Was Your Exhibition Canceled? There’s a New Grant for That

San Francisco gallery Ever Gold [Projects] and the Internet Archive, who usually partner on an annual residency program, have instead diverted this year’s residency funds into grants for Bay Area artists. The Bay Area Emerging Visual Artist Exhibition Production Relief Grant is specifically geared to assist those who made work for shows that are now either delayed or outright canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The relief grant will award a total of $30,000, in increments of $1,000 each, to 30 artists. A jury of four arts professionals will evaluate the applications, basing their decisions on documentation of the work made to be shown, summaries of production costs, and a draft or finished exhibition press release.

The grant is narrow in scope, but addresses the precarious financial standing of the local emerging art scene. Many artists spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars out of pocket to prepare for commercial exhibitions—expenses that are only recouped if dealers succeed in selling their work. (Even in ordinary times, this system puts a burden on artists, since payments from galleries are not usually distributed until after a show closes.)

Only Bay Area artists who were preparing to show at a local commercial gallery are eligible to apply for the relief grant. They must have had a solo, two or three-person exhibition scheduled between March and September 2020 that was canceled or delayed due to the pandemic.

Like we’ve seen with other relief funds, speed is of the essence here: applications for the relief grant open Tuesday, May 12 at 9am, with only 400 slots available. The applications will remain open until 4pm on Friday, May 15.

In addition to the $1,000 grants, the project will include an online exhibition featuring the awardees, to take place in June.

For more information, see here.