Artist Development Fellowships

Do you have a unique opportunity to develop your skills? Apply for an Artist Development Fellowship.

*2020 Artist Development Fellow Alexandra Kim ’22. Geography: salmon stoneware clay, 11” diameter, 20” height*

Each year, the OFA awards 10-15 Artist Development Fellowships to student artists and creators who have an unusual opportunity for artistic growth and transformation. These could include apprenticeships, research, creating new work, or living and working in an environment that will foster the applicant’s creative development.

Artist Development Fellowships are intended to nurture the artistic development of promising and/or accomplished students in the arts who, it is hoped, will one day look back on this opportunity and mark it as a significant contributor to their creative development.

Fellowships are open to sophomores and juniors currently enrolled in Harvard College. Applicants must undertake projects that will be completed prior to graduation. Fellowships are not awarded to first-year students or seniors except in extraordinary circumstances.

Students are invited to attend information sessions offered in December and January and apply by the deadlines listed below.

Key Dates

To be announced

Guidelines

Eligibility

The program is open to:

Current Harvard College undergraduates, sophomore through first-semester senior.
Enrolled full-time during the spring term of the application period.
In good academic standing at time of application and at the end of the spring semester.
Keep in mind that we encourage you to apply for all funding sources for which you are eligible. If you receive funding from another source, you must notify us immediately.
Please note that Harvard College students can only accept one funded summer experience each summer. For the latest information, see Harvard College’s Summer Funding Policy.
It is the responsibility of Fellowship recipients to ensure their ability to complete any programs that are part of their Fellowship proposal and that they are applying for funding.
Artist Development Fellowships are not transferable. If your project proposal or location changes significantly, please contact Stephanie Troisi, Student Services Coordinator to submit a repurposing request to seek approval for change of use of your Fellowship award.

Benefits

The Artist Development Fellowship program supports the work of Fellowship recipients through:

Financial assistance: The number and amount of awards will vary each year, subject to program funding and individual project budgets. Awards will likely be in the $1,000 to $5,000 range. OCS awards for international experiences will be in the $5,000-$7,000 range depending on the country visited.
Community building: Each year, opportunities will be provided for Fellowship recipients to share their work, meet periodically and engage in discussion and exchange of ideas with visiting professional artists.

What we ordinarily fund

Artist Development Fellowships are awarded annually by the Council on the Arts, a standing committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Fellowships support student development in the practice of the arts, including but not limited to work in the following disciplines: dance, literature, music, theater, studio art, film, mixed media and arts practices that are multi-disciplinary in nature.

The Council considers fellowship requests for:

research and development of individual artistic projects that are crucial to the development of the artist
domestic or international travel in order to apprentice and/or work with individual artists, programs and/or artistic companies
interdisciplinary work—not necessarily work that combines art forms, but work that links the artistic/creative process to a wholly different field in a way that sheds new perspective and/or understanding of each

Other types of funding requests will be considered, provided that individual artistic development is at the core of the proposal.

Candidates must demonstrate unusual accomplishment in the arts and/or evidence of significant artistic promise. The work outlined in the proposal must constitute a truly exceptional opportunity for artistic growth. The Council encourages applicants to seek funding for proposals from other sources in addition to this program.

What we do not ordinarily fund

The Council generally will not fund proposals supporting thesis projects, post-production work on film and video, attendance at conferences, housing costs alone or private music lessons that could be supported through the OFA's Music Lesson Subsidy Program.

Reporting requirements

During their year-long Fellowship, recipients will be asked to:

Attend occasional artist fellows gatherings throughout the year
Submit a final report discussing work completed during the year, as well as samples of work, if possible
Share their work within the Harvard Community

Apply Now

Apply through Harvard's CARAT application system ↗

Student Services & Funding Contact

Please reach out with any questions about your funding needs.

Stephanie Troisi

troisi@fas.harvard.edu

Student Services Coordinator

Stephanie Troisi is an arts administrator, with experience in theater and box office management. As student services coordinator, Stephanie administers funding opportunities for undergraduates including music lesson subsidies, project grants for arts...