Henri Bonaventure Monnier, “The Painter’s Studio” (ca. 1855) (courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Since March of 2019, Hyperallergic has offered this monthly resource for artists and creatives to share their work and find new opportunities. Arts and culture have since been severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, with grants and paid opportunities for independent artists and cultural organizations more important than ever.

  • Apply for the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation emergency grant. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. | Gottlieb Foundation
  • Submit art featuring public health and safety messages about flattening the curve, and art promoting mental health and social change, to Amplifier’s Global Open Call For Art. Guest curated by a rotating list of art professionals; the first curators are Nancy Spector, Hank Willis Thomas, and Shepard Fairey. Thirty winning artists will be awarded $1,000 each. | Amplifier
  • Women artists over 40 are eligible for Anonymous Was a Woman‘s emergency relief grant, which will distribute $250,000 in grants, up to $2,500 apiece, during the COVID-19 crisis. Applications will be open April 6-8. | NYFA
  • Submit fiction and nonfiction writing to issue 14 of Apogee. | Apogee
  • You can apply for or donate to the Arts Leaders of Color Emergency Fund. | GoFundMe
  • Apply for assistance from the Authors League Fund. | ALF
  • You can apply for the 2020 Black Spatial Relics Micro Grants for Community Care and Collective Research through April 15. | Black Spatial Relics
  • The 6th Border Biennial, a collaboration between the El Paso Museum of Art and the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez, has launched an open call for participants. Applications are open through April 15. | Border Biennial
  • Playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists are invited to apply for the Bret Adams & Paul Reisch Foundation COVID-19 response grant lottery. | Reisch Foundation
  • Artists in the Gulf South (LA, AL, MS, FL, and TX) can apply for Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans‘s Call for Artists for its upcoming exhibition Make America What America Must Become. Applications close April 30. | CAC
  • CUE Art Foundation and the US International Association of Art Critics (AICA) are looking for writers to write critical essays about Yara El-Sherbini (based in Santa Barbara, CA; deadline April 9) and James Maurelle (based in Philadelphia, PA; deadline May 12). | CUE
  • Apply for the Define American Immigrant Artist Fellowship through April 5. | Define American
  • Apply for the Dramatists Guild Foundation‘s emergency grants. | DGF
  • Musicians impacted by coronavirus can apply for Equal Sound‘s corona relief fund. | Equal Sound
  • Applications for Firelight’s William Greaves Fund for mid-career filmmakers of color are open through April 26. | Firelight
  • Apply to the Foundation for Contemporary Arts‘s COVID-19 emergency grants. | FCA
  • Hyperallergic and Y.ES Contemporary are accepting applications for a 2020 arts writers grant; writers interested in covering contemporary arts in and about El Salvador should apply by May 15. | Hyperallergic
  • Newark, New Jersey-based artists and cultural organizations can apply for the city’s Creative Catalyst Fund until May 1. | City of Newark
  • Apply for PEN America‘s Writers’ Emergency Fund. | PEN
  • You can apply for or donate to the Queer Writers of Color Relief Fund. | GoFundMe
  • Apply for the Schaufler Residency@TU Dresden through May 10. | TU Dresden
  • Applications for SculptureCenter‘s 2021 In Practice Call for Artist Proposals are open through June 15. | SculptureCenter
  • Filmmakers can submit to the 2020 Sharjah Art Foundation Film Platform through April 26. | Sharjah Art
  • Apply for the Studio Museum’s 2020–21 Artists-in-Residence Program. Applications must be submitted by May 1. | Studio Museum
  • Emerging and mid-career artists can apply to Trestle Gallery‘s open call for a group exhibition curated by Mrs., part of the gallery’s Artist-Run 2020 series. | Trestle Gallery
  • The Trust for Governors Island is seeking proposals for the island’s art and culture. Applications are open until May 29. | Governors Island
  • The Women’s Center for Creative Work is offering $1,000 grants for artists who are immunocompromised, disabled, chronically ill, undocumented, caregivers, or food or housing insecure. There is a weekly deadline every Friday. | WCCW
  • Burnaway, Common Field, Creative Capital, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation also have comprehensive roundups sharing COVID-19 relief opportunities.

There’s still time to apply for opportunities that appeared in March’s “Opportunities for Artists”:

  • Black, brown, and Indigenous filmmakers are invited to submit their narrative, documentary, and experimental films to BlackStar Film Festival. The late deadline is April 13. | Film Freeway
  • The 2020 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film is accepting applications through May 1. | Better Angels Society
  • The NYC Department of Cultural Affairs will welcome four artists to its Public Artists in Residence (PAIR) program in 2020, who will work with four city agencies (Civic Engagement Commission, Department of Sanitation, Commission on Human Rights, and Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice). Application deadlines were extended to April 26. | NYC Culture
  • The Oklahoma Visual Arts Commission is seeking applications from Oklahoma artists for its traveling 24 Works on Paper exhibition through May 1. | OVAC
  • The Palestinian Museum has opened a call for papers for the museum’s research and civic engagement program. Submissions deadlines were extended to May 15. | Palestinian Museum
  • Project for Empty Space is seeking applicants for its Artist in Residence program. Applications are due May 1. | PES

Check out even more opportunities at hyperallergic.com/opportunities.

2 replies on “Opportunities for Artists in April 2020”

  1. Sorry to rain on the parade, but it really just angers me that there are those who would take advantage of artists’ general condition of financial precarity at a time like this. Waiting weeks, if ever, to hear from a curator or a selection committee after filling out countless application forms and submitting countless resumes, an artist statement and dozens of images only to be rejected once again because you didn’t qualify for whatever reason you may never know and the rent is still due and neither can you qualify for unemployment. Emergency funding should be made immediately, now, for anyone who truly needs it. Otherwise, these ‘opportunity’ announcements to compete with others for token awards simply border on added cruelty.

    1. “those who would take advantage of artists’ general condition of financial precarity”

      That’s pretty much he standard state of affairs for most artists.

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