Grants Program

Every year, the Brandeis Division of Creative Arts gives grants to support original creative work by Brandeis students, staff and faculty for the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. Proposals for works of music, theater, performance, and visual art are all welcome, and interdisciplinary proposals are especially encouraged.

Grants range from $50 to $500 and are used for materials and services needed for your project. 

The next Festival of the Arts takes place April 25 through May 1, 2020. The grant application is online. Completed applications are due Jan. 20, 2020. You will be notified of the selection results by Feb. 8, 2020.

DEADLINE EXTENDED FOR EARLY INTEREST FORM: You may also submit an early interest form by Jan. 9, 2020 to receive feedback on your proposal.

A grant is not necessary to participate in the Festival. Here are other ways to participate:

1. Apply to give a 20-minute performance on the afternoon of Sunday, April 26, 2020 in select locations on lower campus. Performances need to be family friendly and require minimal technical support. Apply by Feb. 2, 2020.
2. Are you producing your own event? Arts events on campus that take place on campus between April 25 through May 1, 2020 will be considered for inclusion in official Festival publicity. Fill out the publicity form by Feb. 2, 2020.

Festival Theme

The theme of the 2020 festival is ROOTS AND ROUTES. We are looking for proposals that engage with:

• Tradition
• Uprooting
• Movement toward the unknown
• Migration
• Dissolving, expanding, or shifting boundaries

Questions you might ask yourself:

• What overlapping trajectories or counter-movements interest you?
• What are the forces that uproot?
• What is centering or grounding to you?
• What happens when ideas take root to make space for change?

One way -- but not the only way -- to think about “roots and routes” is through the context of the African diaspora, the study of which uses the phrase to describe the dispersal of African-descended people.

Dream big and be ready to rethink and refine. We want to see you succeed, and the most successful projects in the past have been the ones that went through a good deal of thoughtful revision.

Resources

• Talk with your professors and with the Brandeis Arts Engagement team, Ingrid Schorr and Ingrid Pabon, about your proposal.

• Review the grant guidelines and advice from previous grant recipients.

• Prepare a preliminary budget by researching the materials and services you anticipate needing. The Arts Engagement team, your professors, or your department staff can be helpful here!

• Read the list of last year's grant recipients and the Festival of the Arts report.

• Talk to potential collaborators, from Brandeis or elsewhere.

• Readings about how to do creative work around cultures other than your own; racial justice and cultural appropriation; and cultural appropriation in the visual arts.