (PCBPG). Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact AHCMC grants staff to receive additional eligibility guidance when choosing the most appropriate grant category for an applicant’s project.
- Recipients of consecutive FY20 and FY21 Artists & Scholars Project Grants are not eligible to apply in FY22 but may apply in FY23.
- An artist/scholar who is an employee of an organization that is an AHCMC grantee/applicant will be considered an eligible applicant for this grant category, provided that the project is not directly related to the work they do for the organization. (Example: the applicant may apply to develop a new piece of work unrelated to the work of their employer.)
- Grant requests for the same project in more than one grant category will not be accepted.
Required Application Materials:
- A Completed Narrative
- Resume or CV
- Bios of key collaborators and/or volunteers, if applicable
- Programming Support Materials
- Work Sample(s)
Eligibility Requirements
Individuals eligible to apply must meet all the following eligibility requirements by the published deadline:
- Has resided in Montgomery County, MD for at least 12 consecutive months immediately prior to the application deadline (P.O. Boxes not accepted as proof of residency);
- Is at least 21 years old;
- Is not a full-time student;
- Is a practicing artist or scholar with demonstrated ability in the arts or humanities discipline of the proposed project;
- Is able to provide AHCMC with a Social Security Number (SSN) prior to undertaking the grant activities; and
- Has met all outstanding requirements for any grant(s) received from the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County in prior years.
Project Eligibility Requirements
Eligible project-types include any of the following:
- The creation of new work
- A phase of a larger project
- A public event or program
- Professional Development
Eligible activities must:
- Take place between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022.
- Take place in Montgomery County, MD.
- Professional development activities may take place outside of Montgomery County, MD.
- Activities that include events or programs must be open to the public with or without an admission fee, in-person or virtually. If in-person, activities should follow current COVID-19 guidelines for in-person events as required by the Montgomery County Health Department.
- Effectively advance the applicant’s artistic or scholarly work and/or advance the applicant’s business and management skills.
- Be focused on one project; however, multiple stages of the same project are permitted.
- Example: An eligible project may include participation in a professional development opportunity that leads to the creation of new work, or the creation of new work followed a public event or program presenting that new work.
- If the proposed project is a phase of a larger project, it must be clear in both the narrative and the budget which phase the applicant is requesting funds for.
This application deadline has passed.
Need to review or download your application? Access SurveyMonkey Apply (SM Apply) here: https://artsandhumanities.smapply.io/
FY22 ASPG Templates:
*Know that these are templates for your reference only – all applications and relevant materials must be submitted online through SM Apply.*
FY21 Artists & Scholars Project Grants (ASPG)
$155,556 awarded for July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021
Artists & Scholars Project Grants support the work of individual artists and scholars who reside in Montgomery County. Projects focus on the creation and/or presentation of artistic/scholarly work and can also support professional development. 41 artists and scholars were awarded in FY20.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($5,000)
Dancer whose work explores architecturally informed partnering developed among diverse artists.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($2,606)
Visual artist specializing in hand-cut-and-assembled gelatin silver photo collages, and for the black and white photographs from which they are made.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($5,000)
Author, filmmaker, photographer, and lecturer whose work focuses on changing the dialogue about beauty standards for women through documentary film and unaltered photography.
Takoma Park, Maryland ($4,000)
Photographer specializing in straight analog photos of mixed-media constructions of materials as a means of mirroring our general sense of contemporary complexities, and as an attempt to hold the viewer in an act of questioning.
Germantown, Maryland ($3,500)
Fashion designer for Indiskreet, catering to the multifaceted lifestyles of people living in urban areas through vibrant colors and graphics on vogue silhouettes.
Kensington, Maryland ($3,600)
Visual artist interested in sparking fresh and productive conversations about difficult subjects through the mark-making process of painting.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($2,160)
Visual artist focused on depictions of natural history and medical specimens using colored pencil on paper, which is then further manipulated with abstract post-rendering interventions to contrast the representational drawing.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($3,750)
Director, writer, and speaker interested in expanding offerings and points of engagement with her feature debut, a personal documentary about her family’s relationship with Jewish traditions.
Montgomery Village, Maryland ($3,136)
Author who writes contemporary domestic fiction set in common places ordinary people encounter daily, transformed into settings for tragedy and triumph as ordinary people face their passions and fears.
North Bethesda, Maryland ($3,750)
Musician influenced by the local jazz sounds and her Brazilian African-Indigenous background.
Rockville, Maryland ($3,564)
Visual artist focused on a pop art style, offering the viewer the comfort of the familiar with subtle indications that memories of the past are idealized more than the reality of the experience.
Takoma Park, Maryland ($4,392)
Interdisciplinary visual artist seeking to expose the destructive nature of prejudice while advocating for compassion.
Takoma Park, Maryland ($2,168)
Visual artist specializing in intricately woven abstract paintings, using a specialized tool to extrude wet oil paint in “threads.”
North Bethesda, Maryland ($4,000)
Musician known for evocative performances in traditional North Indian (Hindustani) classical music, collaborations with musicians of other genres, and innovative compositions.
Chevy Chase, Maryland ($3,500)
Musician focused on performing and producing an album with the ukulele.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($4,750)
Multidisciplinary visual artist whose work is a mixture of traditional practices merged with experimental but equally important digital practices.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($3,750)
Visual artist whose initial interest in pencil drawings has evolved into extending drawing into new areas such as printmaking, papermaking, and photoetching.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($5,000)
Author focused on writing speculative fiction, creating new worlds as a creative framework to explore the one that we all live in.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($4,500)
Photographer whose work captures the in-between moments that are overlooked yet embody the heart of the subject matter.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($4,500)
Musician who performs folk-soul original and cover songs on acoustic guitar and harmonica.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($5,000)
Visual artist specializing in weaving and resist dyeing, incorporating ikat and plangi into hand-woven wall pieces.
Bethesda, Maryland ($4,000)
Visual artist whose work, although representational, maintains that all art is essentially abstract and as much about relationships as about any ostensible subject matter.
Bethesda, Maryland ($4,000)
Multimedia project-based artist and activist, primarily focused on advancing awareness of social and political issues.
Potomac, Maryland ($2,700)
Musician and composer, writing extensively for the guitar in varying genres ranging from solo classical and electric to full guitar ensembles, as well as other instrumental combinations.
Chevy Chase, Maryland ($2,880)
Musician and devoted advocate for new music, particularly the expansion of the clarinet solo literature.
Kensington, Maryland ($1,947)
Visual artist specializing in oil painting, whose representational works are about personal connection.
Rockville, Maryland ($3,750)
Visual artist focused on creating installations and digital paintings exploring invisible boundaries.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($3,750)
Photographer whose work is rooted in a connection with place and nature, with a particular interest in the photobook as a uniquely intimate way of presenting works.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($3,750)
Mixed-media artist whose work explores the interactions between line, color, and materials.
Takoma Park, Maryland ($2,709)
Printmaker and mixed-media artist exploring the traditional printmaking process to create handmade standalone prints, as well as prints on fabric using lithographic, screen print, or collagraph intaglio processes, all of which are often further manipulated to make new compositions.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($5,000)
Visual artist focused on cultural identity and memory.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($3,000)
Mixed-media artist whose work involves layering paint, netting, filaments, torn paper, and cut digital drawings to explore the mysteries of movement.
Bethesda, Maryland ($4,750)
Playwright whose body of work is comprised of mostly comedies, and whose most recent work follows the bittersweet struggles of an adult daughter caring for her aging mother.
Potomac, Maryland ($3,750)
Storyteller focused on personal experiences, literally and abstractly, to give observant Jewish women a voice, who have historically not had the opportunities to share their perspective.
Rockville, Maryland ($3,995)
Author with a concentration on fantasy literature that presents increasing human freedom as an instrument of re-enchantment in a damaged world that can be healed.
Silver Spring, Maryland ($2,314)
Musician trained as a classical flutist, focused on highlighting flute music composed by women, and the documentation of female composers.
Rockville, Maryland ($3,655)
Author and performer exploring the relationship between form and content, and how multiple mediums can lead to varying discoveries for both audience and author.
Gaithersburg, Maryland ($4,230)
Visual artist whose artistic practice combines dye painting, photography, digital techniques, and embroidery in innovative and unprecedented ways to explore the relation between nature and toxicity.
North Potomac, Maryland ($5,000)
Filmmaker with a passion for fictional and documentary films that show the social conditions in both India and in the South Asian diaspora of the United States.
Kensington, Maryland ($4,500)
Media artist whose work includes graphic design, editorial, and marketing for major media outlets, as well as a documentary about the first Jewish farming colony in the United States.
Rockville, Maryland ($4,250)
Visual artist focused on transforming still life subject matter into dynamic, modern imagery using combined printmaking mediums of monotype, woodcut, and screen print to create a balance between decorative Victorian art and modernism.
Information for FY21 Grantees
Additional Dates Post-Application
- Final Report Deadline – July 31, 2021 at 11:59 p.m.
All reports must be submitted online through SM Apply: https://artsandhumanities.smapply.io/