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.
How It Works
The American Art Program welcomes the submission of project Concept Notes through our website on a rolling basis. If there is interest in the project and a proposal is invited, program staff will determine the board meeting docket on which the grant will be placed for approval. We highly recommend that Concept Notes be submitted well in advance (ideally six to eight months) of project start dates.
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.
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.
Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships in American Art
We support scholarly training in Art History by awarding dissertation fellowships annually to doctoral candidates at colleges and universities in the United States. Administered by the American Council of Learned Societies on behalf of the Luce Foundation, the program provides stipends and travel and research funds.
Meet the Fellows and Learn MoreAdditional 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 tcarbone@hluce.org.
