Precipice Fund Grant

Administered by Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) as part of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts’ Regional Regranting Program, the Precipice Fund awards grants to unincorporated visual art collectives, alternative spaces, and collaborative projects. 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 funding source encourages applications from first-time grant writers, artists from underrepresented communities, and projects that reflect the region’s diversity of cultures, aesthetics, and creative practices.

Precipice Fund awards grants to visual art projects. Interdisciplinary projects in performance or other media are only eligible if visual art is clearly central to the project, and/or the project engages visual art discourse or reflects an expanded definition of visual art practice. Film projects may be eligible in their creation phase (not for post-production or distribution), and only if they clearly demonstrate a connection to visual art practices and communities. Projects in sound art are generally eligible if it is clear the project is situated within an expanded visual art context. The funding source 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 and experimental, 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 depth and creative vibrancy 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 other communities historically marginalized by dominant cultures and mainstream art worlds. Note: If a project is proposing to center or serve a particular population or community, then it must be evident that the artists/collaborators proposing the project are representative of that community.

Estimated Total Program Funding: