Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts fosters the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society through project-based grants to individuals and organizations and by producing exhibitions, events, and publications.
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts is based in Chicago, IL. It reported $3,123,954 in annual grants and $48,033,824 in total assets in its latest 990 year on file, 2025. The foundation funds individuals and organizations through project-based grants, with a stated focus on architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. Its grantmaking also reaches exhibitions, publications, public programs, research, and film/video/new media. Recent named grants show the range of its support. Chicago Architecture Biennial received $75,000 in 2025 for “This is a Rehearsal” and $75,000 in 2024 for “Chicago Architecture Biennial.” SPACES received $35,000 in 2024 for “Everlasting Plastics, US Pavilion, 18th International Architecture Exhibition.” Other recent awards include $25,000 to Ying Lu Lucy Wang for “Contagious Places, Curative Spaces” and $20,000 to The Jewish Museum for “Kiesler's Vision Machines.” The foundation’s typical grant size is relatively concentrated around smaller project awards, with a p25 of $5,000, a median of $9,000, and a p75 of $10,000, though larger awards appear in recent grant data.
Recent grantmaking spans architecture history and theory, exhibitions and public programs, and research on race, place, and spatial practice. Notable grants include $75,000 to Chicago Architecture Biennial for “This is a Rehearsal,” $35,000 to SPACES for “Everlasting Plastics, US Pavilion, 18th International Architecture Exhibition,” and $20,000 to The Jewish Museum for “Kiesler's Vision Machines.” Other recent awards include $20,000 to Dicle Taskin for “The Pan-American Highway Project: Imageries, Infrastructures, and Landscapes of Hemispheric (Dis)Integration, 1923-1970,” $15,000 to Robin Hartanto Honggare for “Building Commodities: Environments of the Colonial Plantation in East Sumatra, 1869-1942,” and $15,000 to The University of Texas at Austin for “The Black Home as Public Art.”
The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts makes project-based grants to individuals and nonprofit organizations. Its typical grant size is $5,000 at the 25th percentile, $9,000 at the median, and $10,000 at the 75th percentile. Recent awards show a mix of individual practitioners, museums, universities, and cultural organizations. The foundation accepts unsolicited applications for its active grant programs. It gives nationally and also funds recipients outside the United States. The recent grant list includes larger project awards such as $75,000 and $35,000, alongside many awards of $15,000 to $20,000.
$1M
$48M
$1.2M
$3.1M
Most grants fall between $5K and $10K, with a median of $9K.
25th Percentile
$5K
Median
$9K
75th Percentile
$10K
Top 10 recipient countries by grant volume for Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
| Rank | Country | Grants | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United StatesDomestic | 352 | $3.1M | 86.9% |
| 2 |
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The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts gives nationally, with 345 grants to US recipients in the recent distribution. Outside the United States, recent grants went to Canada, the UK, Mexico, Italy, CE, Ghana, LE, the Netherlands, and SF. By state, Illinois leads with 77% of grants and is the top state by grant count. Other frequently funded states in the recent list include New York, Ohio, Virginia, Texas, and Louisiana. Chicago appears often in the recent grant record, but the foundation’s giving extends beyond its headquarters in Chicago, IL.
Yes. The active grant programs listed for Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts state that Grants to Individuals, Grants to Organizations, Project-based Grants to Individuals, Project-based Grants to Organizations, the Richard Solomon Award, and the Carter Manny Award all accept unsolicited applications.
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts funds architecture-related projects, including research, writing, exhibitions, publications, public programs, and events. Recent grant titles also show support for architecture history, design, environmental and landscape topics, and projects examining race, place, and spatial practice.
Its typical grant size is $5,000 at the 25th percentile, $9,000 at the median, and $10,000 at the 75th percentile. Recent grants also include larger awards such as $75,000, $35,000, $25,000, and $20,000.
The foundation gives nationally. In the recent geographic distribution, 345 grants went to US recipients, and there were also grants to recipients in Canada, the UK, Mexico, Italy, CE, Ghana, LE, the Netherlands, and SF. Illinois is the state where it gives most often.
Recent grantees include Chicago Architecture Biennial, SPACES, Ying Lu Lucy Wang, The Jewish Museum, Dicle Taskin, Katherine Reynolds, Ariele Dionne-Krosnick, The University of Texas at Austin, and Prospect New Orleans (US Biennials Inc). The recent list also includes many individual practitioners and cultural institutions based in Chicago and other cities.
2025
Source: IRS Form 990-PF, fiscal year 2025.
| 13 |
| $140K |
3.2% |
| 3 | Canada | 11 | $82K | 2.7% |
| 4 | Mexico | 10 | $78K | 2.5% |
| 5 | Sri Lanka | 4 | $40K | 1.0% |
| 6 | Ghana | 3 | $30K | 0.7% |
| 7 | Italy | 3 | $6K | 0.7% |
| 8 | South Africa | 2 | $20K | 0.5% |
| 9 | Lebanon | 2 | $20K | 0.5% |
| 10 | Other Countries | 2 | $20K | 0.5% |
Recipient country reflects the grantee's headquarters per IRS 990-PF and Schedule F filings, not the program's implementation country.
Most recent grants reported to the IRS.
| Recipient | Location | Amount | Year | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago Architecture Biennial | Chicago, IL | $75,000 | 2025 | This is a Rehearsal |
| Ying Lu Lucy Wang | Chicago, IL | $25,000 | 2025 | Contagious Places, Curative Spaces |
| The Jewish Museum | New York, NY | $20,000 | 2025 | Kiesler's Vision Machines |
| Caroline Spooner | Chicago, IL | $20,000 | 2025 | Dead Time |
| Ariele Dionne-Krosnick | Chicago, IL | $20,000 | 2025 | Swimming Pools, Civil Rights, and the American City in the 1960s |
| Prospect New Orleans (US Biennials Inc) | New Orleans, LA | $15,000 | 2025 | Prospect.6 |
| A Project 83 Inc | New York, NY | $15,000 | 2025 | a83 Exhibition Program & Architectural Image-Making in 1980s New York |
| Carnegie Museum of Art | Pittsburgh, PA | $15,000 | 2025 | Tatiana Bilbao: City of Rooms |
| Temitayo Ogunbiyi | Chicago, IL | $15,000 | 2025 | You will wonder if we would have been friends |
| Tom Carruthers & Jennifer Newsom | Chicago, IL | $15,000 | 2025 | Pyramidion |
| Germane Barnes | Chicago, IL | $15,000 | 2025 | Columnar Disorder |
| Lydia Kallipoliti & Areti Markopoulou | Chicago, IL | $12,500 | 2025 | EDIBLE; Or, The Architecture of Metabolism |
| The Center for Independent Documentary | Chicago, IL | $12,500 | 2025 | Artificial Horizon |
| Fred Schmidt-Arnales | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | It Is a Good Project and Should be Built |
| Lobna Sana | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Recognized |
| Association of Architecture Organizations | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | AAO Design Matters Conference 2024 |
| Julia Phillips | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Pentasomnia |
| Smithsonian Institution-Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum | New York, NY | $10,000 | 2025 | Making Home-Smithsonian Design Triennial |
| City College of New York | New York, NY | $10,000 | 2025 | ARCH at Sixty |
| Sara Zewde | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Finding Frederick Law Olmsted in Cotton's Kingdom |
| Dongola | Beirut | $10,000 | 2025 | Provoking the Territory: Bernard Khoury |
| Architectural Association | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Ripple Ripple Rippling |
| Dia Art Foundation | New York, NY | $10,000 | 2025 | Cameron Rowland: Properties |
| Geoffrey Bawa Trust | Colombo | $10,000 | 2025 | On Gardens: Contemplating the Relative in Space, Time, and Life |
| Simon Boudvin | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Commune, Communism, Commons |
| LIGA-Space for Architecture | Mexico City | $10,000 | 2025 | The missing architect |
| Lori Brown & Karen Burns | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Women Architects and Global Solidarity Across the Cold War Divide |
| Mariam Ghani | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | An Incident |
| The Metropolitan Museum of Art | New York, NY | $10,000 | 2025 | Materialized Space |
| University of Washington | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Pattern Language 2-253 |
| Craig L Wilkins | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | if history were told as stories it'd never be forgotten... |
| Assaf Evron | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Collage for the Edith Farnsworth House |
| Molly Brandt & Kevin Weil | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Inventory of a Building's Reuse and a Landscape's Redesign |
| Hunter College Foundation | New York, NY | $10,000 | 2025 | Andrea Blum: BIOTA |
| Aaron Cayer | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Incorporating Architects |
| Lampo | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Lampo 2023-24 and 2024-25 Concert Series |
| Craft Contemporary | Los Angeles, CA | $10,000 | 2025 | Material Acts |
| Eva Diaz | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | After Spaceship Earth |
| Storefront for Art and Architecture | New York, NY | $10,000 | 2025 | Swamplands |
| Every Ocean Hughes (Emily Roysdon) | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Every Ocean Hughes: Alive Side |
| INSITE (Installation Gallery) | San Diego, CA | $10,000 | 2025 | INSITE Journal_07 |
| Juana Salcedo | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Jaguar Lens |
| Arthur J Clement & Emily Makas | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Philip G. Freelon: An Architect of Relationships and Stories |
| Architectural Association School of Architecture | London | $10,000 | 2025 | Entangled Archive |
| Dahlia Nduom | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Tourism, Tropicalization and the Architectural Image |
| University of IL at Chicago-College of Architecture Design and the Arts | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | The UIC/SoArch Journal |
| Swiss Institute | New York, NY | $10,000 | 2025 | Energies |
| Ines Weizman | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Josephine Baker and the Colonial Modern |
| Soberscove Press | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | In the Horizontal Plane |
| Syracuse University | Chicago, IL | $10,000 | 2025 | Here There Be Dragons, Season Four: Odes[s]a |
Ying Lu Lucy Wang
$25,000Contagious Places, Curative Spaces
Caroline Spooner
$20,000Dead Time
Ariele Dionne-Krosnick
$20,000Swimming Pools, Civil Rights, and the American City in the 1960s
Prospect New Orleans (US Biennials Inc)
$15,000Prospect.6
A Project 83 Inc
$15,000a83 Exhibition Program & Architectural Image-Making in 1980s New York
Carnegie Museum of Art
$15,000Tatiana Bilbao: City of Rooms
Temitayo Ogunbiyi
$15,000You will wonder if we would have been friends
Tom Carruthers & Jennifer Newsom
$15,000Pyramidion
Germane Barnes
$15,000Columnar Disorder
Lydia Kallipoliti & Areti Markopoulou
$12,500EDIBLE; Or, The Architecture of Metabolism
The Center for Independent Documentary
$12,500Artificial Horizon
Fred Schmidt-Arnales
$10,000It Is a Good Project and Should be Built
Lobna Sana
$10,000Recognized
Association of Architecture Organizations
$10,000AAO Design Matters Conference 2024
Julia Phillips
$10,000Pentasomnia
Smithsonian Institution-Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
$10,000Making Home-Smithsonian Design Triennial
City College of New York
$10,000ARCH at Sixty
Sara Zewde
$10,000Finding Frederick Law Olmsted in Cotton's Kingdom
Dongola
$10,000Provoking the Territory: Bernard Khoury
Architectural Association
$10,000Ripple Ripple Rippling
Dia Art Foundation
$10,000Cameron Rowland: Properties
Geoffrey Bawa Trust
$10,000On Gardens: Contemplating the Relative in Space, Time, and Life
Simon Boudvin
$10,000Commune, Communism, Commons
LIGA-Space for Architecture
$10,000The missing architect
Lori Brown & Karen Burns
$10,000Women Architects and Global Solidarity Across the Cold War Divide
Mariam Ghani
$10,000An Incident
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
$10,000Materialized Space
University of Washington
$10,000Pattern Language 2-253
Craig L Wilkins
$10,000if history were told as stories it'd never be forgotten...
Assaf Evron
$10,000Collage for the Edith Farnsworth House
Molly Brandt & Kevin Weil
$10,000Inventory of a Building's Reuse and a Landscape's Redesign
Aaron Cayer
$10,000Incorporating Architects
Lampo
$10,000Lampo 2023-24 and 2024-25 Concert Series
Eva Diaz
$10,000After Spaceship Earth
Every Ocean Hughes (Emily Roysdon)
$10,000Every Ocean Hughes: Alive Side
INSITE (Installation Gallery)
$10,000INSITE Journal_07
Juana Salcedo
$10,000Jaguar Lens
Arthur J Clement & Emily Makas
$10,000Philip G. Freelon: An Architect of Relationships and Stories
Architectural Association School of Architecture
$10,000Entangled Archive
Dahlia Nduom
$10,000Tourism, Tropicalization and the Architectural Image
University of IL at Chicago-College of Architecture Design and the Arts
$10,000The UIC/SoArch Journal
Ines Weizman
$10,000Josephine Baker and the Colonial Modern
Soberscove Press
$10,000In the Horizontal Plane
Syracuse University
$10,000Here There Be Dragons, Season Four: Odes[s]a
Current and upcoming funding from Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts that your nonprofit may be able to apply for.
Who can apply: Open to organizations, including non-profit galleries, colleges and universities, publishers, and museums, with projects aligned to the foundation's mission.
Deadline: Feb 25, 2027
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