Artist Grants

Note: Artist grants are temporarily suspended – please check back at the start of the next fiscal year (July 1, 2011).

Every year since 1986, the Sierra Arts Foundation has provided Endowment Fund Grants to artists in the visual, performing or literary arts disciplines that reside within a hundred-mile radius of Reno and work in the Northern Nevada region. SAF grants are private endowment funds offered directly to students and working artists in all five artistic disciplines to encourage personal artistic growth. Sierra Arts Endowment Fund grants are free of obligatory stipulations that other agencies must pass along.

The Awards

SAF awards between $20,000 and $28,000 annually. Generally, professional artist recipients are awarded $1,000; student artists are awarded $500 and honorable mention awards are also $500. In addition, two very specialized awards are offered within the program — the Robert Gorrell Award for literary arts, and the prestigious Rosemary MacMillan Lifetime Achievement Award.

Robert Gorrell, a former columnist for the Reno Gazette-Journal and Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno, was instrumental in the foundation of Sierra Arts. He served for a number of years on the grant recipient selection committee. The Robert Gorrell Award recognizes emerging writers of exceptional talent. The award is given annually to a single literary artist, in addition to the recipient’s grant monies.

Rosemary MacMillan served on the Board of Directors for Washoe County Medical Center and was an active trustee of the Sierra Arts Foundation prior to her Presidential nomination as a member of the National Museum Services Board, National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities. An award bearing her moniker is given to artists who have generally received several grants in the past and who have demonstrated remarkable service within the regional arts community. This $5,000 award is not given out annually.

The Process

Applications are mailed to artists currently on our registry at the beginning of the application period, and are also available at the Sierra Arts office and here on our website.

Applicants submit a completed application form, copies of supplementary materials, including a resume of artistic work, statement of philosophy; and documentation of work produced in the past four years.

A Grants Committee is assembled annually, comprised of local arts experts who are not Sierra Arts staff members, to review each grant application in detail. The committee reviews each application to assess the level of quality of the artwork and performances. The grants are merit-based rather than project-based, so it is important that applicants submit materials of the highest possible quality. The overall competitiveness of an application is effectively determined by the writing, images, audio, or video included. Although any artistically-focused individual may apply, applicants able to display defined plans to pursue educational opportunities and create innovative work in visual, performing, and literary disciplines have an increased likelihood of receiving funding.

Sierra Arts Gallery hosts an exhibit of grant recipients’ work each year. Awards are presented at the exhibit reception.

The Fine Print

Grant award recipients may apply again three full calendar years from the date they received their previous award. Artists honored with the Rosemary MacMillan award after 1999 are exempt from receiving further SAF grants.