Blue Fox Arts Fellowship for Visual Artists and Musicians

Blue Fox Arts Fellowship Application

“Empowering Twin Cities artists and musicians through grants, mentorship, and a more connected creative community.”

The Blue Fox Arts Fellowship program provides up to $10,000 to a total of 5 visual artists or musicians for proposals that would help them gain support for their artistic career, overcome a barrier to success, and/or leverage a beneficial career opportunity.

Submission due date: August 15, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. CST

Questions: Contact Jodi Reeb at jodi@jodireeb.com or Luke Randall at lrandall@bluefoxarts.org

Applicants must meet the following criteria:

1. Identify as a visual artist (painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography) or a musician, working in any discipline, at any stage in their career, and have evidence of artistic output indicative of their career stage. No digital arts or films will be accepted. This fellowship is open to everyone to apply.
2. Be able to submit work samples of their own artwork or music. Artists should have had created the original artwork presented in the work samples.
3. Maintain a primary residence in the Twin Cities in the following counties: Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, or Washington for a minimum of one year and continue to do so for the entirety of the proposed yearly grant period.
4. Be at least 18 years of age on the grant deadline date.
5. Apply by the due date of August 15, 2026, by 4:00 p.m. central time via the Blue Fox Arts website application process.

Submissions must include a narrative for the fellowship that will help the individual applicant sustain their artistic career, overcome a barrier to success, and/or to support a beneficial career opportunity, an exhibition or performance.

Applications will not be accepted by groups of artists or musicians. Only individual artist applications.

Requests should be appropriate to the career stage of the applicant (emerging or established) and be aligned with stated goals.

Examples of what applicants may seek support for include:

• Learn new skills to adapt, transition, or expand their creative process or artistic practice
• Increase artistic output, elevate professionalism and quality of work
• Research, produce, or present new creative work or the production of music or performance
• Develop a business plan, website, promotional materials, and/or documentation of a creative portfolio or the production of music or performance

Fellowship Program Dates

The eligible funding period is September 1, 2026, to August 30, 2027 (12 months). All grant-funded activities must take place between these dates in the State of Minnesota.

Proposal Narrative

• What is the title of the proposal? (50 characters max, about 8–10 words)
• Provide a short description of your proposal (200 characters max, about 30–40 words)
• Note the discipline that best represents your artistic work
• Proposal Start Date (on or after September 1, 2026)
• Proposal End Date (on or before August 30, 2027)

• Biography: Answer all the questions below. This section may be very similar to an artist statement but should include your artistic and professional accomplishments, particularly as they relate to clearly defined artistic and career goals. (Text: 4,000 characters max, about 650–800 words OR audio upload: suggested 5–10 min., max 10 min.)
  • Describe your work and your artistic vision. Describe any significant accomplishments that demonstrate achievement in your artistic field.
  • What are your artistic goals, related to your development or career as an artist? What opportunities or strategies are you currently using to meet those goals?

• Your Proposal: Answer all the questions below. Be as specific as possible and make a strong connection between the proposal and your individual needs as an artist. (Text: 3,000 characters max, about 500–700 words OR audio upload: suggested 3–7 min., max 10 min.)
  • Describe the proposal of activities you are seeking funding for. What are the goals of this proposal?
  • How does this proposal align with or help you achieve the artistic goals?
  • Describe the major activities or tasks that take place between the start and end dates of your proposal.
  • If you are working with other individuals during your proposal activities, describe their involvement. How does their participation serve to help you meet your artistic or career goals?
  • List a timeline of activities with tentative dates related to your fellowship.

About the Budget Plan

General Budget Information

Your request for funds may not exceed $10,000. You may request less than $10,000 if that will cover your expenses. There is no advantage or disadvantage to asking for an amount smaller than the maximum. Budget expenses should clearly align with your proposal narrative.

Eligible Expenses

Examples of eligible expense items:

Artist compensation/stipends (for yourself and/or other artists), individual taxes, contracted artists, professional fees/consultants, supplies/equipment purchases, space/equipment rental, accessibility-related costs (be specific), child/elder care, travel expenses.

Ineligible Expenses

The following projects and expenses are ineligible:

• Activities that violate applicable federal, state, or local laws, rules, regulations, or ordinances.
• Activities that attempt to influence any state or federal legislation or appropriation, serve the religious socialization of participants, or discriminate against persons or groups.
• Projects where the applicant is applying on behalf of a duo, group, collective, or organization. This program provides support for the professional and artistic development of an independent artist or musician.
• Fellowship projects must focus on the needs and development of the individual artist not on community projects.
• Projects and activities designed to raise funds/regrant/donate funds on behalf of another person, organization, or cause.
• Enrollment in a degree-seeking or credited college/university program.

About Required Work Samples

Applicants can upload up to ten (10) artwork samples. All work samples remain the property of the artist. You may not provide URLs/hyperlinks to view samples online.

How Work Samples Are Used by Reviewers

Work samples will not be scored independently of your narrative. The work samples you choose should represent your artistic discipline and stage of artistic development. They should align with the artistic vision and career development goals described in the About You section.

If you feel fewer works samples will adequately represent your practice, then you do not need to submit ten samples. Please note that application reviewers will spend a limited amount of time looking at work samples.

Artwork List

For work samples, please provide an artwork list document: title, medium, date, description for each image up to 10 images. Depending on your medium, the identification could also include a description or performance date, dimensions, duration, or other relevant information. (Limited to 300 characters each sample)

            Work Sample Identification Information to include for each:

• A Painting (title), oil on canvas (medium), 25” x 36” (size)., 2025 (date created.
• My Life, HD music video, 3 min., 2025, a short documentary work created for an important event.

Work Sample File Sizes, Lengths, and Formats

Work samples must fit within the following parameters. Work samples in different formats, exceeding allowable file size or length, or otherwise outside the allowable formats may be deemed ineligible.

The maximum file upload size is 400 MB per work sample. The entirety of your work samples may not exceed 800MB.

Each upload must represent only one (1) artwork or audio file. You may not submit files containing multiple works.

1. Audio/music files
   1. An audio file may not exceed 5 mins per upload.
   2. Allowed audio/music file types: .aac, .flac, .mp3, .wav
2. Digital image files
   1. Images must open in the proper viewing orientation of the art (vertical or horizontal)
   2. Files saved with artist’s last name and title for example: pg
   3. Allowed image file types: .gif, .jpg, .png, .tif
   4. Recommended file size: 5MB or 1200 pixels on the longest side.

Apply

The most successful proposals are created and saved as a word document for the narrative and artwork list before starting the application process via the application.

The Blue Fox Arts Fellowship application is divided into the following parts:

1. Individual Information: your legal name, primary residential address, email address and phone number.
2. Biography: This section may be very similar to an artist statement but should include your artistic and professional accomplishments, particularly as they relate to clearly defined artistic and career goals. (Text: 4,000 characters max)
3. Proposal Narrative: the title of your proposal and a short proposal description. You will describe your work and artistic vision, significant accomplishments, and career goals. You will state why you are seeking funding, the major goals and activities in your proposal, and how this proposal aligns with your artistic or career goals.
4. Budget Plan: the total amount of funds you are requesting and the expenses covered this Blue Fox Arts Fellowship request.
5. Work Samples: You will upload up to 10 images of your artwork or audio music files.
6. Artwork list: A list of image or audio files: Title, Medium, Size, Year for each.
7. Timeline: Submit a tentative timeline with dates for the activities during the fellowship period September 1, 2026 – August 30, 2027.
8. Due Date: August 15, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. central time.