MAP Fund
/OVERVIEW: MAP Fund supports diverse performing artists who challenge long-standing social and cultural hierarchies in the United States.
IP TAKE: MAP Fund is “one of the nation’s longest-running private grantmakers for new performance pieces.” It typically receives around 1,000 applications each grant cycle. Grant seekers should expect a good deal of competition here. The MAP Fund likes to take grantmaking risks in the arts. It also has an open-submission process, making it pretty accessible given its size. It’s not the most approachable arts funder, but it’s relatively responsive to grantseekers. Your work must feature a vein of inquiry that questions centers of power in the United States to qualify for a grant.
PROFILE: Founded in 1989, launched by the Rockefeller Foundation, the MAP Fund seeks to invest “in performing artists and their work as the critical foundation of imagining and co-creating a more equitable and vibrant society.” From 2001 to 2016, Creative Capital administered the fund. In 2008, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation became its primary funder. In 2010 the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation would also become a major financial backer. Finally, in 2016, the MAP Fund officially became an independent nonprofit, partnering with ArtsPool for administrative support. Its grantmaking prioritizes “artists that question, disrupt, complicate, and challenge inherited notions of social and cultural hierarchy across the current American landscape.”
Grants for Theater
MAP awards grants to a diverse group of theater artists and productions. In the past, it funded A Contemporary Theatre for Tale of the Heike, a partnership between playwrights Philip Kan Gotanda and Yussef El Guindi. In addition, Junebug Productions received an award for sponsoring Alleged Lesbian Activities by Last Call: New Orleans Dyke Bar History Project. To learn more about the theater projects and productions backed by MAP grants, explore its grantees page.
Grants for Dance
In dance, MAP unsurprisingly supports diverse artists and productions. For example, Dancers’ Group is a past grantee, for its ARA: Waterways Time Weaves. Li Chiao-Ping Dance was awarded a grant in support of its i-LAND project, a multimedia collaboration between LI Chiao-Ping, a choreographer, and Douglas Rosenberg, a visual artist. To learn more about the dance projects and productions MAP backs, explore its grantees page.
Important Grant Details:
MAP grants typically range from $10,000 to $45,000. It gave out more than $2.8 million in a recent year.
Each two-year project grant of $30,000 includes $5,000 in unrestricted funds and $25,000 for the specific project.
Each grant also includes a $1000 microgrant for artists to give to other creators within their communities.
Many grantees receive personalized coaching through MAP’s Scaffolding for Practicing Artists (SPA) program. Jerome Hill Fellowship artists are automatically invited to be part of the coaching program.
The fund has an open submission policy. Deadline dates are subject to change, but often fall toward the end of September for grants disbursed the following year.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS:
