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.
Thursday, March 13
Location
Smith College Conference Center
Northampton, MA
Reproductive Justice Futurisms Think Tank Convening, including a panel with Fellows Dorothy Roberts (2024), Byllye Avery (1989) and Loretta Ross (2022). The event brings together industry experts, scholars, students, and front-line workers to discuss topics at the intersection of reproductive justice, technology, and human rights.
Saturday, March 29
11:30 A.M.
Location
Knoxville, Tennessee
A public conversation between Fellows musical artists Claire Chase (2012) and Tyshawn Sorey (2017) moderated by renowned music journalist Nate Chinen, which will reflect on Sorey’s transformational engagement with the International Contemporary Ensemble and explore Chase’s multi-decade commissioning project, Density 2035.
Friday, April 11
7:00 p.m. ET
Location
Artists Space
11 Cortlandt Alley, New York 10013
A conversation between MacArthur Fellows artist Carolyn Lazard (2023) and activist Loretta J. Ross (2022) addressing Black women’s health and the Black maternal mortality crisis. This public event is part of a two-part program series—conceived in conjunction with the exhibition Carolyn Lazard: Two-Way—where broader conversations on debility, care, and Black reproduction can unfold and extend beyond the exhibition.
Saturday, April 12
12:00 p.m. ET
Location
Other Suns Café and Marketplace
414 Laura Wall Blvd., Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27101
A live public event bringing together MacArthur Fellows Tressie McMillan Cottom (2020), Kiese Laymon (2022), and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (2021) who will read from their memoirs and share reflections and works-in-progress about identity, place, and the many meanings of home in conversation with the community that anchored the Winston Salem chapter of the Black Panther Party, the first Southern chapter of the Party. The event will be recorded, and with additional interviews and footage, compiled into a short documentary exploring aging, legacy, and resistance in radical social movements.
Saturday, April 26
6:00-9:00 p.m. PT
Location
Sydney Goldstein Theatre
275 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Fellows An-My Lê (2012) and Viet Thanh Nguyen (2017) will be speaking in a discussion moderated by Lien Hang Nguyen at Still We Rise, an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam, which has deep meaning for the Southeast Asian community and is an important part of American history. With this event, DVAN seeks to empower the voices of Vietnamese Americans and educate society at large about unique experiences and perspectives.
Sunday, May 4
1:30–3:00 p.m. ET
Location
Delhi Center
505 E. Central Ave., Santa Ana, CA 92707
Fellows An-My Lê (2012) and Viet Thanh Nguyen (2017) in a public discussion moderated by Thanh Tan at Five Decades in Diaspora an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. The conversation will explore five decades of history, resilience, and art within the Vietnamese diaspora.
Tuesday, May 6
6:30 p.m. ET
Location
Artists Space
11 Cortlandt Alley, New York 10013
A public conversation between Fellows Dorothy Roberts (2024) and Carolyn Lazard (2023) addressing Black women’s health and the Black maternal mortality. This is the second of two events that are complementary public programming accompanying Lazard’s first solo institution exhibition in New York, Two-Way.
May 16 – July 27
Location
daadgalerie
Oranienstraße 161, Berlin
As part of the public programming accompanying the art exhibition For Real For Real, several MacArthur Fellows are engaged in readings, film screenings, and talks.
May 16, 19:00 Poet Jericho Brown (2024) presents new poems and engages in a public conversation with event organizer Claudia Rankine (2016)
May 17, 18:00 Choreograph and dancer Shamel Pitts (2024) and filmmaker Taylor Antisdel screen a rough cut of Touch of Red: Recollection and engage in a conversation with Claudia Rankine
June 6, 19:00 Artist Mel Chin (2019) in conversation with Claudia Rankine
June 10, 19:00 Screening of Exhibiting Forgiveness by Titus Kaphar (2018)
June 24, 19:00 Poetry reading with Terrance Hayes (2014)
The Real For Real exhibition features numerous artists’ works including Fellows such as Kara Walker (1997), Mel Chin (2019 ), and Carrie Mae Weems (2013), and is accompanied by an extensive program of readings, talks, and screenings. The MacArthur Foundation is supporting the public programming around the exhibition featuring MacArthur Fellows.
Tuesday, May 20
5:00 p.m.–9:30 p.m. CEST
Location
Columbia University Global Center at Reid Hall, Paris, France
A musical evening conceived in dialogue with the Pompidou Center exhibition “Paris Noir: Circulations artistiques et luttes anticoloniales, 1950-2000” featuring live performances, interviews, and films about Afrodiasporic installations and technologies including a conversation with MacArthur Fellows George Lewis (2002), Courtney Bryan (2023), and Tyshawn Sorey (2017).
Wednesday, June 25
5:30 p.m. EDT Reception
6:00 p.m. EDT Lecture
Location
The Library Company of Philadelphia
1314 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA
A moderated conversation among MacArthur Fellows Ruha Benjamin (2024), Jennifer L. Morgan (2024), and Dorothy Roberts (2024) which aims to highlight the work and achievements of these scholars and learn their perspectives as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary as a nation. The event will explore the intellectual legacy of Black people in the United States.
Wednesday, July 16
9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. EDT
Location
New America
740 15th Street NW, Suite 900, Washington, D.C. and On-Line
Two decades ago, Hurricane Katrina devasted the Gulf Coast and the city of New Orleans, in the process revealing fault lines in the country’s infrastructure, governance, and media, and also highlighting stubborn racial and economic disparities. What has been learned in the 20 years since Katrina? As part of a daylong symposium sponsored by New America, MacArthur Fellows Catherine Coleman Flowers (2020) and Reuben Jonathan Miller (2022) will be in a conversation moderated by Ted Johnson on Race & Class in Katrina’s America, and MacArthur Fellow Nikole Hannah-Jones (2017) will speak in the Keynote Conversation: The State of Play closing out the day.
Thursday, August 7
3:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m. EDT
Location
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center, Cambridge, MA
A panel discussion featuring MacArthur Fellows Mary L. Gray (2020), Lester Mackey (2023), and Bill Thies (2016), to explore how leading scholars in computing and social sciences have worked with communities to develop AI systems for social impact. In conversation with Computing Research Association’s inaugural Early Career Trustworthy AI Fellows and Mentors, the panel will consider what AI models and tools could look like if multidisciplinary research teams coordinated taking a “participatory turn” towards social groups as cornerstones and sources of deep expertise in designing trustworthy intelligent systems.
Saturday, September 27
9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. CT
Location
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
As part of a day-long public convening to mark Open Television’s 10th anniversary, Beyond the Screen unites trailblazing artists, media leaders, and cultural changemakers to ignite conversation, celebrate legacy, and chart the future of intersectional storytelling. MacArthur Fellows Ruha Benjamin (2024) and Safiya Noble (2021) will headline the closing keynote conversation, “Redesigning the Future: Intersectionality, Censorship, and the Power of Imagination” exploring the transformative potential of intersectionality and creative thinking as tools for systemic change, moderated by Dayo Lamalo, OTV’s Governing Body Co-Chair and VP of Communications at Mozilla Foundation.
Thursday, October 30
7:00 p.m. PST
Location
Bovard Auditorium, 3551 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA
A panel discussion event featuring artists and educators reflecting on the importance of memory, family, and the deep ties Angelenos have to their historic communities. Three MacArthur Fellows—musician, scholar, and artist/activist Martha Gonzalez (2022), cultural historian Josh Kun (2016), and American historian Natalia Molina (2020), alongside historian George Sanchez, educator Ofelia Esparza, musician David Hidalgo, and filmmaker Akira Boch take part in a conversation that complements the release of the album Memory and Return by Gonzalez’s L.A.-based band Quetzal. Following a performance by Quetzal, Kun will moderate an intergenerational dialogue exploring the sonic landscape and memory work that informed the album.
Friday, October 24
7:00 p.m. PST
Location
Columbus Museum of Art - CMA at The Pizzuti, Columbus, Ohio
A public conversation between MacArthur Fellows Tavares Strachan (2022) and Hanif Abdurraqib (2021), whose works explore the intersection of history, identity, and culture. Strachan, a Bahamian-born, New York-based contemporary visual artist, and Abdurraqib, a Columbus native and resident, poet, essayist, and cultural critic, will discuss how culture is built, shared, and preserved from the margins through spaces like bars, music venues, record shops, and restaurants. Their dialogue sets the stage for The Day Tomorrow Began, a major exhibition of Strachan’s work opening at The Pizzuti in May 2026.
Wednesday, November 12
8:00 p.m. ET
Location
Roulette Intermedium, Brooklyn, NY
A concert event moderated by MacArthur Fellow George Lewis (2002) showcasing works by MacArthur Fellows Anthony Braxton (1994) and former collaborator Mary Halvorson (2019) for an ensemble of ten performers. A pre-concert conversation between Lewis and Halvorson will provide a unique insider perspective about Braxton’s work and legacy, and his impact on both Halvorson and Lewis and on the field of experimental music more generally.
Tuesday, November 18
11:00 a.m. ET
Location
Online Only
A virtual roundtable discussion focused on finding common ground and building power across rural and urban spaces, presented by CivicSpace, a New America Chicago initiative. The event will convene MacArthur Fellows Loka Ashwood (2024) and Catherine Coleman Flowers (2020) with urban civic leaders, nonprofit advocates, and policy stakeholders from Chicago to explore how rural and urban communities can better understand one another and work together to address shared civic challenges. The roundtable will include a moderated dialogue followed by an opportunity for questions.
Saturday, December 13
6:00 p.m.–8 p.m. PT
Location
Bread and Salt, 1955 Julian Avenue, San Diego, CA
A public conversation between MacArthur Fellows American historian Kelly Lytle Hernández (2019) and filmmaker Alex Rivera (2021) discussing the historical antecedents leading up to the present-day state of affairs and what may unfold in the future. The event is designed to help audience members better understand the history and future of U.S. detention and deportation of immigrants. It includes a preview screening of Rivera’s film Banishment, a hybrid documentary that blends scripted scenes with traditional documentary forms to tell the story of deportation in the U.S.; a reading by Lytle Hernández from the source material that inspired the film; and a conversation between Rivera and Lytle Hernández. This program is part of Zócalo Public Square’s “What Connects California?” series of free public programs across the state marking the 175th anniversary of California’s statehood.
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.