MAP Fund 2024 Grant Cycle

The MAP Fund 2024 grant cycle will provide grants to more than 90 new, live performance projects across the lands now known as the United States, including its territories and Indigenous tribal nations within. Each grantee will receive: a $25,000 grant for the creation and development of a new, live performance project, a $5,000 unrestricted general operating grant, and a $1,000 microgrant to redistribute to another artist in their community. The artist(s) will choose a “grant custodian” and collaborate with the grant custodian regarding how and when the funds will be distributed. The grant custodian, who receives the funds on behalf of the project, can be an individual with an SSN or ITIN, or an entity with one of these incorporation structures: 501©(3), LLC, or S-Corps.

Requirements

The grant program’s purpose is to support the creation of new, live performance projects that will be experienced by communities throughout what is now known as the United States, including its territories and Indigenous tribal nations within. They welcome dance, theater, and music projects, as well as multi-disciplinary and experimental projects that may be difficult to categorize but are clearly intended to result in new, live performance work. Please note, however, that requests for any of the following are outside of the scope of what MAP funds can support, and will render an application ineligible:

– The creation of recorded albums, films, visual art, or digital art rather than live performance work
– Producing festivals, showcases, competitions, performance platforms, series, or marketing events
– Work that will be experienced primarily by audiences outside of what is now known as the United States, including its territories and Indigenous tribal nations within
– Re-working/re-envisioning a performance that already premiered, including “classics,” repertory, or any past works (whether by the project’s team or other artists)
– A premiere before September 2024, which is the earliest that funds could become available to grantees who complete their paperwork
– Touring after the project’s premiere
– Fulfilling academic requirements
– Teaching youth or adults how to make art
– Art therapy
– General operating

MAP staff read every submitted application to confirm eligibility, and proposals that do not clearly meet the above criteria and/or have insufficient information will be deemed ineligible.

They encourage applications from artists whose performance-making is intended to be–or is coded by the dominant culture as–radical, bold, experimental, and risky in its design, execution, and community resonance. MAP might not be the best fit for you if your work would be considered to include conventional and/or commercial dance, music, or theater practices in its form, content, and/or creation process. Reviewers will assess projects on how they demonstrate potential to exemplify and/or expand upon MAP’s mission to invest in performing artists and their work as the critical foundation of imagining and co-creating a more equitable and vibrant society. Reviewers search for evidence of this potential in how applicants speak to:

– Their experimentation with performance forms and content that aims to advance conversations, perceptions, and/or policies.
– Their effort toward creating an artistic process that treats all participants with care and respect, especially in relation to existing systems of oppression.
Following the review process, applicants selected for an award must adhere to the following criteria:
– The artists will be responsible for choosing a US-based grant custodian. The grant custodian can be an individual with an SSN or ITIN, or an entity with one of these incorporation structures: 501©(3), LLC, or S-Corps.
– Applicants intend to spend the grant down from September 2024 to August 2026 (subject to extension on a case-by-case basis)

Application Instructions

Apply through the application portal.