2026 Grants & Teaching Artist Applications Now Open
Stella Magloire, 2025 BAC Grantee. Photo by Dante Crichlow.
BAC Grants and Teaching Artist applications as well as Grant Panelist nominations are NOW OPEN! This year, all applications are hosted on Submittable. If you haven’t used this platform in the past, you will need to make a new account.
All Applications Open: September 4, 2025
Teaching Artist Applications Close: September 28, 2025
Grant Panelist Applications Close: October 21, 2025
Grant Applications Close: November 7, 2025
Additional information and guidelines can be found on our website. Review the guidelines for each opportunity thoroughly to ensure you are eligible. To access all applications, click here. BAC staff will be hosting a series of Information Sessions for both Grants and Teaching Artist opportunities. Attendance is highly encouraged.
Spread the word! Let your artist networks know about BAC's opportunities and encourage them to sign up for our newsletter. Also, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for the latest updates and announcements.
The People’s Runway is happening this Sunday!
Brooklyn Arts Council is proud to be a support partner on The People’s Runway. Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Arts Ambassador Colm Dillane, the creative force behind cultural brand KidSuper, are proud to announce a fashion show to take place outside at Brooklyn Borough Hall Plaza as part of the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s (CFDA) 2025 New York Fashion Week. The People’s Runway will take place at 8pm on Sunday, September 14, and will feature work from five emerging Brooklyn designers. Doors will open at 7:15pm. The event is open to the public, first-come first-served, and standing room only. ADA accommodations will be available. The People’s Runway is also made possible with the support of partners Fashion Week Brooklyn, Chemistry Creative, City Point, AOFM, Unite, Brooklyn Brewery, and Voss.
After releasing an open call for emerging designers earlier this year, Reynoso and Dillane reviewed hundreds of applications and selected five Brooklyn-based designers to receive mentorship from Dillane and show their work at The People’s Runway.
See you there!
The Six Foot Platform Returns
The Six Foot Platform returns this fall, and with it, Washington Street “will transform into an epicenter of performance art”! For a fifth year Dumbo, Brooklyn & BAC present experimental performance by Brooklyn-based artists on car-free Washington Street, Saturdays from 12-6pm.
The 2025 Season presents:
September 6: Eiko Nishida: Bark Tarot
September 13: Christopher Ender Coryat: Face to Face Toilets (Revisited)
September 20: Mikaela Perry: Dumbo Dreams
September 27: Maria Camia: An Ari and Cama Massage
October 4: Ashley Palmer: Safe Space
October 11: Sole Talk Youth
October 18: Mike Durkin: Mending Quilt
BAC Grantee & Partner Events
Martina Abrahams: Black Storytelling Week Celebration
Martina Abrahams is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
September 13 | 12pm | 158 Buffalo Ave, BK
Join us Saturday, September 13 for a day of free family arts workshops to celebrate Black Storytelling Week! A new annual holiday, Black Storytelling Week is dedicated to passing down Black family history . Bring your grandma, your play cousins, your love, or your best friends- whether your family is adopted, biological, or chosen, this celebration is for you. Come preserve your family’s stories through a series of free arts workshops for all ages: * Zine-making * Family portraits * Oral history interviews * Farmers and community market
Artifact No. 18 - An Experimental Music Series
Artifact is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
September 16 | 7pm | Sleepwalk - 251 Bushwick Ave, BK
Artifact No. 18 showcases an evening focused on experimental drone, noise, and free improvisation. This month's iteration features the performers Leila Bordreuil, Bob Bellerue, and Tom Borax. Artifact is a monthly experimental music series curated by Brian Wenner and Matthew Ryals.
Iviva Olenick: Brooklyn Embroidered Oral History Garden Tours
Iviva Olenick is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
September 20 | 1pm | Wyckoff Farm - 5816 Clarendon Road, BK
Join Wyckoff Farm on Farmhouse Family Day, featuring a Soil Studies discussion by Wyckoff Farm staff, followed by painting and printing with natural inks and plants found on the farm, led by Iviva Olenick. This event is geared towards adults and families with children ages 8-12. An earlier soil studies tour, led by Wyckoff staff, will take place from 11am-12pm, geared towards families with 4-7 year olds. The craft activities, mud painting, will be led by Wyckoff staff.
Lucia Warck-Meister: Braids and Folktales
Lucia Warck-Meister is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
September 24 | 5pm | Brenda Hair Salon - 719 5th Avenue, BK
Braids & Folktales is a welcoming and interactive community gathering where personal stories and cultural traditions intertwine. Guests are invited to receive a free braid from professional hairdressers in exchange for sharing a folktale from their heritage. Led by artist Lucia Warck-Meister as part of her project Anahí and the Ceibo Tree, the event transforms a neighborhood salon into a space of cultural exchange, where braiding becomes both a ritual of care and a metaphor for weaving memories together. Through storytelling, conversation, and the tactile art of braiding, participants of all ages connect across generations and cultures, preserving ancestral knowledge while creating new shared experiences.
ROHAN BHARGAVA | ROVACO DANCE COMPANY: Rovaco Dance Party 2025
Rohan Bhargava | Rovaco Dance Company is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
September 27 | 5pm | Center for Performance Research - 361 Manhattan Avenue, BK
Rovaco Dance Company presents their seventh annual Rovaco Dance Party. This evening of live music, dance, theater, and cultural exchange begins with an informal social hour inspired by Indian hospitality traditions. Guests are served complementary Indian snacks prepared by Chef Ashmita Biswas alongside alcoholic beverages and Sanzo sparkling waters, a brand that celebrates bold Asian flavors. After the social mixer, transition into the theater for live music and dance performances, curated and MC’ed by Rovaco's Artistic Director Rohan Bhargava. The evening ends with a DJ dance party for all!
Rovaco Dance Artists Choreography: Rohan Bhargava in collaboration with dancers Performers: Nico Gonzales, Devika Chandnani, Siddharth Dutta, Karma Chuki, and Isabele Rosso Resident Dramaturg & Script Consultant: Mahima Saigal Resident Composer: Saúl Guanipa
Guest Artists Sitar & Live Looping Soloist: Neel Murgai Kanklės & Sitar Duo: Simona Smirnova & Galen Passen DJ: Cameron McKinney / DJ KAZVMA Chef: Ashmita Biswas
Yasmin Mistry: Healing Together - an evening of film, sound healing, and community connection
Yasmin Minstry is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
October 7 | 6pm | Bat Haus - 176 Seeley St. 1B, BK
The Foster Care Film and Community Engagement Project (FCFCEP) and City Living NY invite you to join us Tuesday October 7th for an evening of film, sound healing, and community connection. We're hosting a special healing workshop and work-in-progress screening of our upcoming feature documentary, TOGETHER. Over a decade in the making, TOGETHER documents one family's 50 year journey of healing from family separation and childhood trauma. The evening will begin with a sound bath led by Natalie Chan of Sound Down. Following the screening there will be a moderated conversation with the filmmaker. This is a rare opportunity to be a part of the production process! Come, be in community, and share your insights .
Events, Workshops, & Professional Development
Black Storytelling Week Celebration at Weeksville Heritage Center
September 13 | Weeksville Heritage Center - 158 Buffalo Ave, BK
Join us Saturday, September 13 for a day of free family arts workshops to celebrate Black Storytelling Week! A new annual holiday, Black Storytelling Week is dedicated to passing down Black family history .
Bring your grandma, your play cousins, your love, or your best friends- whether your family is adopted, biological, or chosen, this celebration is for you. Come preserve your family’s stories through a series of free arts workshops for all ages!
Knot Okay Club and Oko Farms: Collaborative Mural Series Introductory Workshop
September 13 | 100 Scott Ave, BK
Join Knot Okay Club and the Oko Farms Clothing Restoration Project for our Collaborative Muries Series! In this introductory workshop participants will become grounded in the vision of this series and begin to learn the crocheting basics.
This free workshop is for TEENS AGES 13-19.
Pioneer Works: Second Sundays
September 14 | 159 Pioneer St, BK
Since 2013, Pioneer Works has hosted Second Sundays, a free monthly open house. Highlighting our programs, artists-in-residence, and Red Hook community members, Second Sundays features open studios, exhibitions, workshops, live music, and food—with programming across all three floors and in our garden.
Food and drink by Maya Taqueria, La Newyorkina, and Pioneer Works Bar.
Youth Food Justice Network's (YFJN) Annual Youth Food Justice Conference
September 14 | BPL New Lots Branch - 665 New Lots Avenue at, Barbey St, BK
Youth Food Justice Network's (YFJN) Annual Youth Food Justice Conference is an event that highlights young people working in urban agriculture, food justice, and advocacy-related work across New York City. Each year, we bring together organizations working towards food justice and sustainability goals to students in a day of learning with and from each other. So far this year's conference will feature workshops from YFJN, Wyckoff House Farms, Green Guerillas, BK Rot, NYC Votes and Youth Food Advocates!
Fort Greene Park: Jazz Festival
September 14 | West Wing of the Monument Plaza
Get ready to listen to soulful sounds at the park! The Fort Greene Park Jazz Festival began in July 2010, when musician Eric Frazier realized his long-standing dream to have a jazz festival in his own neighborhood park. It provides live jazz entertainment for families, neighborhoods, communities, and New Yorkers twice annually, typically in July and September each year.
The event is free and will take place on the west wing of Monument Plaza.
Zine Club Brooklyn: September Solidarity Session
September 15 | Interference Archive - 314 7th St, BK
Join us at interference for September Zine Club! This month we’ll be operating on a loose theme of SOLIDARITY: make a mini-zine, a page, or something larger that explores and centers (and celebrates!) solidarity.
You’re welcome, as always, to bring your own projects or start something new! We have a LOT of print materials right now for you to chop up to your heart’s content but extra scissors/glue/etc are always welcome.
Dumbo Tech + Textile Cleanse
September 17 | Dumbo Archway Plaza - Water St, BK
Once a year, we partner with the Lower East Side Ecology Center to help Dumbo recycle its tech and textiles responsibly.
Check the link below to learn what is being accepted.
NYC Department of Aging: Healthy Aging Fair
September 17 | Asphalt Green - 555 E 90th St, NY
Calling Older New Yorkers and their caregivers!
2025 Healthy Aging Fair:
Attendees can receive health screenings and participate in demonstrations and workshops designed to help them maintain their physical and mental fitness. There will also be yoga, lawn games, and other fun physical activities.
City agencies will also be there to let residents know what supports and services are available to keep up their wellness all year long.
The Brooklyn Flea Record Fair
September 20 | Marsha P. Johnson State Park - 158 Buffalo Ave, BK
Join 40+ record labels, stores, and collectors as they converge next to Smorgasburg Williamsburg for a massive all day record sale. DJ schedule coming soon.
Free to attend, all ages welcome.
Lesbian Herstory Archives: Discussing Black Lesbian Masculinities
September 27 | 484 14th St, BK
ATTN: studs, butches, mascs. Join us at the Lesbian Herstory Archives to engage archival materials and discuss perspectives on Black lesbian relationships to masculinity. ❤️ We invite Black lesbians who identify as studs, butches, (trans)mascs, or otherwise masculine-of-center to join us for this afternoon focused on the rich, nuanced experiences that accompany our lives.❤️ We hope participants leave with a new friend or two, more exposure to LHA’s collections, and an even deeper appreciation for our identities.
Opportunities
Tiger Strikes Asteroid NY: TNT Residency AIR Open Call
Deadline: September 15 (extended)
Tiger Strikes Asteroid New York and Transmitter Gallery are excited to announce TNT Residency, a 6-month fully funded 430 square foot studio adjacent to both galleries at 1329 Willoughby Avenue, culminating in a solo exhibition or open studio event within the studio space. This residency will occur in two cycles per year, each with separate application cycles: Our “Winter” residency runs from January through June, and our “Summer” residency will run from July through December. This open call is for Winter 2026.
Periplus Collective: 2026 Fellowship
Deadline: September 20
Periplus is a mentorship collective serving U.S. writers who identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color. We’re happy you’ve found us. We’re looking for mentees—Periplus Fellows—who are located in the United States, and are at least 18 years old, and whose writing shows great promise. We are seeking to mentor writers who are relatively early in their careers and would especially like to award fellowships to those with limited past access to writing resources and supportive communities. We aim to equalize access so that writers can achieve their goals regardless of their background and affiliations.
In assessing your application, we’ll be most focused on the promise we see in your writing sample. We will also consider how helpful a Periplus Fellowship could be for your craft and career.
MODArts Dance Collective: Move to Change Dance Festival Open Call
Deadline: September 21
MODArts Dance Collective (MADC) is elated to announce its eight annual Move to Change Dance Festival on Saturday, November 8 7 pm EST at Speyer Hall @ University Settlement, 184 Eldridge Street, New York, NY 10002 & Livestream with on demand viewing option. The purpose of Move to Change is to use dance as a form of social justice and arts activism through the lens of BIPOC choreographers and cinematographers. The goal of Move to Change is to create cultural and gender affirming spaces for artists of color: African, Latina/o/x, Asian, Arab, Native American (ALAANA); Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI); Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI); Black/African American, Caribbean, Indigenous, Middle East & North Africa (MENA); & South West Asia & North Africa (SWANA) to educate, empower, and illuminate issues that reflects their histories and cultures through their unique and rich movement aesthetics. This year’s theme is 'Kujichagulia', the Swahili word for self-determination to assist in resolving the aforementioned issues.
NARS Foundation: Residency & FEllowship Program
Deadline: September 22
The New York Art Residency & Studios (NARS) Foundation Artist in Residency Program supports emerging and mid-career artists and curators working across all disciplines through three and six-month residencies. The program is open to both International and US-based artists, creating a shared space for artistic dialogue and international cultural exchange for an extended period of time.
Culture Push: Fellowship for Utopian Practice
Deadline: Oct 5
Culture Push launched the Fellowship for Utopian Practice in 2012 to support boundary-pushing, interdisciplinary and socially engaged artwork. The Fellowship is a process-based program aimed at artists and other creative people who are seeking to test new ideas through civic engagement. Culture Push offers the Fellows concrete financial and institutional support, including feedback and mentoring, a stipend, and fiscal sponsorship for fundraising efforts, and heightened legibility, through support from the Culture Push institution. During the Fellowship year, Fellows collaborate with different communities and the Culture Push staff to find viable working methods for realizing ambitious hybrid projects. While Culture Push emphasizes the visual and performing arts, the Fellowship program is open to people working in any discipline aiming to expand their practice beyond its traditional borders.
Strong Rope: Open Call for Artists
Deadline: Rolling
If you are a local artist or know someone who would like to display their work in our Red Hook and/or Gowanus taprooms, let us know! We love to highlight local creativity, be it in the form of painting, photography, etc.
We are currently booking artists through the rest of 2025 for First Fridays Monthly Art Installation programming.
Asian American Writers' Workshop: Call for Submissions
Deadline: Rolling
The Margins seeks pitches and submissions to Open City, its journalism section devoted to chronicling the pulse of Asian America. Through articles, features, interviews, and profiles, Open City covers Asian immigrant and Muslim communities with an emphasis on social, racial, and gender justice issues.
Since its inception in 2010, Open City has told the lived stories of Asian communities in the boroughs of New York City. Starting in 2025, we are expanding our coverages to cities and towns all over the United States.
We welcome shoeleather reporting, hybrid essays, personality and place profiles, features, narrative storytelling, and … you get the drift.
We pay all writers and translators.
Foundation for Contemporary Arts: Emergency Grants
Deadline: Rolling
Created in 1993 to further FCA's mission to encourage, sponsor, and promote work of a contemporary, experimental nature, Emergency Grants provide urgent funding for visual and performing artists and poets who:
Have sudden, unanticipated opportunities to present their work to the public when there is insufficient time to seek other sources of funding
Incur unexpected or unbudgeted expenses for projects close to completion with committed exhibition or performance dates
Emergency Grants is a year-round, multi-disciplinary program that offers immediate, project-based assistance to artists living and working anywhere in the United States, for projects occurring in the U.S. and abroad.
Each month FCA receives an average of 100 Emergency Grant applications and makes approximately 15-20 grants in the range of $500 to $3,000 each. Applicants may request any amount in that range and, if granted, may receive full or partial funding. The average grant is currently $1,900.
The Creative Center: Hospital Artist-in-Residence Program
Hospital Artist-In-Residence Carmen Rios at BronxCare Health System, Family Medicine, and her art cart.
Deadline: Rolling
The Creative Center's Hospital Artist-In-Residence (AIR) Program serves patients, families, caregivers, and healthcare staff in the New York City Area and beyond. The 10 current Hospital AIRs serve over 3,000 patients each year at multiple hospital sites and develop supportive relationships with countless staff and caregivers. AIRs are professional artists trained by The Creative Center to work in a multitude of healthcare settings.
JFNY Grant for Arts & Culture
Deadline: Rolling
This program provides support to non-profit organizations in the U.S. that organize projects that will further the understanding of Japanese arts and culture within the 37 states east of the Rocky Mountains, plus Washington D.C.
Successful projects generally take the form of performances, exhibitions, film screenings, and workshops. This grant also supports online projects related to Arts & Cultural Exchange that incorporate issues pertaining to the COVID-19 global pandemic such as virtual exhibitions, virtual performances, film streaming, online conference as well as webinar. Priority will be given to those projects that have secured additional funding from sources other than the Japan Foundation, as well as projects that take place in areas where access to Japanese cultural events are relatively limited.
Art On Loop & New York Open Art: CALL FOR ARTISTS
Deadline: October 28
This is a unique and extraordinary chance for artists from every corner of the globe to showcase their work to an international audience. Whether you're an emerging artist or an established one, this exhibition is a platform for all forms of artistic expression—from painting and photography to video art, sculpture, mixed media, poetry, and beyond!
The Theme: OPEN!
There are no limits to what you can submit—this is your opportunity to express your artistic vision in the way that feels most authentic to you. Submit your work that reflects your creativity, passion, and style!
Dance Workforce Resilience Fund
Deadline: Rolling until March 6, 2026
Made possible by the support of the Ford Foundation, New York Community Trust, and other generous funders, the pilot iteration of the Dance Workforce Resilience (DWR) Fund directly supports individual freelance dancers through one-time $1,000 grants. Awards are determined through a weighted lottery system that prioritizes the most underpaid and unprotected groups of dance workers. It will distribute $324,000 over the course of the grant period to 320+ awardees for contracted dance work completed between January 1, 2025 to April 30, 2026.
Resources
The Episcopal Actors' Guild: The Emergency Aid & Relief Program (EARP)
Through this program, we give grants to qualified performing artists regardless of faith, race, national origin or ethnicity, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, language or political ideology/affiliations. You may apply for an emergency grant to assist with rent or mortgage, medical/dental bills, and/or utilities (electric, gas, phone, internet). The maximum amount of assistance EAG can provide through this program is $600 ($850 for seniors age 60+, and $1,000 for those living with HIV/AIDS).
Brooklyn Poets: Free Community Groups
Join in-person at 144 Montague to write, listen or submit poetry in community with others at Brooklyn Poets’ free weekly community groups, which you can learn more about below. These groups are free and open to the public. If you have the means to do so, you can donate with your registration or in-person to help support Brooklyn Poets’ programming.
What We're Reading
“Slam Dunk: Liberty’s Jonquel Jones brings storytime magic to young fans”
by Gabriele Holtermann | Brooklyn Paper
“Smithsonian Latino Gallery Quietly Closes for Nine Months”
by Isa Farfan | Hyperallergic
“‘The Heartbeat of Gowanus’: New Groundswell mural honors neighborhood’s past, present and future”
by Meaghan McGoldrick O'Neil & Paul Frangipane | Brooklyn Paper
“‘Love Brooklyn’ is a romance for a borough in flux”
by Aaron Brokenbough Jr. | BK Mag
Cover Image: The Brooklyn Cumbia Festival. Camilo Quiroz-Vázquez and Ellpetha Tsivicos, 2025 BAC Grantee. Photo: Mario Federico
Empowering Artists. Empowering Communities.
The arts are a lifeline to sustain wonder, inspiration, healing, and a sense of community in our lives. Please join Brooklyn Arts Council in our mission to empower Brooklyn artists and arts organizations that bring life and joy into our home borough.