McMillen Artist Community
Fellowship Program
The Robert B. McMillen Foundation believes in the power of the arts to change lives, to make the world a better place, to build vibrant communities, and to build bridges of understanding. We believe in a just, equitable, and inclusive society and we feel that artists are the key to advancing these ideals.
Since 2004, the Foundation has supported artists and the arts. We continue to look for innovative ways to get the tools artists need into their hands as directly as possible. To that end, we are excited to announce that we are adding a Fellowship program to our lineup of grantmaking strategies.
Our Vision
This program is designed to support Visual Artists of Washington State. Our work aims to dispel the ‘starving artist’ concept and focuses on ensuring artists thrive. Artists thrive when they are paid and/or earn a living wage, when they stop giving their work away for free, when they have opportunities for artistic growth and development, and when they have time and space to devote to creative practice.
The MAC
Connecting dots. We understand that the arts world is small; that we are all interconnected and share similar passions to advance the field together. We realize that convening, networking, and learning together create opportunities to brainstorm and spark ideas and create artistic fire! This is the purpose behind the McMillen Artist Community (MAC). The MAC is a cohort of artists that the Foundation has supported through its scholarship program. To date, we’ve invested over $1.2 Million dollars and have helped 31 artists directly. We look forward to the Fellows that will be joining our growing cohort.
The Robert B. McMillen Foundation believes in the power of the arts to change lives, to make the world a better place, to build vibrant communities, and to build bridges of understanding. We believe in a just, equitable, and inclusive society and we feel that artists are the key to advancing these ideals.
The MAC Fellowship Program is designed to recognize and empower highly-motivated emerging and mid-career artists looking to transition from undiscovered to established, self-sustaining professionals. Aside from artistic merit, artistic excellence, and providing funding to help ensure artists thrive, the Foundation’s Fellowship Program looks to deepen personal connections with individual artists for the purposes of sending out ripples into communities, cities, and our great state. We are looking for artists who push boundaries, provoke and compel, are change makers, mentors, teachers, champions of issues of social justice, messengers, community builders, etc.
There will be two levels of application review: 1) Portfolio, Artist & Impact Statements, and 2) In-person Interview – this will be in a GROUP interview setting. Top candidates will spend the day all together along with our selection committee. Details TBD.
Timeline:
Deadline: Midnight, August 12, 2020
Panel Review: Late Summer/Early Fall 2020
Finalist Notification: Early September 2020
Finalists must attend in-person interview: TBD – Target date during week of Sept 21-25
Award Notification: September 30, 2020
Funding Period: October 1, 2020 – Sept. 30, 2021
Final Report Due: November 30, 2021 or 60 days following expenditure of all funds, if sooner
NOTE: COVID-19 has disrupted all of our lives and we were working on securing a location when the shelter in place orders were issued. Of course everyone has bigger things they are working on, so this has been tabled for now. Rest assured, we’ll let you know as soon as we do! Until then here’s what we CAN tell you: Where? The greater Seattle area. When? A day during the week of September 21-25, 2020.
Want inspiration? Check out last year’s Fellows: https://mcmillenfoundation.org/fellowship-recipients/
