Kinetic Grants are awards up to   $5000   to fund an artist’s production for a new project with a publicly accessible component. 

Examples may include but are in no way limited to exhibitions, performances, videos or film screenings, books/zines/brochures.
 

Jurors will prioritize proposals that are:

• Firmly rooted in visual art. Projects must be visual arts–based in their materials, methods, or goals. Interdisciplinary approaches are welcome, but proposals should demonstrate how visual art is central to the work.
• Innovative and original. We’re looking for ideas that feel fresh—projects that take risks, experiment with form or format, or offer something unexpected. Innovation doesn’t have to mean high-tech; it might mean a new context, a surprising collaboration, or responding to a community need with creativity.
• Publicly accessible. Funded projects must be shared with the public in Erie or Niagara Counties. This can take many forms: an exhibition, screening, lecture, publication, installation, performance, workshop, or something else entirely.
• Grounded in purpose. We’re drawn to projects that feel specific and intentional—not vague concepts, but clear ideas that reflect the artist’s voice and vision.

Potential Grants are awards up to   $10,000   and are intended to act as seed fund for longer-term projects that foster experimentation, collaboration, and community.

Examples may include, but are not limited to, exhibition spaces (from formal to informal; your bedroom to a rented space); podcasts or radio stations; zines or forums for arts writing; collective spaces; community gardens; public lecture series. This grant is meant to fund artists in collaboration to create new platforms for presentation.
 

Across both grant types, jurors will prioritize proposals that are:

• Firmly rooted in visual art. Projects must be visual arts–based in their materials, methods, or goals. Interdisciplinary approaches are welcome, but proposals should demonstrate how visual art is central to the work.
• Innovative and original. We’re looking for ideas that feel fresh—projects that take risks, experiment with form or format, or offer something unexpected. Innovation doesn’t have to mean high-tech; it might mean a new context, a surprising collaboration, or responding to a community need with creativity.
• Publicly accessible. Funded projects must be shared with the public in Erie or Niagara Counties. This can take many forms: an exhibition, screening, lecture, publication, installation, performance, workshop, or something else entirely.
• Grounded in purpose. We’re drawn to projects that feel specific and intentional—not vague concepts, but clear ideas that reflect the artist’s voice and vision.

Potential Grants in particular should also show:

• Collaborative thinking and long-term potential. These projects should build something durable—an ongoing platform, publication, or structure that opens space for future work.