Inquiry Form deadline: Sep 15, 2014
Inquiry Form available: Jul 15, 2014

Priorities and Criteria

For individuals, our priorities are to:

• Provide opportunities to create, develop, and communicate a project about architecture and the designed environment that will contribute to their creative, intellectual, and professional growth at crucial or potentially transformative stages in their careers.
• Support their efforts to take positions, develop new forms of expression, and engage debate.
• Help them communicate their work in the public realm and reach new and wider audiences.
• Support new voices by giving priority to first-time applicants.

Overall we are most interested in opportunities which enable us to provide critical support at key points in the development of a project or career.

Criteria for Evaluation

Given our priorities, we believe projects of the greatest potential should fulfill the following criteria:

• Originality: the project demonstrates an innovative, challenging idea; critical, independent thinking; advanced scholarship; a new or experimental approach
• Potential for impact: the project makes a meaningful contribution to discourse and/or to the field; expands knowledge; is a catalyst for future inquiry; raises awareness of an understudied issue; promotes diversity in subject matter, participants, and audience
• Feasibility: the project has clear and realistic goals, timeframe, work plan, and budget
• Capacity: applicant possesses strong qualifications and/or knowledge; demonstrates ability to carry out the project successfully; has access to necessary resources outside of the grant request

Grant Types

The Graham Foundation offers two types of grants to individuals: Production and Presentation Grants and Research and Development Grants.

Production and Presentation Grants:

These grants assist individuals with the production-related expenses that are necessary to take a project from conceptualization to realization and public presentation. These projects include, but are not limited to, publications, exhibitions, installations, films, new media projects, and other public programs.

Projects must have clearly defined goals, work plans, budgets, and production and dissemination plans.

Committed Producers: Individuals applying for Production and Presentation Grants should have a Committed Producer(s) for the project, that is, an entity committed to producing and/or presenting the project with the individual, such as a publisher, exhibition venue, etc.

Grant amount: Production and Presentation Grants to individuals do not exceed $20,000 and are likely to be less. Given the demand for funding, the Graham Foundation is not always able to fund projects at the full request amount.

Grant period: Production and Presentation Grants must be completed within two years. Applicants should allow sufficient time to plan, implement, close out their project, and, if funded, acknowledge Graham Foundation support in all published media.

Research and Development Grants:

Though the majority of our grantmaking focuses on Production and Presentation Grants, we recognize that projects may require support at early stages of formation. Research and Development Grants assist individuals with seed money for research-related expenses such as travel, documentation, materials, supplies, and other development costs. Projects must have clearly defined goals, work plans, and budgets.

Upon completion of research projects, recipients of Research and Development Grants must complete a research report and provide documentation that can be archived at the Graham Foundation and/or presented on our website.

A recipient of a Research and Development Grant is eligible to apply for a Production and Presentation Grant for the same project once the first grant has been satisfied, however, future funding is not guaranteed.

Grant amount: Research and Development Grants do not exceed $10,000 and are likely to be less. Given the demand for funding, the Graham Foundation is not always able to fund grantees at the full request amount.