Apply Now | NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Work

Cross-disciplinary NYS-based artist? Apply for a $7,000 cash award.

First launched in 1985, the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Program has provided more than $30 million in unrestricted cash grants to New York State-based individual and collaborative artists of all disciplines. The $7,000 cash award is unrestricted, and can be used in any manner the artists deem necessary to further their careers. It is not a project grant and is intended to fund an artist’s vision or voice regardless of the level of their artistic development.

The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship is offered in 15 different disciplines over a three-year period. The 2018 categories include Interdisciplinary Work as well as Folk/Traditional Arts, Fiction, Painting, and Video/Film. 

The Interdisciplinary Work category accepts submissions from artists combining or crossing disciplines, either within a single piece or throughout a body of work. This work may draw on traditions from visual arts, especially those with a performative, political, and/or social aspect. Examples include, but are not limited to: participatory installations or environments, live art, and public art. Theater, dance, or visual art that employs traditional methods of exploration are not appropriate for this category. You may not submit manuscripts. Live performances cannot be attended by the panelists to review.

Past NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellows in Interdisciplinary Work include:

• Brandon Ballengée (’15)
• Daniel Bejar (’15)
• Jesse Bercowetz and Matt Bua (’09)
• Zachary Fabri (’12)
• Karen Finley (’01)
• Joseph Keckler (’12)
• Larry Krone (’15)
• Monika Weiss (’09)

Deadline: Wednesday, January 24, 2018, 11:59 PM (EST)

Application Materials

• Work Statement – 100 words (max)
• Excerpt Explanation – 400 words (max)
• Technical Statement – 200 words (max) (optional)
• Cultural Statement – 400 words (max) (optional)
• Work Samples – 10 digital images with descriptions and/or 1 to 2 videos or 2 excerpts

Eligibility Guidelines

• You must be 25 years old or older
• You must be a current resident of New York State and/or one of the Indian Nations located in New York State, and have been a resident for at least the last two consecutive years prior to the application deadline (2016 & 2017)
• At the time of the application deadline you must not be enrolled in a degree-seeking program of any kind
• You must not have received a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in any disciplines in the last five years (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), and cannot submit any artwork samples that have been previously awarded a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship
• Fellowships are not awarded to interpretive artists such as dancers or actors; applicants must be the originators of the work; i.e. choreographers or playwrights
• Artists that have been awarded five NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships receive Emeritus Status and are no longer eligible to appy
• You must not be a NYFA employee, member of the NYFA Board of Trustees or Artists’ Advisory Committee, an immediate family member of any of the above, or an immediate family member of a 2017-2018 panelist

Apply Now!

Visit Submittable to start your application.

For more information about the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, read the 2018 Application Overview, review the guidelines for Interdisciplinary Work, and consult our Frequently Asked Questions page.

NYFA is pleased to announce that the name of this award has changed to NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship. NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships are administered with leadership support from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Image: (detail) Erica Magrey (Fellow in Interdisciplinary Work ‘12), Costume-Object Workshop, 2011, film still