PPS Community Heritage Fellowship: Request for Proposals
RFP Issued: December 10, 2024
Application Deadline: 5:00pm on Feb. 3, 2025
Project Period: March 1 – December 31, 2025. All funds must be spent during the project period.
Award: $7,000 honorarium; materials/research budget of up to $750 and final exhibition budget of up to $1,500.
Fellowship Overview
In 2025, Providence Preservation Society (PPS) is offering 1-2 fellowships to Providence-based artists, designers or creatives to support multidisciplinary projects related to community heritage, preservation, and place. Projects should synthesize research-based creative practice, community collaboration, and preservation or documentation techniques with the aim of producing new interpretations of underexplored places in neighborhoods that have historically been marginalized.
The fellowship will commence in March 2025 and conclude at the end of December 2025. Fellows will receive a stipend of $7,000, a project research/materials budget of up to $750, a final exhibition budget of up to $1,500 and workspace at PPS on College Hill. During the year, fellows will have access to PPS’ archives and community meeting space, to all tours and public programs, and will be able to enroll at no cost in a series of Spring 2025 workshops on skill-building related to preservation, documentation, community engagement and research-based creative practice, including workshops on oral history, archival research, mapping and digital modeling.
After completion of the workshops, fellows will continue to research and refine their projects, curating at least one public engagement activity or participatory learning experience in the neighborhood that is the focus of their project in June or July (this may include a walking tour, creative workshop, making session, artist’s talk or participatory charrette). At this time, they will choose a mentor to meet with on a bi-monthly basis from July – December, leading up to the completion and installation of their project in December at PPS and on PPS’s website. The fellows’ projects will be archived online in PPS’s online architecture guide and/or resource repositories, and will be recognized at PPS’s Annual Meeting in 2026, after conclusion of the fellowship. A short video about the project will be shown at the Annual Meeting and archived on PPS’s website and the projects will be promoted in PPS’s newsletter and social media channels.
We hope that these projects might seed longer term research, education or advocacy programs in neighborhoods and with communities where PPS has not historically been active. Examples of projects might include, but are not limited to, experimental films or sound-based projects; performances, storytelling or spoken word events; site-specific sculptural or environmental installations; illustrated publications, zines or other visual art; participatory or critical maps; the creation of a new unorthodox archive or inventory; or design propositions that reconstruct some version of the past or that envision new futures for specific sites. The historian Saidiya Hartman argues that artists and creatives can contribute to our understanding of marginalized histories by imagining pasts where gaps in the archive exist or speculating on alternative futures. This fellowship provides artists, designers and creatives an opportunity to shape the way we think about identity, place and cultural heritage, bringing new stories to life through creative practice, while providing fellows with lasting skills and connections that will support career development.
Applicant Eligibility and Expectations
This fellowship is open to Providence-based artists, designers or creatives working on multidisciplinary projects related to community heritage, preservation, and place that relate to a specific site or neighborhood in Providence. Individuals must be at least 21 years old, must be a full-time resident of Providence, cannot be enrolled in a degree-seeking program, and must demonstrate a commitment to socially or community engaged art or design practices.
Over the course of the fellowship period, fellows can expect to devote about 15 hours to attending PPS programs and workshops, 10 hours to meetings with their mentor, 15-25 hours to planning and executing a summer program, 15-20 hours preparing and installing their final exhibition, and 5-10 hours writing and producing their exhibition publication. In addition, fellows can expect to devote about 20-25 hours per month to project research, ideation and creation.
Award Terms
PPS will notify applicants of their status within two weeks of the application deadline. Awards will be disbursed via check in four payments in 2025 on April 1, June 1, September 1, and December 31. PPS will purchase materials and supplies for each fellow. Fellows will be required to submit an interim report on July 1 and a final report on December 31; these will include data collection and reporting on the numbers of community members engaged through the project, the nature of engagement, and 3-4 short reflections by community members or research partners on the impact of the project.
Application Review Criteria
Applications are reviewed based on the following criteria:
- Project description and feasibility: 40%. The project combines research and creative practice, is clearly articulated and has achievable goals within the fellowship time period.
- Site location: 20%. The location chosen is in a neighborhood or is connected to a community that has been historically marginalized by underinvestment. This may be assessed with reference to whether the location falls within a RI Health Equity Zone or within the bounds of a Justice40 tract, a federal initiative that maps neighborhoods that have been disadvantaged (to interact with the Justice40 map, open up the interactive map and type “Providence” in the search box to pull up data and Justice40 tract locations).
- Community collaboration: 20%. The project engages community members in research, ideation or production, is designed to build community, and the applicant has completed prior creative projects that are socially or community engaged.
- Community ties: 20%. The applicant has clear and longstanding ties to the community or communities that are engaged through this project.