What we are doing

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An art practice is an ongoing process of production based on conceptual and formal investigation. Beside time and access to technical skills, artists need stimulating input, conversations with peers, and exchange with audiences. To facilitate these ongoing processes, Grants for Artists’ Practice has been set up with structured dialogue amongst participating artists and with peers from the advisory committee as one of its main components. Alongside this opportunity for critical feedback, the program provides artists with flexible financial support that can be used towards their livelihood, periods of research, residencies, the production of new work, and curating and presenting shows, amongst other forms of artistic work.

The program provides grants of either 4,000 USD or 8,000 USD to six artists per year and invites them to participate in approximately eight conversations organized by Mophradat. Involving the entire year’s cohort, the conversations take place once a month during the first six months of the grant period and two towards the program’s closure as follows: four individual conversations with peers and four sessions where participants share their current projects and practices, in conversation with the rest of the group, and following this timeline.

The program is only open to those interested and committed to the take part in all the scheduled conversations during the program.

Amongst the peers invited for previous editions are Golrokh Nafisi, Laila Hida, Lydia Ourahmane, Nadim Bahsoun, Noor Abed, Nour Abu Arafeh, Sido Lansari, Simon Asencio, Yasmina Metwaly, and Yasmine El-Rifae.

Specific eligibility criteria

In addition to complying with the general eligibility criteria that you can read here, please note the following:

• Artists must be able to describe and demonstrate their commitment to an ongoing artistic practice and their current engagement in specific projects.
• Artists’ working methodology must be compatible with a progressive and inclusive approach to work.
• Artists must have a track record of previous completed art works/projects.
• Institutions are not eligible to apply but artists can apply to develop, collaborate, or present a project with an institution.
• The application must have a clear intended outcome, whether practical, intellectual, or philosophical.
• The outcome must be achievable within twelve months of the grant submission deadline.
• The program does not cover production and post-production projects for feature films, producing LPs, degree-based study programs (such as MAs or PhDs), nor literary projects, which are eligible for the Writing Sabbaticalsprogram;
• Aiming for balanced professional relationships, Mophradat does not support applications to cover the costs and fees of artists invited to run a workshop, administer, or curate projects in Europe or North America that fall under categories of (temporary) employment in those contexts, and should be covered by those hosts’ institutional budgets.

Process

• Once applications are accepted as having fulfilled the program’s general and specific eligibility criteria, they are evaluated and selected by a group of peers. The peers’ names are communicated after the program recipients are announced.
• Shortlisted applicants may be invited for an online conversation to discuss their application before a final selection is made.
• All applicants, whether selected or not, receive a response to their applications one month after the application deadline.
• Upon selection, the program participants will sign a grant agreement with Mophradat.
• Selected artists participate in six to eight follow-up conversations organized by Mophradat during the course of the grant.
• Funds will be released in a two-stage process: 90 percent when the grant agreement is signed and the remaining 10 percent upon project completion.
• A narrative and financial summary describing how the proposal developed over the grant period and how the program was experienced and how it fulfilled (or not) its overall objective must be submitted by the end date of the grant agreement.

*Please note that due to the high volume of applications and the confidentiality of the selection process, Mophradat cannot provide individual feedback explaining why an application was not selected.

**By applying to this program, you agree that, if selected, you will endeavor to realize your proposal. If the proposal is not realized to an appropriate level of completion within the agreed-upon timeline, you may be asked to partially or fully reimburse Mophradat.

FAQs

You can read the frequently asked questions about this program here.
For any further questions, please email grants [at] mophradat [dot] org