Fellowships and Stipends

Fellowships
Thanks to ongoing Fellowship support, residencies at The MacDowell Colony are provided at no cost to artists. A Fellowship covers the costs of a single residency for a period of up to two months, including the use of a private studio at MacDowell, meals, accommodations, and the benefits of a dynamic community of artists working in many disciplines. The Colony awards more than 250 Fellowships each year to highly talented creative artists. Major gifts designated for Fellowships are essential to preserving the Colony’s tradition of accepting artists solely on the basis of talent.

Annual Fellowship — A gift of $10,000 provides an Annual Fellowship for an artist in the year that the gift is made. This support may be renewed annually and/or given for a series of years.

Endowed Fellowship — A gift of $100,000 establishes an Endowed Fellowship that will underwrite a Fellowship each year in perpetuity. Multiple Fellowships may be endowed.

Both Annual and Endowed Fellowships carry naming opportunities; they may be named for the donor or in memory or honor of someone the donor specifies, creating a wonderful legacy of supporting art and artists at MacDowell. Fellowships may also be designated to support a specific discipline, as agreed upon by the donor and MacDowell. These gifts will be recognized, with the donor’s approval, in MacDowell’s annual report and on its Web site. Donors receive reports each year about the recipients of their Fellowships, as well as personal correspondence from the artists themselves. 

Stipends
Need-based assistance, in addition to Fellowship support, helps eliminate financial barriers to accepting a MacDowell residency and opens the residency experience to a wider and more diverse community of artists. Stipends — which are designed to replace lost income and defray travel, rent, and other continuing expenses — give artists-in-residence the peace of mind to work experimentally and productively while at the Colony.

Gifts designated for stipend support, which currently provide direct financial assistance of up to $1,000 per artist based on demonstrated financial need, may be designated for artists working in a specific discipline. In addition, an endowed stipend fund may be established, the income of which will generate funds for stipend support in perpetuity. These gifts also provide naming opportunities and recognition for their donors.

For a complete list of Fellowships, recent recipients, and MacDowell’s financial assistance programs, please see the Annual Report.