Rules & Eligibility

Individual, professional artists may apply for an award of $5,000 to help underwrite the costs of creating new works of exceptional quality. Awards are granted for the creation of new, original work. The Foundation makes awards for a specific project to originators/ creators of art and artistic production. The Foundation does not normally make awards to artists solely for performance (singer, dancer, musician, actor, etc.) unless it is in the context of an original project. This distinction should be carefully noted before undertaking the work entailed in applying for an award.

NEW FOR 2011 - Only one application per individual may be submitted during each grant cycle.

Who May Apply:

• Foundation awards are open to individual working artists who create original work
• All artists must be United States citizens or Resident Aliens
• All applicants must be residents of Bexar County, Texas for:
  • 12 consecutive months, as of the date of application
  • if awarded, applicant must maintain permanent residency in San Antonio during the grant period
• Artists who are proposing projects must demonstrate one or more of the following characteristics:
  • a potential for artistic growth and experimentation
  • a significant shift in their work
  • challenging and innovative exploration with new materials, concepts or creative practices and processes
  • only professional artists (defined below) demonstrating high artistic quality should apply
• All applicants must be 18 years old as of the date of application
• Applicants must have exhibited, performed, presented and/or published artisitic work in a public context in the past three years
• The Foundation will confirm applicant eligibility

Definition of Professional Artists

Individuals are considered to be professional artists if they:

• earn at least part of their annual income in their artistic disciplines
• consider their artistic endeavors a career
• make a significant time investment in their artistic disciplines through practice, performance and production

Who May Not Apply:

• Current panelists and their relatives are not eligible to apply.
• Groups of artists are not eligible; only individual artists may apply.
• You may not apply if you are a student:
  • enrolled full-time in any course of study,
  • or planning to enroll full-time in any course of study.
• Awards may not be used to support academic research or to fund study toward an academic professional degree.
• Artist Foundation awards are not awarded to commercial artists or crafts-makers or any artist whose work primarily falls into commercial, advertising art, crafts and decorative art categories.
• Previous Foundation award recipients may not reapply for 5 grant cycles and must have submitted their final grant report to the Artist Foundation in order to be considered eligible.

What is Not funded:

The Foundation does not make grants to pay for:

• past debts or legal fees
• the purchase of real estate
• moves to other cities
• the costs of installations, commissions or projects ordered by others

Normally, the Foundation will not support travel grants.

Robert L.B. Tobin Grand Prize for Artistic Excellence:

All winners from all categories will be considered for the Robert L.B. Tobin Grand Prize for Artistic Excellence in the amount of $7,500. The Foundation Board of Directors will select the recipient.