Responsive Grants
The Henry Luce Foundation believes that art museums are vital public knowledge organizations that serve as accessible forums for creative expression and public dialogue. Encouraging museums to center their collections in this work, the American Art Program’s Responsive grants support a wide range of projects that reconsider and reinvigorate collections through partnerships with diverse collaborators and communities.
What We’re Looking For
We welcome projects in the visual arts across all media and chronologies, including Native American art and cultural objects. Successful applicants will initiate or apply new research and fresh approaches to collection-focused documentation, publications, reinterpretation, reinstallations, and in-house or touring exhibitions. We encourage projects that address collection holdings that have been inadequately preserved, studied, shared, or presented. Preferred projects will exemplify ethical best practices, particularly with ethnically specific collections.
The Autry’s Joe D. Horse Capture leading the Museum of Fine Arts Boston team through close analysis of Plains beadwork. Museum Partners for Social Justice.
Exhibition Competition
The American Art Program supports scholarly loan exhibitions that contribute significantly to the study and understanding of art of the United States, including all facets of Native American art. These grants advance the Program’s efforts to empower art museums to reconsider accepted histories, amplify the voices and experiences of underrepresented artists and cultures, and facilitate important dialogue with diverse collaborators and communities.
How it Works
We accept Concept Notes for loan exhibitions every spring. Applicants are judged as a pool throughout three stages of review. An external panel of advisors, including art historians and curators, participate in the advanced stages of the competition. Visit our grants database to see recently funded exhibitions.
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April 26: Deadline for institutions to submit an exhibition Concept Note through the online portal. Approximately 30 institutions will be invited to submit full proposals.
May 17: Applicants will be informed of first-round decisions.
June 28: Deadline for selected institutions to submit full proposals through the online portal.
July 23: Applicants moving on to the second round will be notified.
September 25: Applicants moving onto the final round will be notified.
November 14: Announcement of awards approved by the Foundation’s board.
What We’re Looking For
In our review process, we give the highest consideration to the cultural significance of the art, the intellectual rigor and originality of the exhibition’s conceptual framework, and the organizational capacity for the successful execution of the project. We secondarily consider geographic and institutional diversity. While accompanying publications and additional tour venues are not required, they can enhance a project’s strength.
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- Concept Notes must be submitted online by the originating institution and not by a participating-venue institution. (Letters are not accepted from individuals.)
- Art of the United States, including Native American art, should constitute significantly more than half of the checklist.
- The organizing institution’s permanent collection should not constitute more than half of the exhibition checklist.
- A single, privately held collection should constitute no more than half of the exhibition checklist.
- The holdings of a single commercial dealer should constitute no more than half of the exhibition checklist.
- The proposed exhibition should not open before March of the year following your application submission.
- Museums outside of the United States may submit appropriate projects for consideration only if they have proof of valid non-profit status provided by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
- Only one exhibition per year can be submitted per institution.
Additional Opportunities
The American Art Program is eager to work with new grantees at organizations of any scale, including Native American Tribal museums. We are also eager to partner with academic museums and galleries that seek to share collections through on-and-off-campus partnerships and demonstrate the potential of art-based inquiry to advance learning and skills across various disciplines.
The American Art Program supports curatorial training by offering fellowships and term positions linked to Responsive Grant projects. Apprentice-level positions must involve continuous mentorship by senior curators associated with the proposed work. The Program also supports projects located entirely in museum or collection archives.
Although we rarely fund independent conservation projects, we do consider conservation-related components in proposals for collections-based projects.
Program Restrictions
Please note that proposals related to performance art, film (including documentaries), the creation of art, the purchase of art, and the work of emerging artists are not eligible for funding through the American Art program.
You may submit your concept note at any time through our online portal. If you have any questions in advance of completing your concept note, contact Dr. Teresa A. Carbone, Program Director for American Art, at [email protected].
