The Office for Academic Affairs is committed to supporting UA faculty as they work to achieve their goals in the classroom, research and creative endeavors, community outreach and engaged creative activities. As such, in the fall of 2026, OAA will launch the UA Arts Advancement Program to promote and partially defray the costs of artistic production by UA faculty.
As museums, galleries, orchestras, festivals, and other artistic venues and distributers are increasingly requiring artists to provide financial support (akin to what in the publishing field is called subvention) to help defray the costs of production, exhibition, performance, and/or distribution of creative works in the visual and performing arts, the Arts Advancement Program will help bring to the larger world the fine arts and other creative works produced by UA faculty.
Applications will be accepted on an annual basis during the month of October with the goal of supporting creative works produced, exhibited, or performed, and requiring funds in the prior year.
Funds are limited and will be provided in grants up to $1,500 per faculty member. The priorities for this program include fine arts and creative works with distributions outside of traditional academic publishers that will advance faculty toward tenure or promotion. Faculty are encouraged to pursue support from their departments and other available sources. Requests will be limited to one per faculty member per year in either a subvention program or the Arts Advancement Program. Unique projects are only eligible for one grant.
- Eligible faculty include:
- Tenured, tenure-track and RC faculty for whom creative activities are included as one of their job responsibilities and/or are required for consideration for promotion.
- Non-Eligible faculty include:
- Emeritus faculty, retirees, staff, students, temporary faculty, individuals whose contracts will not be renewed the following year, those who have notified UA of their intent to resign in the current or subsequent academic year are ineligible, or individuals who receive a cash advance or payment for the work that substantially allows them to complete it.
Arts Advancement grants are available to eligible faculty who have a formal and accepted contract, invoice, or invitation dated November 1, of the previous year or thereafter from an established artistic venue (including but not limited to a museum, center, gallery, orchestra, production company, and/or a festival to which a work has been accepted) that evidences some form of peer review appropriate to the discipline.
- All works must be complete or have been produced, exhibited, performed, or the equivalent at the time of application.
- The work must be created solely by the UA faculty member or with the UA faculty member having a significant role in the production/creation/curation. Collaborators (e.g., graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, other faculty, and/or other artists) are permitted. Considering the complex and often collaborative nature of artistic production, in their grant application faculty should identify clearly their role and its importance for the work.
- The project should be performed, exhibited, or the equivalent at a venue that has a significant regional, national, or international standing.
- Speculative costs or fees accrued in anticipation of a work’s acceptance somewhere are not covered.
- Framing, shipping, traveling to perform or to curate or to install, technical costs (including but not limited to mastering, editing, or recording) can be covered. Material costs are a lower priority but will be considered.
- The grant can apply to one specific part of a project rather than to the whole project, but projects can only receive one grant.
Grant funds will be paid directly to the faculty member as reimbursement. Grant recipients may not be an agent or employee of the work’s publisher or producer.
The faculty member should acknowledge grant support in the preface, introduction or acknowledgement of the work if possible with the following: “Support for this creative work was provided by The University of Alabama Office for Academic Affairs.”
The creator must agree to provide one reprint, copy, recording, or catalogue, if available, to the UA Office for Academic Affairs at no cost to the creator or to UA.
The application for the grant opens in October each year.
How to Apply
Applications to the UA Arts Advancement Grant program must be submitted between
the October 1 and October 31 and include (in a single pdf document.)
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A description (one page or less) of the work for which subvention is being requested.
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A copy of the formal letter of acceptance for the work that specifies the total cost of production, the financial and other support that the publisher, producer, or exhibitor will make towards the works production, the amount of grant funds requested, and the justification for the amount requested.
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Curriculum vitae of the applicant.
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A copy of at least one pre-publication review from an independent reviewer (not affiliated with UA) who is an expert in the field.