Harpo Foundation: Call for Applications. Deadline = April 15, 2010

Call-for-Applications from qualifed non-profits for the Foundation's 2010 funding cycle.

Harpo Foundation was established in 2006 to support artists who are under recognized by the field. This applies to all artists whether emerging or further along in their careers. We view the definitions of art and artist to be open-ended and expansive.

Funding Focus for 2010
The relationship between art and site in an era defined by digital technologies is the focus for Harpo Foundation's 2010 funding cycle. Of specific interest is the dialectic between the non-locality of the digital world and the existential physicality of our everyday environment. For example, our sense of place is being drastically altered by web space, which brings geographically distant locations together to form a new kind of locality, yet what's small, local, personal, political and natural informs our vision for a sustainable future; the search for place-bound identity persists.

When site-specific art emerged in the late 1960´s, the physical and experiential qualities of a fixed and permanent location inspired the art. Since then, 'site' has been redefined endlessly, turning the tangible, grounded concept into something fluid and transient. Interestingly, in our everyday lives, the local is often seen as losing ground to globalizing dynamics, evoking the question, has place become an ephemeral, fleeting image?

The Foundation is interested in how artists are reclaiming the significance of the local while simultaneously placing themselves and their creative lives within a global context. We are interested in supporting projects that are grounded in the real world, that will draw upon local phenomena, activate social relationships to inspire a community, trigger memory to recall a place’s unique history, to name just a few of the ways we see artists addressing site today. We are also interested in supporting projects that explore the idea of place using technologies that challenge our traditional notions of what qualifies as locality.

In pursuing this direction for one year, we hope to shed light on how artists today are locating or siting their work in a dematerializing world and the Foundation will prioritize projects that expand, explore, critique, reconcile, and challenge this 21st century phenomenon.

Grant Guidelines

The next deadline is April 15, 2010. Grantees will be notified by November 1, 2010.