The Division of the Arts believes in the capacity of students to change the world, and that the arts can catalyze this change. The Division’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Committee is pleased to announce the opening of the second year of funding for the Artivism Student Action Program (ASAP).
Available to UW–Madison students in any year or major of study, ASAP was launched in the fall of 2021 in response to students’ desires to use activism-related art to bring about a more equitable world. The program provides financial support for student-led, art-based interrogations of longstanding oppressions, biases and inequities. Funding awards will range from $100 to $1,500 (individual students applying can receive up to $750).
This target funding program is again available to UW–Madison students, student teams and Registered Student Organizations. Cross-campus and community partnerships are encouraged.
Funding examples include, but are not limited to, the following:
- catering, venue or equipment rental to host guest artists or students (poets, musicians, scholars, filmmakers, actors, etc.) to present on systemic racism or implicit bias;
- purchasing materials for creating visual art with artists of various physical and intellectual abilities;
- production of a film, musical or dance performance that reimagines the status quo;
- curation of a virtual or in-person arts installation investigating “phobias.”
While this is not exhaustive of what ASAP will fund, projects should feature, center, benefit and/or be led by people marginalized due to their racial, sexual, religious, cultural and gender identities; physical abilities; socioeconomic status; or any other form of identity-based oppression not listed here. The program funds projects emerging from the intersections of art and activism to address social issues, facilitate dialogue and create spaces to design and imagine social transformation.
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis throughout the 2022-2023 academic year and will be evaluated soon after they are received. $9,000 of funding is available in the fall 2022 semester. Spring funding will open on January 24, 2023, with at least $6,000 of funding available. Applicants will receive notification of acceptance within one week of receipt, except during university breaks.
Proposals will be evaluated based on five main areas: quality and creativity, urgency, public benefit and impact, feasibility and demonstrated need.
For more information on the program, scoring or previous projects, email asap@arts.wisc.edu, visit go.wisc.edu/UWASAP or drop in to virtual information sessions with Division staff on November 7 and November 14-16.
The 2022-23 ASAP funding is made possible by the generous support of the Evjue Foundation, the charitable arm of “The Capital Times” newspaper.