FOR REFERENCE ONLY
Guidelines for 2025 Fellowships
*Application Deadline: November 19, 2024, 12:59PM
*Funding Period: August 1, 2025 to December 31, 2026
1. New York Fellowship Program
The New York Fellowship is a 6-month program that provides support to artists and arts and culture professionals working across disciplines, empowering them to take risks, develop their artistic practices, and take time to immerse themselves in the rich and varied cultural life of New York City and the United States.
The New York Fellowship aims to foster Fellows’ understanding of the many diverse cultures and communities in New York City and the U.S. We posit that cultural understanding is uniquely imparted through first-hand experience, regardless of form or method, and that the impact of cultural exchange manifests in diverse ways. We ask applicants to clearly articulate the impact they wish to gain for themselves and others, and what interests them in spending time abroad and exposing themselves to new cultures.
This 6-month grant is not a residency or an individual’s personal public relations tour. Rather, a New York Fellowship is a valuable and rare pause in an artist or art professional’s everyday activities to take a deep dive into a new, rich cultural landscape. ACC hopes that New York Fellows will take the learnings and insights from this cultural exchange experience to influence their own practice, and later contribute to the artistic and cultural communities back home.
New York Fellows are not required to remain in New York City throughout their fellowship. While most New York Fellows will reside in New York City over the course of their fellowship, ACC welcomes applications that propose short visits to other locations in the U.S. ACC encourages New York Fellows to start their fellowship in New York City, to attend orientation and meet co-Fellows and ACC staff.
New York Fellowship Guidelines
2. Individual Fellowship Program
The Individual Fellowship program provides support to artists and arts and culture professionals working in ACC’s eligible disciplines, empowering them to take risks, develop their artistic practices through research projects, and take time to immerse themselves in a different culture.
ACC emphasizes that an Individual Fellowship is not a residency, a fund to attend a singular conference, travel grant, or an individual’s personal public relations tour. Rather, ACC expects Individual Fellows to be self-directed and have focused research questions and/or activities that that enable and promote cultural immersion, dialogue, relationship-building, collaboration, and/or exchange of knowledge among peers.
Compared to the New York Fellowship, the Individual Fellowship has more flexibility and freedom regarding location and timing of travel, travel length, and budget.
Individual Fellowship Guidelines
3. Graduate Fellowship
The Asian Cultural Council gives a small number of grants to students admitted to a graduate degree program in the United States. Graduate Fellows must be enrolled in a program that falls within the 16 accepted disciplines.
Funding is intended to cover travel and living expenses related to graduate study. Tuition costs are not supported.
ACC prioritizes applicants who choose to study in the U.S. because comparable programs are not available in their home countries/territories/regions and/or because they work in a field that is underrepresented in their home countries/territories/regions. Through the Graduate Fellowship, ACC aims to advance international cultural exchange and to contribute to the diversification of scholarly narratives and critical discourses through increasing access to academic training in the arts and cultural fields.
Graduate Fellowships are awarded for one academic year, with the possibility of renewing for one (1) additional year. One academic year in this application cycle would include the full-time pursuit of coursework from the Fall 2025 to Spring 2026 semesters or from the Spring 2026 to Fall 2026 semesters.
Graduate Fellowship Guidelines
4. Organization Grant
ACC’s Organization Grants provide support to organizations that:
- Conduct programming that will benefit from cultural immersion, research, increased access to artistic communities or cultural resources in a specific country, territory, or region, and/or the exchange of knowledge amongst peers; and
- Intend to build organizational or regional capacities of cultural exchange activities through workshops, dialogue, specialized training, etc.
Organization Grants are not intended to solely support travel to specific conferences, performances, or gallery showings; in other words, they are not simply travel grants. Instead, ACC’s Organization Grants support a range of activities that enable a deep cultural exchange experience for the organization and all grant activity participants. Applicants should thoughtfully consider their community and how their proposed activities and cultural exchange will impact their organization, activity participants, and larger community.
Please refer to ACC Global website https://www.asianculturalcouncil.org/our-work/programs/fellowships-and-grants for more details.