Visual Arts Fellowships FAQ

• Annual, juried, merit-based competition; recipients are selected anonymously
• Opportunity for Virginians to receive funding for their education or career in the Visual Arts or Art History
• 84 years of privately-funded support
• Nearly $6 million and more than 1,500 artists awarded in the program’s history

The Cy Twombly Fellowship, established in 2019, honors the renowned Virginia artist and two-time VMFA Fellowship winner. The award is supported by the McClintick Endowment and is to go to a graduate visual artist who is, and will continue to, make a significant contribution to the arts in Virginia.

This is a $6,000 graduate-level Fellowship. Graduate students do not need to apply separately for this Fellowship; all graduate student applicants will automatically be considered.

A legal resident of Virginia…

• has a valid VA driver’s license and/or
• pays income taxes in VA and/or
• is a registered VA voter and/or
• is a student who qualifies/pays in-state tuition to an accredited VA college, university, or school of the arts

An important residency note for students:

• Students who attend an accredited Virginia college, university, or school of the arts, but do not pay in-state tuition are not eligible to apply.
• Students who are legal residents of Virginia but attend college out-of-state still qualify as Virginia residents.

Deadline: Friday, November 1, 2024 at 5 pm

• Please be sure to start the application process early and contact the Fellowship Office before Friday, November 1 if you need any assistance completing the online application.
• Please allow the appropriate amount of time—based on your upload speed—to upload all samples of your work well before the 5 pm deadline.
• Paper applications, incomplete applications, and applications not received by the deadline will not be considered.
• Each member in a Professional Collaborative team must complete and submit their own General Application Form and resume/CV.

Applicants are asked to apply using only one artistic discipline for a few reasons, including the following:

1. Jurors can more easily judge the artistic merit in a body of work when that body of work is of a cohesive discipline.
2. For our Fellowship recipients, we would like to see demonstrated a museum quality body of work; one way that we see this defined is in the cohesiveness of the discipline.

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding our policy on selecting only one discipline, please contact the Fellowship Office before Friday, November 1.

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• For .jpg/.jpeg submissions, no signatures or legible names may appear in the digital images, or you will be disqualified.
• For submissions on video, your name and/or any credits must not appear anywhere on-screen or you will be disqualified.
• Your name should not appear within the artist statement, or you will be disqualified.
• Your work is judged through a blind jury process; the juror will not know your name, gender, hometown, etc. when viewing your work. It is very important to keep your work anonymous so we can maintain this blind jury process and ensure that your work is solely judged based on artistic merit.

• Professionals: your submitted works may not be in progress, and all works should have been completed in the last three years (2021-present).
• Undergraduates/Graduates: your submitted works may not be in progress, and four of the works (or one of the films) should have been completed in the past three years (2021-present).
• Art History: All papers must have been written in the past three years (2021-present).

• If you are chosen to receive a Fellowship, all application materials are kept on record at VMFA.
• All remaining materials (application, resumes, transcripts, artist statements) are disposed of according to VA state guidelines.

All applicants are reviewed anonymously by jurors from outside institutions, arts organizations, and museums.

• Professional recipients are selected by a juror of national reputation.
• Undergraduate and Graduate visual arts recipients are selected by a distinguished regional arts professional.
• Graduate Art History recipients are selected by a distinguished out-of-state or regional art history professional.

VMFA invites new jurors each year to make selections. Selections are made anonymously, so winning repeatedly speaks to the talent of the recipients.

Jurors will remain anonymous until the Fellowship recipients are announced in February.

• Applicant’s work sample (images/videos/research papers)
• Applicant’s work sample details (title, date, medium, dimensions, and description of each submitted work)
• Applicant’s artist statement

All other application materials (personal information, CV/resume, and transcript) are for VMFA internal use only and are not seen by the juror.

• Funds are given to recipients in 3 lump payments from Aug 2025–May 2026.
• There are no restrictions on how the award funds are spent.
• The award funds are intended to help further the recipient’s academic or professional career.

Professional recipients must:

1. Remain a permanent VA resident during the fellowship period of Aug 2025–May 2026
2. Submit a year-end report regarding benefits of Fellowship funds

Undergraduate and Graduate recipients must:

1. Remain enrolled as full-time students during the entire academic year of Aug 2025–May 2026 while maintaining VA residency
2. Provide official registrar’s enrollment certificate each semester
3. Submit 2 semester reports regarding benefits of Fellowship funds

• Recipients of 3 Fellowships in any category may not apply.
• VMFA invites new jurors each year to make selections. Selections are made anonymously, so winning repeatedly speaks to the talent of the recipients.