Precipice Fund Grant

Recognizing the barriers to funding faced by independent art initiatives, the Precipice Fund seeks to support new and existing projects emblematic of the region’s independent, on-the-ground art scene.

The Precipice Fund aspires to cultivate a grantmaking culture that emphasizes community over competition and awards collaboration and connection. With these values in mind, please consider how your project intersects with and impacts other local artists, and how your project proposal and budget affect the larger applicant pool. If each budget reflects what is truly needed, the Foundation can ensure a broader distribution of funds and resources. 

Precipice Fund awards grants to visual art projects. Works in performance or other media are only eligible if the project clearly incorporates visual art elements at its core, and/or engages visual art discourse or an expanded definition of visual art practice. Film projects may be eligible in their creation phase (not for post-production or distribution), and if they clearly demonstrate a connection to visual art practices/ communities. Similarly, projects in sound art are eligible if a connection to visual art context and practice is made clear. The Foundation is open to innovation, experimentation, and risk-taking in the field and support diverse approaches to visual art making. 

The Precipice Fund prioritizes projects that:

• Are innovative, experimental, and ambitious, as defined and expressed by the artists/applicants
• Are artist-run, artist-centric, or artist-driven
• Generate opportunities and platforms for other local artists
• Challenge or break from traditional or established notions, models, and forms of practice, presentation, and organization
• Are accessible to or engage public(s) via process, presentation, production, or publication
• Are presented in unconventional or nontraditional sites, spaces, and contexts
• Are considering audience diversity and public access
• Contribute to the critical and creative depth of art communities in Portland and its surrounding areas
• Are led by and/or center underrepresented artists or communities, including Black, Indigenous, brown, people of color, Disabled, Deaf, neurodivergent, queer, trans, non-binary, immigrant, refugee, and others historically marginalized by dominant cultures and mainstream art worlds 

• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Eligibility Criteria" for clarification)

Estimated Total Program Funding: