Kansas City, MO, May 12, 2022: Charlotte Street Foundation and the Spencer Museum of Art are thrilled to relaunch Rocket Grants, with the call for artists opening May 13, 2022.
50/50 Gallery, 2014 Rocket Grant Project
With support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Rocket Grants provide direct funding to artists in the Kansas City region who are creating exceptional, under-the-radar, and artist-centered projects in public spaces. Artists, curators, collectives, and collaborative groups residing within an 80-mile radius of the Kansas City metropolitan area are eligible to apply.
Rocket Grants award up to $6,000 to individuals or artist groups for projects that exist outside established venues such as museums, galleries, theaters or arts districts. Artists are encouraged to address the community at large, or choose a smaller, targeted audience. The long-term goals of the Rocket Grants program are to encourage emerging and non-traditional artistic practices in the Kansas City region; to contribute to a thriving arts community; and to build bridges between geographic and cultural communities.
Rocket Grant projects are selected by a jury of four arts professionals, working both locally and nationally. Each proposal will be evaluated on criteria including innovation, thoughtful context, feasibility and meaningful impact.
To apply artists must submit a Letter of Interest (LOI) online by June 27, 2022. The LOI should include a project summary, the artists involved, the intended audience, the specific context of the work, budget needs, and relevance of the project. The jury will assess the Letters of Interest and invite selected projects to complete a full application in July 2022. Rocket Grants recipients will be announced in September 2022.
Through continued support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Rocket Grants has previously awarded funding to artists for ten cycles from 2010 to 2019. During 2020 and 2021 the funding was distributed through Rocket Relief emergency grants of $1,000 each to support a total of 405 visual and multidisciplinary artists during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The Spencer Museum is excited to continue our support of local artists through Rocket Grants, expecting that we relaunch the program into a new world where artists are responding and creating in different ways post-Covid,” Spencer Museum Director Saralyn Reece Hardy said.
Rocket Grants projects encompass a broad range of visual art, performance, film, video, new media, writing, public programming, social practice and interdisciplinary work. The Rocket Grant Blog includes an online archive and documentation of past projects.
For any questions regarding the application process, please contact Kimberly Kitada, Jedel Family Foundation Curatorial Fellow, at [email protected].
Rocket Grant FAQ Sessions
The public is invited to attend in-person information sessions that will answer questions about the application and jury process.
Thursday, May 26, 6:00–7:00 PM at the Spencer Museum at KU
1301 Mississippi Street, Lawrence, KS 66045
Please RSVP on Eventbrite
Tuesday, May 31, 6:00–7:00 PM at the Charlotte Street Foundation Library
3333 Wyoming Street, Kansas City, MO 64111
Please RSVP on Eventbrite
ABOUT THE SPENCER MUSEUM OF ART
The Spencer Museum of Art, located on the University of Kansas Lawrence campus, explores the intersection of art, ideas, and experiences. With a diverse collection of more than 47,000 works, the Spencer is the only museum in Kansas with contemporary and historic artwork in all mediums from cultures across six continents. The Spencer Museum facilitates arts engagement and research through exhibitions, artist commissions and residencies, conferences, performances, lectures, children’s art activities, and arts and culture festivals. Admission to the Spencer Museum of Art is free.
ABOUT CHARLOTTE STREET
Charlotte Street centers Kansas City’s most forward-thinking visual artists, writers, and performers—acting as the primary incubator, provocateur, and connector for the region’s contemporary arts community, and its leading advocate on the national stage. Since 1997, Charlotte Street has distributed over $2 million in awards and grants to artists and their innovative projects, and connected individual artists to each other and to the greater Kansas City community. For more information about Charlotte Street, its awards, programs, and initiatives, visit www.charlottestreet.org.
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