Leeway Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Leeway Foundation supports women, trans and gender nonconforming social change artists in the five-county Philadelphia region.
IP TAKE: At the Leeway Foundation, “art is a vital tool for community building, self-expression, and individual and collective transformation.” This funder provides funding and community support to women, trans and gender non-conforming artists and collaborators who create “social change” art. The foundation welcomes applications from artists working in any discipline or medium, as well as those who work in and across multiple disciplines.
In addition to clear guidelines for its various awards, Leeway runs in-person and virtual information sessions for applicants. Due dates for its various programs are staggered throughout the year. This is an accessible and approachable foundation, so reach out with questions at any time.
PROFILE: The Leeway Foundation was established in Philadelphia in 1993 with a bequest from the artist Linda Lee Alter. Its initial purpose was to support women and the arts in the five-county region. In the early 2000s, the foundation shifted its focus to social justice. Its current stated mission is to support “women and trans artists and cultural producers working in communities at the intersection of art, culture, and social change.”
Grantmaking continues to serve the five counties surrounding Philadelphia: Bucks, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia. This funder is a GUTC signatory.
Grants for Arts and Culture, Women, and LGBTQ
The Leeway Foundation supports individual artists working across multiple disciplines in the visual and performing arts, and many who work in multiple, overlapping media. Artists and/or “cultural producers” who are “women, trans, and gender nonconforming” in the greater Philadelphia area are eligible to apply for the following awards. While most grants go to individual artists, collaborators are also welcome to apply.
The Transformation Award is an unrestricted grant of $15,000 to artists “who create art for social change and have done so for the past five years or more, demonstrating a long-term commitment to social change work.”
Grants support artists working in “any medium, including traditional and nontraditional as well as multimedia and experimental forms.”
This program appears to award one grant each year.
The foundation provides detailed application guidelines on the program page and information about in-person and on-line information sessions about the application process. Applications are typically due in mid-May.
The Media Artist and Activist Residency supports “media artists working in close collaboration with social justice/cultural organizations to document, reframe, and/or amplify the issues and campaigns addressed by the organization.”
The award consists of a $15,000 grant to the artist and a $10,000 grant to the organization with which they collaborate. Leeway typically awards five residencies each year.
Detailed guidelines are provided on the program page, along with the dates of application information sessions.
Applications are typically due in late-June.
Leeway’s Art and Change Grants provide artists with $2,500 to support for social change projects. It is unclear how many of these awards the foundation gives each year. Detailed application information is provided on the program page, and applications are typically due at the beginning of August.
An additional opportunity available to past grantees is the Leeway x Fleisher Visual Artist Residency. The residency is offered in collaboration with the Fleisher Art Memorial, “of the country's oldest community art schools with classes and studios for various visual disciplines” and aims to support “art for social change projects that utilizes Fleisher's facilities.”
Residents receive a stipend of $2,5000, access to Fleisher’s resources and classes, and exhibition opportunities with the organization.
Application guidelines are provided on the program page and the foundation runs information sessions about the application process. The application due date for this program falls toward the end of April, and the foundation generally awards one residency each year.
The foundation runs two additional grant programs that are available only to current and past Leeway award recipients:
The Window of Opportunity Grant provides $1,500 to grantees “to help them take advantage of imminent, time-sensitive opportunities to support their art for social change practice.” Guidelines are provided on the program page. This program accepts applications with due dates falling on the 15th of every month between February and November, with decisions announced within 30 days of the deadline.
The Community Care Fund is a $1,250 grant that supports “recipients experiencing immediate and essential emergency needs.” Guidelines are available at the program page. The program accepts applications on a rolling basis from February through November “or until funds are depleted.”
Important Grant Details:
The Leeway Foundation’s grants are awarded in amounts ranging from $1,250 to $15,000 in amounts specified by each program.
Grants generally support individual artists who are women, trans and/or gender non-conforming and working in the five-county Philadelphia region of Pennsylvania.
Artistic collaborators are also welcome to apply for Leeway’s grants and awards.
The foundation is flexible in terms of the disciplines in media in which its grantees work but specifically targets artists and projects that promote social change “with a vision and an intentional analysis.”
This funder provides detailed guidelines on each program page. Application due dates vary by program.
Information about past recipients is also linked to program pages. Profiles of recent Window of Opportunity grantees are available here.
General questions may be submitted to Leeway via its contact page.
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