Grants of up to $2,500 to Pennsylvania women artists and cultural producers in eligible counties for projects that positively impact communities and audiences. Funding is intended to support art that aims to create social change and engage larger groups.
Creating social change must be integral to the ideas, beliefs, and goals that are woven throughout the applicant’s art and process of creating and sharing their art. Eligible applicants must live in Greater Philadelphia, in one of the following counties: Bucks, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia County.
The Art and Change Grant is open to individual artists and cultural producers working in any medium, including traditional and nontraditional as well as multimedia and experimental forms. The grant may be used for any project-related expenses (e.g., documentation, artist stipends, or the purchase of equipment or materials).
Art for social change is art with a vision and an intentional analysis. It is an artistic or creative cultural practice that may operate in traditional or nontraditional mediums, modes, or disciplines. Art with a vision impacts people in many ways. It can:
- Raise consciousness
- Alter how people think about themselves, their society, or their culture
- Create a vision of a more just world
- Be a tool or strategy for organizing and movement building
- Preserve or reclaim traditional cultural practices using your artistic practice as a form of resistance or empowerment
- Create space for expression and build a sense of community
- Challenge racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, ableism, or other oppressions
- Question mainstream culture and beliefs
- Shift or transform the perception of power and/or privilege and the dynamics associated with justice, equality, and/or accountability
- Value healing justice practices focused on strengthening communities, not just individuals
- Engage and utilize a reciprocal process — where there is teaching and learning simultaneously and the consent for engagement is mutual, as is the benefit for yourself as an artist and the community you are engaging
Social Change Intent/Vision
Applicants are asked to identify at least one but no more than three social change categories that best describe the intent or vision behind their project.
- Cultural preservation / restoration
- Decarceration
- Demilitarization
- Disability justice
- Economic justice
- Environmental justice
- Feminism
- Immigrant justice
- Indigenous sovereignty
- Land sovereignty / housing security
- LGBQA social movements
- Racial justice
- Transgender justice / gender self-determination
For more details, see here:
Artistic Disciplines
Applicants are asked to choose a primary category, as well as a secondary category if needed, that best represents their project.
Application