Grant Up to $50,000 for The Arts Program Funding from AFAC 2019

The Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) and the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) are pleased to announce the second cycle of their joint Research on the Arts Program (RAP). The AFAC-ACSS research grants are a funding opportunity that aims to support research on all art practices across disciplinary boundaries and methodological approaches on key themes of concern to, and in, the Arab region. This program is funded by AFAC and the ACSS ( funds to the ACSS provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation). Grants are available to individual researchers up to USD 15,000, teams of researchers or collectives up to USD 25,000, and institutions up to USD 35,000. This program supports research on the arts not only for what they reveal about aesthetics but for what they uncover about society. Social, economic and political contexts matter and the question for researchers becomes how arts engage with the surrounding environment.

Possible Topics:

1. The role of official and unofficial institutional processes in giving rise or constraining the emergence of art.
2. The impact of the expansion of art markets, economic restructuring and constrained public funding on the arts.
3. The impact of neoliberal models of institutions and organizations on the arts.
4. The definition of artistic work, artistic identity, and audiences.
5. The relationship between artists and the state; the role of official institutions in providing support or undermining artistic production.
6. The effect of technological innovations and computer technology on artistic dissemination and the production of new forms of artistic expressions.
7. Impact of laws, cultural policies, culture industry and practices on the form and content of artworks.
8. Access of diverse public to the arts.
9. Art spaces as aesthetic and/or political spaces.
10. The role of the arts in class and status reproduction; how current social inequalities reflect on the arts.
11. The role of arts at particular historical moments and what they reveal about society.
12. Meaning, measurement, and impact of arts.
13. Arts as tools of inclusivity and exclusion.
14. Public perceptions of the arts.
15. Elitism vs. populism in the arts
16. The impact of exile, displacement, and migration on art production.

Disciplines:

This program is open to researchers from diverse backgrounds in arts, humanities, and social sciences, as well as allied fields. Arts and humanities disciplines include art history, comparative literature, contemporary art, curatorial studies, fine arts, graphic design, architecture, languages and literature, folklore studies, media studies, musicology, performance arts, and visual arts. The core social science fields include disciplines such as anthropology, demography, economics, history, political science, psychology, and sociology. Allied fields include education, gender studies, cultural studies, and urban studies. Interdisciplinary proposals are encouraged.

Eligibility Guidelines for Individuals: 

1. Applicants must be citizens of an Arab Country (defined as a member of the League of Arab States) or nationals of an Arab Country (defined as long-term residents, even if they don’t hold citizenship as in the case of refugees or stateless residents) and must be based in the Arab region
2. An applicant should be a holder of a Ph.D. degree in one of the disciplines or fields described above; or an art practitioner with at least ten years of practical experience.

Eligibility guidelines Teams, collectives, and institutions

1. The team leader must be a citizen/national of an Arab country and must be based in the Arab Region. However, teams, collectives, and institutions may include Arabs in the diaspora or non-Arabs, but at least two members of the team/collective/institution must be citizens/nationals of an Arab country and must be based in the Arab region. For institutions, the institution must be based in the Arab region.
2. Teams and collectives may comprise up to four research team members.
3. Team structure may take one of two forms:
    A Ph.D. holder (principal investigator) in one of the disciplines or fields described above, and up to three team members including (at least) MA degree holders and/or art practitioners.
4.  An art practitioner with at least ten years of experience after graduation (principal investigator) and up to three team members including (at least) MA degree holders and/or art practitioners.
5. ACSS grantees (principal and co-investigators) who have benefited previously from an ACSS grant are only eligible if their grants were closed before March 2017. AFAC grantees who have a current open grant are not eligible to apply.

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