Graham Foundation: Grants to Individuals

Priorities and Criteria

For individuals, our priorities are to:

• Provide opportunities to create, develop, and communicate a project about architecture and the designed environment that will contribute to their creative, intellectual, and professional growth at crucial or potentially transformative stages in their careers.
• Support their efforts to take positions, develop new forms of expression, and engage debate.
• Help them communicate their work in the public realm and reach new and wider audiences.
• Support new voices by giving priority to first-time applicants.

Overall we are most interested in opportunities which enable us to provide critical support at key points in the development of a project or career.

Criteria for Evaluation

Given our priorities, we believe projects of the greatest potential should fulfill the following criteria:

• Originality: the project demonstrates an innovative, challenging idea; critical, independent thinking; advanced scholarship; a new or experimental approach
• Potential for impact: the project makes a meaningful contribution to discourse and/or to the field; expands knowledge; is a catalyst for future inquiry; raises awareness of an understudied issue; promotes diversity in subject matter, participants, and audience
• Feasibility: the project has clear and realistic goals, timeframe, work plan, and budget
• Capacity: applicant possesses strong qualifications and/or knowledge; demonstrates ability to carry out the project successfully; has access to necessary resources outside of the grant request

More details