Artistic Research Grant
Applications deadline is October 23, 2024
The 421 Artistic Research Grant supports practice-based research investigating contemporary social questions through interdisciplinary methodologies and active engagement with the researcher’s community. While this is not an academic grant, a strong interaction with the historical, geographical, and intellectual context of a grantee’s topic and medium is expected.
Open to local and regional early-to-mid-career creative practitioners, the grant supports practice-based research investigating contemporary social questions through interdisciplinary methodologies and active engagement with the researcher’s community. Creative practitioners can work through disciplines including but not limited to visual art and curations, design and technology, literary arts, culinary arts, music, theater and performance. The grant targets topics that investigate the intersections of these disciplines with social and cultural topics, such as communal and public spaces, languages and linguistics, transportation and mobility systems, urbanity and its social and cultural fabric, economics and migration, and art institutions and ecosystems.
In the 2025 edition of the grant, projects that engage with questions of ecology & humans’ relationship to nature are encouraged, but not mandatory.
Practitioners whose research methodology is tactile and experiential, and includes material experimentation alongside community engagement, and whose outcomes extend beyond contributing to academia to include experiences, accessible content, and experiential artworks, are encouraged to apply.
421 Art Campus will award a minimum of 2 grantees a budget up to AED75,000 ($20,380) each to support their research and project.
Deadline for submission: October 23rd 2024
For application details and to submit, click here.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Who can apply?
The grant is open to emerging artists within the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia regions, and supports practice-based research investigating new social questions through interdisciplinary methodologies.
Creative practitioners can work through disciplines including but not limited to visual art and curations, design and technology, literary arts, culinary arts, music, theater, and performance.
421 Artistic Research Grant selection aims to ensure that projects are selected in a transparent and fair manner, according to clear criteria and a rigorous selection process where due consideration is given to all proposals that meet 421’s eligibility requirements.
What are the eligibility requirements?
- Applicants must hold a Bachelor's degree or artistic research experience.
- Applicants must be over 21 years of age.
- Applicants must be working from, based, or have a sustained relationship with the MENASA region.
- Applicants cannot apply for the grant if he/she is affiliated or undertaking funding by 421 or its commissioner.
- Applicants who are undertaking a residency or receiving funds from different institutions/organizations simultaneously or during the residency's time are eligible to apply for the grant as long as it's for the same research/project.
- Applicants must display previous experience in sustaining long-term inquiry, Which can include previous research experience or through presenting a cohesive line of investigation in their general practice.
- Applicants must articulate why this grant is an appropriate next step in their practice.
How many grantees will be chosen?
A minimum of two grantees will be chosen
Is there a financial award that will be given to the grantees?
421 will award the grantees a budget up to AED75,000 to support their research and project.
When can interested applicants start applying, and how?
The full application, including all supplemental materials, must be submitted online here. The application will close October 23, 2024.
When will the projects start?
Projects will start in January 2025.