Artist Resources

The Belvedere Grant is available to support the professional development of MECA graduates from the past 10 years who are working in the field of crafts.

The Kindling Fund supports artist-organized projects that engage audiences and incorporate the visual arts in inventive and meaningful ways. The Kindling Fund distributes approximately $65,000 annually for individual project support grants, with awards ranging from $1,500–$5,000 each, to artists across the state of Maine. Focusing on work that embraces experimentation, supported Kindling Fund projects value unconventional engagement, critical dialogue, collaboration, and create new models for presenting artists’ work.

Maine Arts Commission encourages and stimulates public interest and participation in the cultural heritage and cultural programs of our state; expands the state’s cultural resources; and encourages and assists freedom of artistic expression for the well being of the arts, all while meeting the needs and aspirations of persons in all parts of the state.

Maine Expansion Arts supports arts organizations and arts-based programs in Maine serving rural communities and/or Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, particularly in areas with limited access to the arts.

Maine Humanities Council Arts & Humanities grants, a partnership between the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine Arts Commission, support innovative community projects that have BOTH arts and humanities components.

Onion Foundation offers Spring/Fall grants and Discovery Grants to encourage conservation and stewardship of the natural environment and promote music and the arts in the state of Maine. 

AAUW has a history of advancing education and professional opportunities for women in the United States and across the globe.

The Alexia offers production grants to students and professional photographers to give them the financial ability to produce substantial stories that drive change in the effort to make the world a better place. Students also get scholarship opportunities.

ASF American Scandinavian Foundation awards grants to American students to study and research abroad in Scandinavia.

The Asian Cultural Council makes fellowships and grants to support cultural exchange in the arts for practicing artists, scholars, and arts professionals.

Artadia is a non-profit grantmaker and nationwide community of visual artists, curators, and patrons. Artadia elevates the careers of artists at pivotal moments in their practice through a proven combination of recognition, grantmaking, community support, and advocacy.

Artist Trust offers a curated list of national funders for individual artists.

Arts Writers Grant Program supports writers whose work addresses contemporary visual art through project-based grants issued directly to individual authors.

Artwork Archive offers an updated yearly list of artist grants and opportunities.

Awesome Foundation The Awesome Foundation is a global community advancing the interest of awesome in the universe, $1000 at a time. Each fully autonomous chapter supports awesome projects through micro-grants, usually given out monthly.

BRAF Black Rock Arts Foundation funds highly interactive, community-driven works of art that prioritize community involvement in their development, execution and display. They fund art that is accessible to the public, civic in scope and prompts the viewer to act.

Black Artist Fund The Black Artist Fund is a nonprofit organization giving money directly to Black artists to combat systemic inequity in art.

The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design Craft Research Fund advances, expands, and supports craft, art, and design scholarship in the United States.

CCI The Center for Cultural Innovation understands working artists need direct support to develop their creative practice and provides grants to provide the support needed.

 

CIES: Offering a Fulbright grant to lecture, conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields, or to participate in seminars.

Creative Capital is a national nonprofit organization that provides integrated financial and advisory support to artists pursuing adventurous projects in all disciplines.

Creative Work Fund invites artists and nonprofit organizations to create new art works through collaborations. It celebrates the role of artists as problem solvers and the making of art as a profound contribution to intellectual inquiry and to the strengthening of communities.  Artists are encouraged to collaborate with nonprofit organizations of all kinds.

Elizabeth Green Shields Foundation promotes, by its charitable activities, an appreciation of traditional expression in painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking, by aiding worthy art students, artists or sculptors who need further training or other assistance during their formative years.

 

Getty Foundation Through strategic grants and programs, the Foundation supports projects in Los Angeles and throughout the world that advance the understanding and preservation of the visual arts.

The Gottlieb Foundation wishes to encourage artists who have dedicated their lives to developing their art, regardless of their level of commercial success.

Harpo Foundation’s  Grants for Visual Artists award provides direct support to under-recognized artists 21 years or older.

Japan Foundation has various types of support programs. By making available the tools, opportunities, and venues that facilitate exchange activities, we invite individuals and organizations actively engaged in such a mission to participate in our programs.

Launchpad Grant provided by Gorham Savings Bank, invites entrepreneurs to submit their business idea. The winner of the competition is awarded $30,000.

Libra Future Fund awards grants to individuals 29 and under to promote economic development or create job opportunities in Maine. In addition, projects should provide the applicant with substantial professional or educational experience.

Moon and Stars Project grants program provides competitively awarded Project and Residency grants for burgeoning and established artists.

NEA Independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities.

NASAA The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies is a membership organization that unites, represents and serves the nation’s state and jurisdictional art agencies.

The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures has delivered programs that stabilize and revitalize the US Latino arts and cultural sector via funding, leadership training, convenings, research, and advocacy.

The Puffin Foundation has sought to open the doors of artistic expression by providing grants to artists and art organizations who are often excluded from mainstream opportunities due to their race, gender, or social philosophy.

QUEER|ART|AWARDS is an initiative of grants, prizes, and residencies that includes a spectrum of support—monetary and otherwise—for LGBTQ+ artists.

Sustainable Arts Foundation supports artists and writers with children. They make annual unrestricted cash awards to individuals; at least half of these awards are made to applicants of color. They also support artist residencies in their efforts to make their programs more family friendly.

The Warhol Foundation grantmaking activity is focused on serving the needs of artists by funding the institutions that support them. Grants are made for scholarly exhibitions at museums; curatorial research; visual arts programming at artist-centered organizations; artist residencies and commissions; arts writing; and efforts to promote the health, welfare and first amendment rights of artists.

Women Arts provides women artists a list of resources for grants that can help them in their professional careers.

The Aaron Siskind Foundation is offering a limited number of Individual Photographer’s Fellowship grants of up to $10,000 each, for artists working in photography and photo-based art.

The Artists’ Fellowship, Inc. is a charitable foundation that assists professional fine artists (painters, graphic artists, printmakers, sculptors) and their families in times of emergency, disability, or bereavement.

Boren Fellowships enable U.S. graduate students to add an important international and language component to their graduate education through specialization in area study, language study, or increased language proficiency.

CAA: College Art Association’s Professional-Development Fellowships support promising artists and art historians who are enrolled in MFA and PhD programs nationwide. Fellows are honored with $5,000 grants to help them with various aspects of their work, whether it be for job-search expenses or purchasing materials for the studio.

The Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts presents its annual program of support for advanced graduate research in the history, theory, and criticism of art, architecture, urbanism, and photographic media.

Chronicle Books Design Fellowship offers two graphic design fellowship opportunities within the Design Department. The Children’s Books & Gift Graphic Design Fellowship focuses on books and gifts for babies, children and young adults. The Books & Gift Fellowship focuses on books and gifts for an adult audience. Book content ranges from Art, Food, Lifestyle, and Entertainment. Gifts might include stationery, puzzles, products, and specialty packaging.

The Fellowship at the DeVos Institute of Art Management is an immersive program in arts management strategy designed to prepare mid-career arts managers for executive positions in today’s complex arts environment.

FAWC: The Fine Arts Work Center offers a unique residency for writers and visual artists in the crucial early stages of their careers, located in Provincetown,Massachusetts.

Grant Wood Art Colony in Iowa City, IA, offers fellowships in Printmaking and Painting & Drawing that provide a $40,000 teaching salary, benefits, housing and studio space.

The Guggenheim Foundation offers fellowships to further the development of scholars and artists by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions and irrespective of race, color, or creed.

Headland’s Graduate Fellowships provide meaningful support to recent, promising MFA graduates, in partnership with esteemed Bay Area academic institutions.

Maker Fellows is a paid fellowship for part-time instructors in STEAM-powered maker spaces around the country.

The Mind Trust empowers talented innovators to transform K-12 education by starting groundbreaking initiatives to address some of its most pressing problems.

The NYC Teaching Fellows program recruits and prepares high-quality, dedicated individuals to become teachers who raise student achievement in the New York City classrooms that need them most.

Ox-Bow welcomes twelve fellowship students from all over the nation. These students live on campus for the duration of the summer season, from approximately June 1 – September 1, where they participate in campus life as both staff members and as artists.

Pew Fellowships in the Arts (PFA) annually awards up to 12 fellowships of $60,000 to artists of exemplary talent.

The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans provide opportunities for continuing generations of able and accomplished New Americans to achieve leadership in their chosen fields.

The Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program annually selects and supports 50 leading artists and scholars who have both exceptional promise and demonstrated accomplishments.

The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies supports professional development in museum education, evaluation, and new media.

Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT, offers fellowships where residents receive an individual studio, private room, and all meals.

New Ventures
We help people all over Maine venture in new directions by offering tuition-free programs for career, business, and financial education.

CEI Maine
A nonprofit with a mission to build a just, vibrant and climate-resilient future for people and communities in Maine and rural regions by integrating finance, business expertise and policy solutions in ways that make the economy work more equitably.

Small Business Development Center
Assist entrepreneurs and small businesses through no-cost confidential business advising and training.

 

SCORE Maine
SCORE mentors advise emerging and existing small business clients about financial matters such as cash flow management, achieving a healthy balance sheet, improving the bottom line and arranging financing. SCORE also advises on business planning, marketing and numerous other areas of importance to a successful small business.

 

Acadia National Park Artists Residency  encourages artists to create fresh and innovative new ways for visitors to experience Acadia National Park through the arts. 

Arts are Elementary Residency provides annual professional artist residencies to each of Brunswick’s elementary school classes.

Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Artist Residency Program The residency is envisioned as inclusive and diverse, prompting reflection and dialogue with other residents and the community, offering the gift of concentrated time and space in which to unveil new ideas and imagine new ways of working.

CMCA Artist Residency Presented in collaboration with the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, The CMCA Artist Residency Program is open to artists who identify as Black, Indigenous, Asian/Pacific Islander, Latinx, or alternately identified persons of color who live year-round in Maine. Preference will be given to artists who have experience presenting public art, exhibition(s) or project(s) that directly engaged audiences.

Golden Apple Residency is located approximately an hour north of Bar Harbor along the rocky coastal region of Downeast Maine. Within a very quiet and secluded location, the residency grounds are situated near the tip of Ripley’s Neck down a long and winding road outside of Harrington, where the main house, the studios and the residency cottages are all less than two hundred feet from shore. It is in this remote, naturally rugged and picturesque environment that our artists and writers find the support and inspiration to create.

Great Spruce Head Island Art Week Each summer since 1993 a group of 12 artists, (painters, writers, sculptors, photographers) some new, some repeaters have come to Great Spruce Head Island to work independently and to share their love of the artistic process. Art week has no instruction or structured workshop. Participants enjoy three special meals a day, a private bedroom and workspace on one of five porches.

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Haystack’s core summer workshops include one- and two-week sessions in blacksmithing, clay, fibers, glass, graphics, metals, and wood. Classes are open to adults 18 years or older of all skill levels – from beginners to advanced professionals. Studios are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with classes scheduled Monday through Friday. The Haystack community is made up of approximately 85 participants, including staff, students, and internationally known faculty artists. Instructors determine the format of their workshops.

Heliker-LaHotan Foundation Residency Program It was the wish of Jack Heliker and Robert LaHotan that their home and studios on Cranberry Island in Maine continue to be used by artists. To this end they left their estates to the Heliker-LaHotan Foundation, with a mandate to operate the complex of buildings on Cranberry Island as a place for artists to live and work. The three-to four-week residencies are designed for mid-career artists of established ability, not emerging talents. Because the purpose of the Foundation is to provide opportunities for mature individual artists to work uninterrupted in a tranquil setting, spouses, partners, children, or pets are not included in the arrangements.

Hewnoaks Artist Residency Artists with an adventurous spirit are invited to live and work at Hewnoaks between late June and mid-September. Residencies run from one to two weeks, depending on availability. Participants will live in small, rustic cabins equipped with basic kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms.

Illustration Institute’s Marilyn Faison Artist Residency The mission of the Marilyn Faison Artist Residency is to provide illustrators, writers and narrative artists an opportunity to create in relative seclusion on Peaks Island, just off the coast of Portland, Maine.

Indigo Arts Alliance provides an environment for the production of artwork in all media across disciplines. It is intended for professional, mid-career and emerging artists to explore and grow their work in a creative atmosphere. The residency program aims to connect Black and Brown artists from across the globe to local artists of African descent. In this way we facilitate working opportunities for critical feedback, relationship building and increased awareness of creative practices and resources. Selected artists offer and participate in public talks, symposiums and workshops increasing their visibility and disseminating intellectual discourse.

Joseph A. Fiore Art Center at Rolling Acres Farm The Visual Artist Residency is one month long, with 2 artists per month attending for July, August, and September. It includes a private room with shared bathroom in the renovated farmhouse at Rolling Acres Farm, shared kitchen and living space, and a private studio space in the barn with a large art table and easel. The residents will have three shared dinners a month which will be attended by the residency directors and one or more visiting artists (two dinners will be prepared by a local chef, one will be a potluck). At these gatherings, there will be opportunities for structured critiques by established artists.

Monhegan Artists’ Residency For well over 150 years, Monhegan Island has inspired countless artists, including Robert Henri, George Bellows, Rockwell Kent, Reuben Tam, Elena Jahn and Jamie Wyeth, to name a few. While Monhegan continues to attract artists from across the country and around the world, it is increasingly difficult for Maine artists to find affordable housing for an extended visit on the island. To this end, the Monhegan Artists’ Residency provides free comfortable living quarters, studio space, a stipend of $150 per week, and time for visual artists to reflect on, experiment, or develop their art while living in an artistically historic and beautiful location.

Monson Arts Monson Arts’ residency program supports emerging and established artists and writers by providing them time and space to devote to their creative practices. During each of the 2-week and 4-week programs throughout the year, a cohort of roughly 5 artists and 5 writers are invited to immerse themselves in small town life at the edge of Maine’s North Woods and focus intensely on their work within a creative and inspiring environment. They receive a private studio, private bedroom in shared housing, all meals, and stipend. Application for this program is open to anyone at any stage of their career, working in visual arts, writing, and related fields (i.e. audio, video, photography).

Norton Island Residency Program for Writers and Artists Each summer, Norton Island hosts established artists, musicians, and writers so they may develop and share their work in an extraordinarily beautiful and remote wilderness setting. The nature of this program is straightforward, even rudimentary: this is a remote, rustic wilderness with facilities to accommodate a select group of artists who sometimes share their work after dinner but are otherwise there to work uninterrupted. The environment is beautiful, extreme, and unadorned. Each resident is required to work with their fellow residents to conserve water and electricity, to help clean up after dinner, and to tote their own share of firewood. Norton Island is an outdoorsy experience that may come as a shock at first to residents who have spent time at other artist residencies.

Seapoint International Artist Residency The Seapoint International Artist Residency was founded in 2012, in an effort to bring multicultural writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians into a thriving and vibrant creative community. The Residency is a peaceful, unique, and inspiring sanctuary in which to create. As the director of S.I.A.R., Alicia Goodwin offers her experience as an artist, writer, curator, and world-traveler to visiting artists, as well as exposure to a wide network of other local, national, and international individuals and organizations integral to a successful artistic cultural exchange. While each artist is encouraged to work at their own pace, each month will offer opportunities for artist talks, salons, visits to museums, galleries and other studios, and an open house style exhibition at the residency-run, off-site Gallery.

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Open to advanced visual artists and art students in painting, sculpture, fresco, installation, performance, video, photography, mixed media who are at least 19 years of age. The summer intensive allows 65 artists to produce new work in a communal, rural environment. No structured classes, but critical assistance (in the form of weekly one-on-one sessions) scheduled with a faculty or resident and visiting artists. Shared living facilities in dormitory, sculpture shop, darkroom. Fees charged; some fellowships offered. (visual arts)

SPACE Artist-in-Residence Program Designed to provide a unique working environment for national emerging and mid-career artists, writers, filmmakers, curators, and collaborative groups, this program is committed to highlighting the contributions of queer artists and artists of color. The SPACE Residency connects artists from outside Portland to the city’s vibrant arts community and offers engagement opportunities that fit each resident’s needs. It is dedicated to those artists seeking uninterrupted time and space to devote to their practice.

StudioWorks Residency at Tides Institute Museum of Art The StudioWorks Artist-in-Residence Program at the Tides Institute & Museum of Art (TIMA) offers residency opportunities to visual artists from the U.S. and abroad to deepen and develop their practice within a community setting. Our studios, museum and housing are located within the historic downtown and working waterfront of Eastport, Maine and overlook the U.S./Canada boundary. TIMA’s downtown StudioWorks building contains private studios, common work areas, and a ground floor printmaking and letterpress studio. TIMA is also developing a nearby larger scale Free Will North Church Project Space which provides additional studio workspace and exhibition opportunities. A StudioWorks residency provides an artist with a unique experience to play an active role in our creative community.

Surf Point Foundation Surf Point Foundation provides time, space and support for the visual arts community to think, connect and create. We offer three-week, live-work residencies to nominated artists and art professionals throughout the year on the coast of York, Maine.

Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts Various jobs for studio and stipend; ceramics only; dorm room accommodations. 2-week sessions during summer months and 9-month residencies from Sept.-May. On 32 rural acres with gently rolling hills in a former brick factory. Some residencies fully funded, some partially funded. Equipment on-site includes a variety of kilns, potters’ wheels, clay mixer, pug mill.

 

Artist Communities Alliance supports the people who power the field – administrators, artists, culture bearers, creatives, volunteers, neighbors and community – of artist residencies, organizations and programs that provide time, space and resources for artists to advance their creative practice. Artist residencies and artists are at the center of our work.

Resartis: A global network of vetted residencies for artists, curators, researchers & creatives

Trans Artists:  combines and shares knowledge and experience on artist-in-residence programmes and other international opportunities for creative professionals to temporarily stay and work elsewhere.

Arts Specific

The Listings Project

Words of Mouth

New York Foundation for the Arts

Working Not Working

ArtJobs.com

 

General

Glassdoor

Indeed

LinkedIn

Idealist 

 

Remote

We Work Remotely

Pangian

 

 

Freelance 

Upwork

Pangea

Altpick

Core7

Illoz

Guru

Behance

 

Gaming

Game Developer Jobs

Work With Indies

Game Developer Map

Here is a selection of studio spaces within 25 miles of Portland:

Cassidy Point 121 Cassidy Point Drive, Portland, ME

Dana Warp Mill 90 Bridge St, Westbrook, Me

Fort Andross 14 Maine St, Brunswick, ME

Mayo Street Arts 10 Mayo St, Portland, ME

Pepperell Mill Campus  2 Main St, Biddeford, ME

Running with Scissors 250 Anderson St, Portland, ME

SPACE Studios 538 Congress St, Portland, ME

State Theater Building 142 High St, Portland, ME

There are a variety of artist studio spaces available in the Portland area. This information can change frequently, but Creative Portland has a directory of spaces that is searchable by medium. Find studio space.

AIGA is a national organization that advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage and vital cultural force. AIGA Maine is the local chapter that offers memberships to access networking, programming and events, as well as additional benefits.

Creative Portland is a nonprofit organization that seeks to leverage, grow, and sustain Portland’s creative industries, enterprises, and workforce. As the City’s official local arts agency, they provide connections, maps, and a bevy of additional resources as well as managing the listings for Portland’s First Friday Artwalk.

Maine Arts Commission is a State of Maine agency devoted to enhancing the cultural heritage and cultural programs within the state. Their programs include arts accessibility, arts education, grants development, media arts, public arts, traditional arts, visual arts, and more, and they offer a variety of grant opportunities.

Maine Crafts Association is a nonprofit organization that provides advocacy for craft artists, with a focus on marketing and sales opportunities, business and creative development programs, public education, networking and more. They offer memberships that provide established and emerging craft artists with connections and visibility.

New Ventures helps people all over Maine to venture in new directions by offering tuition-free programs for career, business, and financial education.

The Union of Maine Visual Artists (UMVA) represents visual artists statewide in all fields of endeavor. They collaborate with other cultural and political organizations and raise awareness for significant issues while promoting an inclusive arts community in Maine.

Art Deadline has been dedicated to world wide distribution of information for artists and institutions; part of their mission is to sponsor grants to help artists as arts is an important and innate part of the human experience.

Art Rabbit is a platform for international contemporary art exhibitions and events, with a selection of international open calls and opportunities for contemporary art-related competitions, prizes, exhibitions, awards, proposals, and grants for artists, writers and curators.

Call For Entry Cafe is a resource for finding national and international calls for art.

Common Field connects, supports and advocates for the artist-centered field by providing a network for independent arts organizations and organizers.

 

GYST  is an artist-run company providing resources, technology and solutions created by artists for artists. Our mission is to support arts professionals, educational institutions, and arts organizations with an integrated program of software, services and information in order to keep artists working. GYST–Ink is dedicated to empowering and educating artists so that they can develop sustainable and successful careers on their own terms.

Hyperallergic is a forum for serious, playful, and radical thinking about art in the world today. Founded in 2009, Hyperallergic is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York.

I Like Your Work Podcast is dedicated to supporting artists, creating community and providing resources. There are interviews with creative people from painters and artists to collectors and curators. People who are involved in a creative lifestyle and also in building community within the arts.

Sunlight Tax is a great resource for artists and freelancers. Hannah Cole, the founder empowers creative workers with accessible tax and business setup skills. They provide engaging tax workshops for creative audiences.

VVorkshop is a platform that aims to help artists get more shows, connect with ambitious artists, curators and gallerists like yourself, and build a network that allows you to spend more time doing what you love in the studio.