The George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation is an independent foundation administered at Brown University. It awards a limited number of fellowships each year for independent projects in selected fields, targeting its support specifically to early mid-career individuals, who have completed at least one major project and demonstrate potential to be future leaders in their fields. Please consult eligibility requirements for further information.

Artists and scholars supported by the Howard Foundation are expected to devote a substantial portion of time during the fellowship year to advancing new work. Fellowship funds may be used in combination with sabbatical leaves or other sources of support, but this is not a requirement.

A total of ten fellowships of $40,000 each will be awarded in April 2027 for 2026- 2027 in the fields of:

• Writing for Performance or Choreography
• Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies

Howard Fellowships are intended primarily to provide artists, scholars, and writers with time to complete their work. They are not intended for publication subsidies, for equipment purchase, for preparation of exhibits, or to support institutional programs.

ELIGIBILITY

Candidates should be able to answer “yes” to each of the following questions. If “no” is the correct answer to any of them, they are asked to explain on the application form what special circumstances might make them eligible anyway, given the requirements for a Howard Fellowship.

1. Can your current professional status appropriately be viewed as “early mid-career” as understood by the Howard Foundation?Normally candidates for a Howard Fellowship will have completed their formal studies within the past five to fifteen years of the application date and should also have successfully completed at least one major project beyond degree requirements that would be sufficient for the awarding of tenure at higher education institutions or for achieving comparable peer recognition in creative practice fields, e.g., through publication or exhibition. If not classically trained, an artist should be within the frame of 5-15 years as an active professional in their career. Creative practitioners are not required to hold academic appointments. Candidates who are already nationally and internationally recognized leaders in their fields as reflected by their promotion to full professor or by comparable standing in creative fields are not normally eligible for a Howard Fellowship.
2. Would a Howard Fellowship provide you with time off from other responsibilities to work on your proposed project?Our support is particularly intended to augment paid sabbatical leaves. In the case of independent artists or scholars, or those without paid leaves, we would expect that a Howard Fellowship would enable them to devote a substantial block of time to the proposed project. Howard Foundation Fellowships are unrestricted awards for the sole purpose of aiding the intellectual and artistic development of the recipients. The Howard Foundation has no funds to pay indirect costs, so any decision about payment of benefits on the stipend would be a matter for you to resolve with the appropriate officials at your institution.
3. Are you, regardless of your citizenship, currently living and working in the United States or U.S. Territories?
4. Does your proposed project fall within one of the fields established for this year’s round of applications?Given the limits of our resources, we must adhere strictly to the fields announced each year for project proposals.

DEADLINE: November 1, 2026