To extend the reach of new ideas and creative thinking, the MacArthur Fellows Program makes a handful of small grants to organizations each year to support public-facing programming featuring two or more Fellows.
The programming—including panels, performances, and conversations—originates with the MacArthur Fellows and is hosted and curated by independent, nonprofits in partnership with participating Fellows. The initiative provides an opportunity for interdisciplinary engagement, which can lead to new collaborations and provide fresh inspiration and approaches for addressing real world problems, while simultaneously exposing the public to the work of MacArthur Fellows. Learn more about applying for event funding.
We invite you to discover new work and exciting possibilities through your participation in an event.
February 6, 2023
Lifting Women and Justice
A public conversation between painter Shahzia Sikander, human rights lawyer Becca Heller, and Justice Judith Gische on the role of justice in the lives of women.
Location
New York, NY
March 23, 2023
Poverty, By America
Poverty in the U.S persists because the rest of us benefit from it. In his new book, “Poverty, By America,” urban sociologist Matthew Desmond, reimagines the debate on poverty. He is joined in conversation by Desmond’s fellow scholar about housing and poverty in America, the acclaimed historian and writer Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. The journalist Andrea Elliott, who won her second Pulitzer for "Invisible Child," will introduce the speakers.
Location
Nassau Presbyterian Church
61 Nassau Street
Princeton, NJ
April 1, 2023
2023 Big Ears Festival
As part of Big Ears' free-to-the-public series of talks and panels, NPR Jazz critic Nate Chinen will host a wide-ranging conversation between guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson and jazz pianist and composer Vijay Iyer, two MacArthur Fellows with deep experience blurring genres in both through-composed and improvised music.
Location
Knoxville, TN
September 7-24, 2023
Rhythm Bath
Renowned choreographer Susan Marshall and Tony Award-winning set designer Mimi Lien combine forces to create an immersive and inclusive dance installation developed in conversation and collaboration with neurodiverse individuals and communities. Rhythm Bath blends performance, meditation, and wonder, inviting you to sense the dance happening around you. Come and go as you like—explore the accessible, transporting space of shifting fabric, light, sound, and movement.
Location
Christ Church Neighborhood House
Philadelphia, PA
September 12, 2023, and October 2, 2023
What Counts: MacArthur Fellows Reflect on Academic Reward Structures
Description with links to Fellows profile pages: The American Council of Learned Societies (New York, NY) presented a public panel series examining promotion and tenure structures for humanities and interpretive social sciences faculty in higher education today featuring public historian Monica Muñoz Martinez (University of Texas, Austin), American historian Natalia Molina (University of Southern California), classicist Dimitri Nakassis (University of Colorado, Boulder), art historian and curator Kellie Jones (Columbia University), literary historian and digital humanist Gabrielle P. Foreman (Pennsylvania State University), and intellectual historian Peter Miller (now heading up the American Academy of Rome). The Fellows discussed their career paths and how their practices fell outside institutional norms and expectations.
Location
New York, NY
October 28, 2023 – January 5, 2024
Home Free: Ohio Artists Envision Prison Abolition
Home Free explores the conditions, creative expression, and aesthetic practices of Ohio artists directly impacted by the criminal legal system and who are uniquely positioned to interrogate and critique mass incarceration as a means to safety, justice, and rehabilitation. Home Free is co-organized by the Fitton Center for Creative Arts and the Returning Artists Guild (RAG) in collaboration with 2021 MacArthur Fellows Hanif Abdurraqib and Dr. Nicole R. Fleetwood.
Location
Fitton Center for Creative Arts
Hamilton, OH
Monday, December 4, 2023, 6 P.M. – 9 P.M.
Exhibition Closing Program: Afterlives of Incarceration
Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration exhibition featuring at the Schomburg Center. A panel discussion with MacArthur Fellows, Nicole R. Fleetwood ‘21, Reuben Jonathan Miller ‘22, and Emily Wang ‘22, focusing on the myriad effects of prisons on the lives of system-impacted people, their loved ones, communities, and the nation more broadly. The panel will take place in conjunction with the closing of the exhibition Marking Time Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, curated by Nicole Fleetwood and currently on view at the Schomburg Center.
Location
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Blvd
New York, NY 10037
Applying for Event Funding
The Fellows Program makes grants to qualifying organizations seeking to host public events that feature MacArthur Fellows.
Eligible events:
- Are free and open to the public
- Involve two or more Fellows in different fields or who work toward a shared goal (e.g., climate change, the changing nature of work, elevating the contributions of disabled women, etc.).
- Are hosted by 501(c)(3) organizations or non-U.S. equivalents
These events are often initiated by the Fellows and can take many forms, including talks, panels, performances, or exhibitions. The Fellows Program does not and cannot program events or suggest speakers for events. Proposed events can be in-person (as conditions allow), virtual, or a hybrid.
Organizations eligible for grant support must apply with the assent and commitment to participate from the MacArthur Fellows and must be able to exercise supervision, direction, and control over the use of any grant funds.
Contact us if you represent a qualifying organization and would like to learn more.