Essentials: Getting Your Work Seen

FRESH ARTS PLANNING GUIDE TO LOCAL ARTIST OPPORTUNITIES: 2023 Edition

As artists and creatives, it’s so important to plan out your year. Planning helps you organize your priorities. How many of you all have goals and achievements to strive for this year?

Start 2023 with setting Goals.

View the Fresh Arts Goal Setting Workshop
Download the Fresh Arts Goal Setting Toolkit

Do your goals include participating in two festivals or applying to a grant this year? Is your one-month goal just to make it through tax season? Well FreshArts has taken the initiative to map out local exhibitions, grants, festivals and markets, and other important artist opportunities that await you in 2023. We will continue to update this resource guide throughout the year in order for you all to get the most out of your planning sessions!

Below you can find our top picks to look out for in 2023. Categories include: Local Grants, Residencies, Markets and Festivals, and Exhibitions.

Please note that COVID-19 affected the program calendars for many arts organizations and businesses. Fresh Arts will update this resource page as 2023 program and event calendars are released. We encourage artists to subscribe to the Artist Resource Newsletter to stay up-to-date all year long on upcoming artist opportunities.

Presented by Texas Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts (TALA) in partnership with Lawyer Referral Service of Central Texas. Participants can call from anywhere in Texas between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. to get arts related questions answered by a TALA volunteer attorney. The four dates include:

Local Grants + Deadlines

Dance Source Houston: Dancer Fund Application

The Dancer Fund will provide direct support to freelance dance artists who have received payment from choreographers and/or organizations for their project-based, performance-related work taking place July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023.

Dance Source Houston will match up to $500 per individual in payment(s) for performance project artist fees. Dancers may apply more than once to receive the $500 maximum award. A separate application must be submitted for each project. A maximum of $25,000 will be awarded to freelance dancers through the Dancer Fund. Awards are available on a first come, first serve basis, and the submission period will close when the funds have been depleted.

// Houston Arts Alliance: LET CREATIVITY HAPPEN! EXPRESS GRANTS – 2023 Dates not yet announced

This grant is designed to encourage artists and creative individuals and organizations to take creative risks that may not qualify for more traditional funding opportunities with awards up to $2,500.

// Houston Arts Alliance: Support for Artists and Creative Individuals – 2023 Dates not yet announced

The Support for Artists and Creative Individuals grant category provides funds of up to $15,000 for specific projects that stimulate the creation and presentation of new works of art or completing work already in progress throughout the City of Houston

 Idea Fund, Administered by Aurora Picture Show, DiverseWorks, Project Row Houses

The Idea Fund supports individual artists, curators, collectives, collaboratives or partnerships in the greater Houston area. Grant recipients receive funding for projects that exemplify unconventional, participatory or social practice, conceptual, innovative or entrepreneurial, or activist artistic practices. Awards are up to 12 to 14 cash awards at three distinct levels: Spark ($1,000), Catalyst ($4,000), and Stimulus ($7,000).

Local Artist Residencies

Box13 Artspace Artists-in-Residence (SPACES OPEN!)

Artists-in-residence actively participate in the operation, maintenance and promotion of BOX13. New residents are encouraged to jump in, bring new ideas or develop old ones, and inspire the direction of BOX 13.

Each artist receives a studio workspace as part of residence/membership. Studios range from $125 to $650 per month based on square footage.

Lawndale Artist Studio Program: 2023-2024 (Opening Soon!)

The nine-month program runs from September 1 to May 31. During this time, participants engage Lawndale as their hub, receive a $3,000 honorarium, up to $5,000 direct support for project development, and 24-hour access to a private studio (approx. 250 square feet). Other benefits include studio visits, professional development workshops, the opportunity to work with an established curator, and an essay commissioned for an annual ASP publication.

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft Artist Residency 2023-2024 (CLOSING IN MARCH!)

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft Artist Residency Program is designed to offer time and space for craft artists to focus on their creative work and interact with public. The program supports emerging, mid-career, and established artists working in all craft media, including but not limited to clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood and mixed media.

Benefits of the residency include 24/7 access to studio space, cultural and professional development opportunities, a monthly stipend that includes a small housing/materials allowance, and the opportunity to give an artist talk. Plus $1000 monthly stipend that includes a housing/materials allowance

Interdisciplinary Craft + Photography Artist Residency (2023-2024)
offered by Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and
Houston Center for Photography (CLOSING IN MARCH!)

The Interdisciplinary Craft + Photography (ICP) Artist Residency is designed for artists creating work at the intersection of contemporary craft and photography. This three-month residency supports artists with an experimental, multidisciplinary edge, who are testing the boundaries within both fields. ICP residents will be hosted in a studio space at HCCC and will receive all the benefits of regular HCCC resident artists.  In addition, from HCP, they will receive printing credits and access to the digital lab. Artists will participate in a joint artist talk and will be included in HCCC’s annual In Residence exhibition, as well as receive a feature in HCP’s spot magazine.

Applicants must be able to demonstrate and address how their practice engages the fields of both craft and photography. Note: Applicants for HCCC’s Artist Residency and for the ICP Residency will apply through the same online application. 

Galveston Artist Residency (Coming Soon)

Galveston Artist Residency is a fully funded residency.  Artists in residence will receive a studio, an apartment, and a monthly stipend of $1,100 per month.

The residency is intended as a gift of time for the development of your practice. We are looking for visual artists that are at a point in their life where they need to focus on their work and will benefit from a period of intense studio time. Residency period is typically 11 months starting in September.

Museum of Fine Arts Houston: The Core Program Residency

The Core Program awards residencies to exceptional, highly motivated visual artists and critical writers who have completed their undergraduate or graduate training and are working to develop a sustainable practice. Residents engage with a wide range of leading artists, critics, curators, and art historians who are invited to meet individually with the residents, lead seminars, and deliver public lectures.

The residency term is nine months, from September to May, and fellows may apply for a second term.

Local Markets and Festivals

Houston is home to countless arts markets and festivals. Due to COVID-19, many of these opportunities were placed on hold. Fresh Arts will update this section as 2021 event calendars are released. Subscribe to the Artist Resource Newsletter to stay up-to-date all year long.

First Saturdays Art Market

First Saturday Arts Market is a monthly outdoor fine arts event featuring the works of dozens of visual artists. Located in the Historic Houston Heights currently at 530 W. 19th St. at Lawrence St. The market showcases paintings, sculpture, photography, jewelry and handcrafted items.

The Market at Sawyer Yards

The Market at Sawyer Yards takes place on 2nd Saturdays, in conjunction with Sawyer Yards Open Studios. This curated market hosts a mix of artist mediums with a focus on folk art, the maker is the seller & artisan crafts including packaged specialty foods.

Surrounded by the highest concentration of working artists in all of Texas, the market coincides with 2nd Saturday Open Studios, when artists from The Silos at Sawyer Yards, Winter, Spring, Summer and Silver Street Studios, open their studios to the public.

Art Colony Association: Bayou City Arts Festival (Opens March 1)

The annual Bayou City Art Festival (BCAF) presented by Art Colony Association for over 25 years is one of the nation’s premier outdoor fine art events. The festival takes place twice a year in March and October.

Dance Gallery Festival (ON HOLD)

The Dance Gallery Festival was created in 2007 by Astrid von Ussar and Mojca Ussar and has since become a well-known festival with annual showcases in New York City and Texas. For the past 12 years, the festival has featured more than 100 artists and grown from a single showcase to a festival with performances in NYC and Texas, residency programs for choreographers, and free masterclasses for both NYC and Texas communities.

Heartmade Art Market (TBD)

Heartmade Art Market is a juried art market conceived and created by Tracy Manford Carlson of Tracy Carlson Photography and Sonja Fulbright of Crush Design Co. Our tag line, “design for happiness,” is exactly how we like to do things. ‪We think small actions add up to big results, so we’re putting the hearts of Texas’ talented artists to work for the benefit of local non-profit organizations and the community at large.

The 2020 Market was cancelled due to COVID-19. Please check their website for updates.

Local “Call for Entries” Opportunities

Dance Source Houston: Barnstorm Dance Fest

The 3rd Annual Barnstorm Dance Fest performance will be accepting applications for works 5-18 minutes in length from all genres of dance. Selected applicants will perform their work twice during the festival, which may include multiple weekends.

DiverseWorks: Diverse Discourse Studio Visits

Diverse Discourse brings national curators, artistic directors, and critics to Houston to present a free public lecture and conduct studio visits with  Houston-area artists, performers, and writers. Diverse Discourse provides a significant opportunity for area artists in all disciplines to have their work reviewed by a variety of distinguished arts professionals, fostering a cultural exchange across the nation between artists and cultural producers.

Houston Center for Photography: The Center Annual

The Center Annual is Houston Center for Photography’s yearly group exhibition that seeks to highlight and provide insight into current themes, technologies, and practices in photography. The show features a diverse array of works from members of our global photography community and is selected by a leading curator, editor, or artist. This annual exhibition opens our galleries to photographers from anywhere in the world, whether emerging, mid-career, or established, and as such, aims to provide viewers with critical insight into our current moment—both within the field of photography and within society at large. Of those selected, three artists are chosen to receive the Beth Block Juried Membership Honoraria of $1,000, generously supported by The Beth Block Foundation, and will also be featured in **spot magazine.

Houston Center for Photography: Annual Fellowship Awards

Each year, Houston Center for Photography selects an expert writer, critic, or curator to identify two artists from hundreds of submissions who exemplify excellence and innovation in their approaches to new photography.  The Houston Center for Photography Fellowship and the Carol Crow Fellowship Awards aim to highlight each artist’s work and to offer them a platform and the support to continue developing their projects. The competition is open to all photographic, film, video, and lens-based installation work. Two selected artists will each be awarded $3,000 and a solo-exhibition.

Looking for National opportunities?

Check out The Art Blog from Artwork Archive for an extensive list of the opportunities that are happening nationally.

Search our Artist Opportunity Board 24/7 for opportunities or sign up for our Artist Resource Newsletter to have the latest opportunities delivered straight to your inbox twice a month.

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