Special Project Grants

Special Project Grants is sponsored by Ruth Foundation for the Arts. This program awards project funding to small and mid-size nonprofit visual and performing arts organizations in Wisconsin, focusing on initiatives that rethink past practices and have long-term cultural and structural impact.

Wisconsin Special Project Grants — Ruth Arts The only open application grant at Ruth Arts, exclusively offered to Wisconsin arts and culture organizations with operating budgets under $2 million. Small and mid-size nonprofit visual and performing arts organizations, including Tribal Nations, with ambitious project ideas are welcome to apply for grants via a juried process.

The grantmaking initiative awards either $100,000 or $200,000 over two years. Ruth Foundation for the Arts' Special Project Grants program awards project funding to small and mid-size nonprofit visual and performing arts organizations situated on land presently known as Wisconsin. Since launching in 2024, the grantmaking initiative has committed $3.

5 million to arts and culture organizations in the state. The program aims to build a robust and equitable arts ecosystem by investing in projects that have long-term cultural and structural impact for their communities.

Of particular interest are initiatives that rethink and reimagine past practices, bring an expansive range of voices into public and artistic discourse, and contribute to a more complex and abundant understanding of the histories, lived experiences, and futures of this region.

Special Project Grants provide support at $100,000 or $200,000 over two years for successful applicants and are eligible to arts and culture organizations with operating budgets under $2 million. Interactive Oasis reimagines green spaces by merging public art, digital art and community.

Interdisciplinary art experiences, workshops and a six-week augmented reality youth program will activate an inclusive outdoor space for connection, learning and celebration. Encore Studio for the Performing Arts For nearly 25 years, Encore has created original theatre amplifying the voices of artists with disabilities.

Securing a Legacy: Encore's 25 Years of Original, Dynamic Theatre for People with Disabilities will preserve the organization's work through a digital archive and recordings, ensuring their stories live on while honoring the artists, their impact, and Encore's legacy.

Hmong American Partnership Fox Valley Maa Vue and The Dream Carrier is a theatrical concert that shares stories of resilience, identity, and heritage through the Hmong baby carrier. It offers education, mentorship, and resources to uplift Hmong creatives and businesses in Wisconsin.

DELVE (Dance Experience Lab for Vibrant Exchange) provides the opportunity for Madison-area choreographers and dancers to expand their boundaries, explore artistically, and foster new connections across genre and community.

Voices of Heritage: Celebrating Female Artists in Latino Communities will highlight works by local and global Latina visual/performance artists who reimagine traditional practices to engage deeply with narratives of culture, history, family, and gender.

A Line Meant is a community building and creative industry initiative that centers formerly incarcerated writers to lead writing circles and apprentice in managing a collaborative publishing project. The project was imagined by Wisconsin Poet Laureate Dasha Kelly Hamilton.

Textile Arts Center of Madison TAC will establish an immersive, community-centered Artist-in-Residence Program that will provide a nurturing environment for artists who are dedicated to advancing their creative practice and passionate about community engagement. The program will launch in fall 2025.

The MKE Hip Hop Archive Project is a bold initiative to preserve the cultural legacy of Milwaukee’s Hip Hop scene as a cornerstone of the city’s identity, serving as a platform for expression, activism and entrepreneurship, especially within black and brown communities.

InSite: Choreographic Exchange commissions choreographers of color to create new site-specific works for diverse dancers, engaging new audiences through free community performances in neighborhoods that decenter Milwaukee’s downtown performing arts hub.

In Hay Rake Ballet, choreographer Sarah Butler collaborates with local farmers to orchestrate a dance performance of farm machinery in the working landscape, framing everyday agricultural practices within a classical dance aesthetic to pay homage to farming’s inherent beauty, craft and value.

Arts & Literature Laboratory Through LAB^4: A Community Curation Project , interdisciplinary teams of artists, writers, performers, community advisors, and students will each develop 8 weeks of cultural programming. Fostering intersectionality and welcoming diverse voices, this initiative restores the role of curators as caretakers.

Bad River Band of Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians Bad River Ojibwe Artist in Residence Program offers two Ojibwe artists an opportunity to share traditional artistic methods, and two Ojibwe artists an opportunity to share contemporary artistic methods, with the Bad River Ojibwe community, providing cultural enrichment across generations.

Academia Bembé is a community-based, public, cultural arts academy that inspires music and dance performance skills, intergenerational connection and cultural identity exploration through Afro-Latino musical culture. Cactus+ Accessibility Initiative centers those we haven't been able to serve or host, braiding infrastructure improvements into artist resourcing and community programming.

Think: ramp to the front door, multimedia residency, an expansive understanding of accessibility, skill shares and beyond. Featuring Dylan Bizhikiins Jennings (Bad River Ojibwe), Joe Rainey Sr. (Red Lake Ojibwe), S. Carey, and Finn Ryan— Bizhiki: Unbound will develop and tour a multidisciplinary music and video performance, engaging audiences throughout Wisconsin about contemporary Ojibwe culture.

GEEX continues Wisconsin’s glass art history by broadening and redefining the medium’s story through GEEX Shorts —bite-sized videos of BIPOC and queer artists sharing their knowledge and creative practice—to expand a crucial archive and new paradigm of representation. Hmoob Zaj Dab Neeg aka The Hmong Story aims to promote inclusivity within the SEA community by addressing cultural preservation.

We will focus on preserving Hmong culture & language through programs, including language classes, traditional dance, & music lessons using cultural experts. Wažookį Hosto (Family Gathers) creates new artistic and cultural learning opportunities by offering seasonal arts and traditional skills workshops with Ho-Chunk community members and creates teaching resources that amplify Ho-Chunk ingenuity for multiple audiences.

Pink Umbrella Theater Company Disability Theater – Expanding the Canon is a multi-year initiative that will result in the creation of up to 20 new plays focusing on representation, community and a commitment to expanding the theater canon to include Disabled Actors and Artists on and off stage. Essentially, creating art that reflects our community.

The (W)here in the World Dance Festival invites choreographers from five unique world dance traditions both to present work and to collaborate across genres. Set for spring 2025, the festival presents both work that upholds cultural traditions and traverses those boundaries.

We recognize that cultural production can take many forms, and we support arts and culture organizations that embrace the unconventional and experimental and whose activities are rooted in the communities in which they operate.

We welcome proposals for new artistic commissions in the public realm, archival projects (including the creation of databases and the digitization and diversification of collections), publications, cultural revitalization projects, and capacity building and planning initiatives that improve the structural conditions of your organization.

Organizations, initiatives, or collections that represent the contributions of underrepresented communities are highly encouraged to apply.

The program prioritizes projects that: Are ambitious, timely, and relevant to the communities they seek to serve Promote unique collaborations and equitable partnerships and include an artist-initiated process Are invested in the cultural sustainability of this region and that contribute to public knowledge about a diversity of practices Uplift historically underrepresented artists, practices, and art histories, with respect for cultural self-determination Compensate all artists, performers, collaborators, and contractors for the creation of the project at respectable levels Increase public access and education of archives, collections, creative practices, and cultural knowledge Advance artistic production in this region by encouraging creative change, revitalization, and innovation Organizations whose core mission is not directly tied to art and culture programs or arts education Pre-K-12 and K-12 schools, private K-12 institutions, and university campus projects, including individual departments within universities.

Fundraising events or galas Museum acquisitions not tied to archive initiatives and/or community programming The Wisconsin Special Projects application will open in September 2026. Stay tuned via our Wisconsin Special Projects mailing list to receive further application cycle updates. Access the recording here for our 2024 virtual info session to learn more about the program.

For Applicants: Budget Template