The intent of the Illinois Artist Fellowship is to enrich and strengthen the state by supporting accomplished Illinois artists who are the foundation of Illinois' creative environment. The Artist Fellowship Program recognizes exceptional artists who have created a substantial body of work throughout their career by providing awards to support continued artistic growth.
The IAC will provide a limited number of $15,000 awards across the following discipline categories: Crafts, Digital Arts, Ethnic & Folk Arts, New Art Forms and Visual Based Arts
A limited number of $1,500 Finalist Awards will also be given.
In the next application cycle (FY25), the discipline categories of Literature (Poetry, Prose, Scriptworks) Media Arts, Music (Compositional Music, Improvisational Music) and Performance-Based Arts (Choreography, New Performance Forms) will be reviewed.
To be considered, applicants must:
Be current legal residents of the state of Illinois and have been for the twelve months prior to the application deadline.
Have created a substantial, independent body of work over at least a five-year professional art career
Have made a recognized contribution to their discipline through public presentation of their work.
Demonstrate a high-aesthetic level of artistic ability with a strong consistency of expression throughout their professional arts career.
Provide evidence of continued commitment to serious and exceptional aesthetic investigation in his or her chosen medium
This is not a project-specific grant. The Artist Fellowship Program is meant for artists whose work is of exceptional artistic merit and who are at a career stage beyond emerging.
Applying artists must upload or link to work samples. Work samples submitted via a link (ex. YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) must be public and without password protection.
Deadline: November 3, 2023, 11:59 pm.
Application Assistance
In FY22 the IAC transferred to a new online system that is different than the SlideRoom system used in previous years. If you are a first-time applicant to IAC you must create your applicant account within Salesforce to complete the application. This can be found on the "Applicant Information" tab in the system and then clicking the "New" button.
Drop-in session for questions on the program or online platform, there is no pre-registration for the drop-in session. To join, click on the link at the meeting time:
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