THE APPLICATION PROCESS

The open call for the 2026-2028 Tulsa Artist Fellowship award will begin accepting applications on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, and close on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. Please sign up for our newsletter to receive notifications about future submission opportunities and events.

Tulsa Artist Fellowship annually appoints arts experts working across the United States who represent a wide spectrum of artistic disciplines to join the application review process. Individuals with outreach-specific roles support the open call submission by leveraging their network of experienced creatives to help identify eligible candidates. This structure deepens the Tulsa Artist Fellowship’s connection to the expansive communities and practices that constitute the field of art.

Reviewers, including art world key players, visionary artists and arts workers, past award recipients, and essential Tulsa Artist Fellowship stakeholders, evaluate submissions independently and identify top candidates to interview.

A highly competitive application will exemplify the following criteria:

  • Applicant has established a rigorous and innovative arts practice

  • Making art in Tulsa feels meaningful to the applicant

  • Proposed project is forward-thinking, demonstrates impactful community engagement, appears achievable, and will significantly contribute to Tulsa’s arts identity

 

TIMELINE

APPLICATION PERIOD: APRIL 2 - MAY 28, 2025

All applicants will receive status notifications by September 2026. Top candidates will be invited to virtually interview and the anticipated award announcement will be shared in Fall 2026. 

2026-2028 Award Term: Starts in January 2026 and ends December 2028.

 

QUALIFICATIONS

  • National and local artists and/or arts workers of any medium and/or discipline with a minimum of five years of arts field experience.

  • During the three-year award term, awardees must commit to reside and work in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

  • Recognizing that groundbreaking art practices thrive within an intention-setting framework, awardees will commit to actualizing a proposed project during the three-year program term. Competitive project submissions will draw from the applicants’ artistic practice, be forward-thinking, demonstrate impactful community engagement, and make a significant contribution to Tulsa’s arts identity.

  • Applicants must be at least 25 years old and a U.S. citizen, permanent legal resident, or O-1 Visa holder.

  • Previous Tulsa Artist Fellowship awardees are ineligible to reapply for additional award terms.

  • Employees of the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF), Tulsa Community Foundation (TCF), and GKFF Operating LLC are ineligible for this award.

 

APPLICATION MATERIALS

  • Legal Name and (if applicable) Public Name

  • Applicant Email

  • Applicant Phone Number

  • Permanent Residence Address

  • Secondary Residence Address

  • Date of Birth

  • Pronouns (check all that apply)

  • Identity (check all that apply)

  • Race/Ethnicity (check all that apply)

  • Are you an enrolled member of a state-recognized or federally-recognized Tribe, Pueblo, Nation, Native Community, Political Entity, or Alaskan Native Village?

  • Tulsa Artist Fellowship uses the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 as a guideline for awarding fellowships to Alaskan Native, Native American, and Native Hawaiian artists. The details of the act can be reviewed here: https://www.doi.gov/iacb/act
    * This question has conditional follow-up questions.

  • (If applicable) Co-Applicant(s): Name(s), Date(s) of Birth, Pronoun(s), Race/Ethnicity

  • Collaborative practitioners should submit one application for consideration.

  • Please select the area(s) of discipline that best describe applicant’s artistic practice.

  • Resume / CV

  • Artistic Practice Statement (3200 CHARACTER LIMIT/500 WORDS MAX)

  • Provide a statement describing your artistic practice, approach, influences, intended impact, and context of provided work samples.

  • Fellowship Statement (3200 CHARACTER LIMIT/500 WORDS MAX)

  • If designated a Tulsa Artist Fellowship award, how do you see this opportunity impacting your career? Why Tulsa, and why now?

  • Project Title & 3-Year Project Description (3200 CHARACTER LIMIT/500 WORDS MAX)

  • Project proposals should demonstrate: A dedication to innovative arts engagement that extends from the applicants’ artistic practice into the Tulsa community. In 3-yearlong sections, describe project activity, intended audience(s), impact goals, engagement format, location(s), forecasted service hour allotment (planning, implementation), and any intended/potential project partner(s).

  • Relevant project visual aids are optional (PDF, Video, Images, Audio)

  • Working Budget: $150,000 Award Stipend

  • Budget lines should include general living expenses, artistic practice materials/equipment, and awarded project costs.

  • Three (3) Arts Field References

  • For each reference, provide their: name, field role, contact information, & field relationship.

  • Applicant confirms that they are 25+ years old and a U.S. citizen, permanent legal resident, or O-1 Visa holder.

  • Tulsa Artist Fellowship is awarded to United States residents only.

  • Applicant acknowledges that Tulsa Artist Fellowship is a place-based award, and award recipients will commit to living and working in Tulsa, Oklahoma, full-time for three years.

  • Applicant acknowledges that Tulsa Artist Fellows cannot be enrolled in a full-time academic program during the award term.

  • Applicant provides Tulsa Artist Fellowship permission to perform a background check before award designation.

  • Applicant acknowledges that work samples are original and completed within the past eight years. If created in collaboration, the applicant project role(s) will be disclosed in the artistic statement.

  • Applicant acknowledges that they own the intellectual property rights and have creative control of the proposed project.

  • The applicant is willing to provide letters of agreement from significant project stakeholders if intellectual property rights and/or creative control of the proposed project are collaborative.

  • Applicant acknowledges any shared intellectual property rights and creative control of the proposed collaborative project.

  • The applicant is willing to provide letters of agreement from the project's other stakeholders.

  • We would love to know how you learned about the Tulsa Artist Fellowship.


MEDIA
Provide 5-10 items. Allowed Media Types include the following:

  • Images (up to 10MB each)

  • Video (up to 500MB each)

  • Audio (up to 60MB each)

  • PDFs (up to 20MB each)

  • 3D Models

  • External media from YouTube, Vimeo, or SoundCloud

  • WORK SAMPLES (5-10 SAMPLES CREATED WITHIN THE PAST EIGHT YEARS) For writing-based practices, total work samples must not exceed 15 pages. For time-based media practices, total work samples must not exceed 30 minutes.