engaging artists commission

More Art’s Engaging Artists Commission is an opportunity for early career artists focused on the incubation and commissioning of a public art project and carries an $8000 award to realize the project, plus curatorial, conceptual, budgetary, and logistical mentorship.

What to expect

$8000 will be awarded to one socially-engaged art project to take place in a public space in New York City. The selected project must culminate in a public art installation, event, series, collaboration, or engagement in 2026.

More Art’s curatorial team will provide guidance in refining project concepts, developing public programming, and navigating the logistics of working in public space. Artists will also have opportunities to present their work in critical dialogues and events that further contextualize the project within broader conversations on history, memory, and social justice.

The EA Commission is open to early-career artists, including individuals and collectives, based in the U.S. with a demonstrated interest in public and socially engaged art. Prior experience working in public art is not required, but applicants should have a strong conceptual foundation and a commitment to engaging with communities through their work.

The project will begin with an incubation and research phase in September of 2025, leading to a launch in spring or summer 2026. Additional funding beyond the $8000 is not available, and artists are encouraged to take an honorarium for their work. As such, proposals should be scaled to appropriately reflect the calendar and budget offered for the commission.

Artists are also invited to participate in workshops, artist talks, and peer network support with the EA Fellows.

Theme

In 2026, the Commission will address the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, a moment that invites celebration, reflection and a pause. This year we will focus on revealing histories that have been forgotten, suppressed, or overwritten, particularly those of Indigenous cultures, diasporic communities, and other marginalized groups whose stories have been erased or displaced from the dominant narrative. Along with spotlighting forgotten histories of displacement and forced migration, we are also interested in proposals that engage with the transformation of land and water due to colonization, industrialization, and extraction in New York City and beyond.

Projects may take many forms, including immersive sound walks and tours, temporary sculptural or site-responsive installations, performance-based works and interventions, polyvocal storytelling, and community-engaged workshops or participatory actions. While the format is open, projects should be deeply engaged with site, accessible to the public, and create opportunities for collective reflection, interaction, or historical reimagining. Projects that incorporate community participation and intergenerational storytelling, performance, and oral history as a means of reclaiming erased histories are of particular interest.