Now open | Deadline Sunday, April 6 @ Midnight
Mecklenburg Creatives read updated guidelines below
Emerging Creators Fellowship
ASC BELIEVES INVESTING DIRECTLY IN CREATIVE INDIVIDUALS MAKES THE CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG CULTURAL COMMUNITY MORE SUSTAINABLE. THE EMERGING CREATOR FELLOWSHIP PROVIDES RESOURCES TO EMERGING MECKLENBURG COUNTY ARTISTS TO MAKE THEIR CREATIVE PRACTICE A SUSTAINABLE VOCATION.
Overview
Funding Goal: To invest in early-career creatives to promote creative growth, encourage experimentation, and help artists fully commit to a new body of work that will support the next phase of their careers.
The Emerging Creator Fellowship aims to support is early-career creatives based in Mecklenburg County who are in a stage of exploring, expanding, questioning and/or experimenting within their creative practice.
ASC seeks to invest in local creatives who are creating, developing, or presenting new bodies of work that engages in creative risk through the artist’s unique perspective. Rather than thinking of a specific final project, applicants to think of this opportunity as a time to explore with activities such as:
- Apprenticeships or residencies
- Exploration of new methodologies
- Experimentation with new projects or ideas
- Research or instruction
- Conferences or series of workshops
Consider the intention of the proposed activities and how they will impact your growth and development as a creative. Explain the impact of the proposed activities to the growth of your creative practice and how it deals with creative risk or experimentation.
Applicants seeking funding for public programming or events should consider the Culture Blocks or Cultural Vision Grant programs.
Who Should Apply
ASC welcomes applications from vocational creatives* across all disciplines who are creating new, original work. Applicants should have 2-9 years experience pursuing their creative practice as their primary occupation outside of a degree-seeking program. An applicants’ age or training is not a consideration of the panel.
*ASC Defines vocational creatives as artists whose primary occupation is their creative practice.
Grant Amount
In 2024, ASC will award up to ten $10,000 Emerging Creators Fellowships.
Payments will be made according to a Funding Schedule that will be issued to grantees. Each fellowship recipient will be required to submit an IRS (Internal Revenue Service) W-9 form so that an IRS 1099 income statement can be issued by ASC for the fellows’ tax records. All taxes and reporting of taxes will be the responsibility of the fellowship recipient.
Eligibility
Eligible applicants are:
- Residents of Mecklenburg County, and have been residents for at least three consecutive years at the time of the application.
- Creatives with 2-9 years of experience pursuing their creative practice as their primary occupation.
- Creating original work, rather than interpreting or curating the work of other artists.
- Pursuing their creative practice as their primary occupation.
Applicants will be disqualified if:
- They are not residents of Mecklenburg County.
- They are a previous recipient of the Emerging Creator Fellowship or the Creative Renewal Fellowship.
- They also apply to the Creative Renewal Fellowship.
- They are full-time employees of a cultural organization.
- They are enrolled in a degree seeking program at the time of or during the fellowship.
Creatives working in an academic setting are considered eligible if the proposed use of funds is related to their creative practice rather than their academic research or work in the classroom.
Application Components
The application has six components.
1. Applicant Profile:
- Provides contact information to create a profile via the Grants Portal.
2. Application Questions:
- Describe the overall intention of your fellowship activities.
- Is your intention to expand your creative practice to different mediums? Is it to experiment with new materials to explore some creative risk? Is it to learn and grow your expertise through workshops, conferences, experiences? Describe your goals of this fellowship.
- What have you been able to achieve as an artist and what do you seek to explore with this fellowship?
- Describe your creative style/vision then talk about some of your accomplishments that you’re most proud of at this point in your career. What ideas are you hoping to explore or what creative risks are you wanting to take?
- Describe your planned activities.
- Include as much logistical information as you can. Describe the specific activities and when they would start/end. Then list out estimated expenses via bullet points – this should match the expenses listed in your budget. Finally, be sure to include names of workshops, conferences, people involved, etc.
- Why are you pursuing this opportunity now?
- How will these activities expand/impact your work and promote creative growth in this phase of your creative practice?
- How might you share insights learned from this experience at the end of the fellowship activities?
- Also, would you be interested in being part of a panel discussion with other fellows to talk about your experience and learnings?
3. A rough budget outlining the Fellowship activity expenses. Remember, these expenses can change.
4. Work Samples: the applicant provides appropriate work samples (images, video, audio, writing samples, etc.)
- Visual: Up to 10 images (PNG or JPG)
- Literary: up to 10 pages of any work(s)
- Performance: Up to 7 minutes of a recorded performance (staged or rehearsal)
- Music: Up to 7 minutes of audio
- Film: Up to 7 minutes of one or more films
- * Applicants who wish to include multiple types of work samples, i.e. video and written work samples or video and images may do so. We encourage you to split the difference. For example, and applicant could submit 3.5 minutes of video or audio and 5 images or pages of written material.
5. Inventory List: one page inventory list of your work samples. Things to address are:
- Title of Work
- Date of completion
- A brief statement describing the work
- Your role in the work
- Link to view audio/visual performance or file name of the attached visual/literary work
6. One letter of support
Mentor/colleague who can speak to your capacity for your artistic growth through the activities outlined in the fellowship proposal. Ideally, this person has seen or engaged with your work for some time and can speak of your character.
How to apply
Applications are due on Sunday, April 6, 2025 at Midnight. Late applications will not be accepted. Applications must be submitted online.
Evaluation Process and Selection Criteria
A panel of past recipients and arts and culture workers across the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community review applications and select the 2025 class of Fellows – ASC does not select recipients.
The five Evaluation Criteria are:
Review panel will consist of previous ASC Fellows and leaders in the creative community – ASC staff does not select recipients. Panelists will score each application based on the following criteria:
- Intention of Fellowship (1-5pts)
- Describe your overall intention of your fellowship activities.
- Artistic Vibrancy (1-5pts)
- Artist demonstrates a vibrant and vocational creative practice through: work samples; letters of support; and resume/CV.
- Creative vision (1-5pts)
- Artist describes their artistic style and explains what they seek to explore as well as describes the strengths and opportunities of the proposed activities.
- Forethought & Planning (1-5pts)
- Artist provides thorough description of proposed activities as well as relevant logistics, expenses, and timelines.
- Artistic Development & Impact (1-5pts)
- Artist explains the reason why they’re pursuing opportunity now and describes impacts to creative growth.
The review panel will be using a rubric to finalize scores. Please, download this rubric and use it as a tool as you craft your proposal. Download the panelist rubric here: Fellowship Rubric.
A variety of disciplines will be represented in the fellows chosen. Applicants will be notified of the status of their applications by Friday, May 2, 2025.
Seed Grants
In 2022, ASC launched the Seed Grant program, where the previous 60 Fellows nominated creatives throughout Mecklenburg County for a $3,000 grant recognizing their contributions to the local cultural community. Seed Recipients utilized these funds to enhance their own creative practices and submitted final reports detailing their experiences and learnings. Each Fellow is asked to nominate one creative in their community who is deserving of a $3,000 acknowledgement for their work.
Thank you go Mecklenburg County for their support of the SEED Grant funding opportunity.
Acknowledgement: ASC’s Grants & Services team would like to acknowledge the innovative work of the Jerome Foundation and the Indianapolis Artis Council, whose fellowship programs have helped inform and shape the fellowships ASC is offering this year.
info sessions
- Thursday, March 6 from 10am – 11am via Zoom:
- Thursday, March 13 from 2pm to 3pm via Zoom:
- Friday, March 14 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm at the Photo Outfitters, 4732 Monroe Rd Suite 130, Charlotte, NC
- Saturday, March 15 from 12pm – 1pm at the Charlotte Art League, 4237 Raleigh St, Charlotte, NC
- Thursday, March 20 from 12pm – 1pm via Zoom:
- Thursday, March 27 from 10am – 11am via Zoom:
Grant Application Resources
2024 Emerging Creators Fellowship Recipients
Cynthia Clemens, Literature
To strengthen and expand my writing, networking and presentation skills at the Highlights’ “Whole Novel Workshop” (June 2024) and the SCBWI Midwest Conference (April 12-14, 2024).
Nicole Driscoll, Photographer
To attend a residency at the Walkaway House, to create a photography/video series exploring my father’s untapped potential during his time at North Adams College in 1986.
Jennifer Geyer, Dance
To support the development and mastery of Afro-Cuban folkloric dance forms by serving as an apprentice with Master instructor Marisol Blanco from Cuba residing in Miami in April 2024 through March 2025.
Melvin D. Nix, Visual Arts
To support my growth as an artist by participating in The North Carolina Academy of Art’s Part Time Drawing and Oil Painting Classes during the Spring & Summer Term, May-August 2024.
Joseph Quisol, Music
To establish Queens Collective as a songwriting and music production group to record new music with Charlotte artists.
2023 Emerging Creators Fellowship Recipients
Teil Buck, Music
A musician and founder of the Phoenix Down RPG ensemble, Buck will use her fellowship to explore the innovative combination of music, gaming and collaborative storytelling highlighting local creators in Charlotte.
Hector Vaca Cruz, Photographer
A Latino documentary photographer, Cruz will establish himself as a full-time documentary photographer and filmmaker through the fellowship.
Kerra Don, Theatre
Don will use her fellowship to support the bolstering of her professional acting ability and learning current industry practices.
Maria Frey, Ceramics
A full-time studio potter, Frey will use her award to build a soda kiln that will further exploration of the soda-firing process and equip her with the means to fire a sustainable amount of work.
Amber Johnson, Dance
A Charlotte-based dance artist, Johnson’s fellowship will support the exploration of the gender binary in narrative ballet form through the creation of a new work.
Jamie McGhee, Literature
An Afro-Caribbean writer, McGhee plans to use their fellowship to take a research trip to Brazil and attend an artist residency near the Brazilian Atlantic Forest in order to complete a historical fiction novel.
Maurice J. Norman, Spoken word
A writer and spoken word performer, Norman’s fellowship will support artistic development in the creation and performance of a new spoken word album.
Lucy Phung, visual arts
A painter and traditional/digital illustrator, Phung plans to use her fellowship to travel to Vietnam and explore heritage and identity.