fellowship for utopian practice

The Fellowship is a process-based testing ground for new ideas that connect artistic practice, civic engagement, and social justice. Through the Fellowship for Utopian Practice, Culture Push serves artists by providing creative, analytical, and logistical tools in the creation of truly transformative projects. The Fellowship program is open to artists and other professionals working in any discipline who wish to expand the boundaries of their practice. Six to eight Fellows are selected for each application cycle.

TIMELINE

• Mid-December 2025: All applicants receive results
• January 2026: First meeting
• January 2026 - January 2027: Continuing support and strategizing

Here are some things to keep in mind before beginning your application—please read carefully:

• WHAT: Each Culture Push Fellowship provides financial, logistical, and collaborative support for socially-engaged projects in the seed or ideation stage and grounded in the artist’s ongoing investment in a specific NYC community.
• WHEN: The Fellowship relationship lasts one calendar year, from January to December.
• WHERE: Proposed projects should meaningfully engage the five boroughs of New York City. While hybrid / virtual components are of course welcome, the Fellowship aims to support artists local to NYC in both location and intention. If you do not live in or propose to ground your project in NYC, this Fellowship will not be a good fit for you.

To be considered for the Fellowship, projects must:

• Take place within the 5 boroughs of NYC.
• Be interactive and engage the public (entirely or in part), in accordance with our mission. Note: Our definition of “civic engagement” includes public talks, live interactive components, skill-shares, participatory performances and similar activities that in some way address the public good and have clearly defined goals for serving as a means of generating social change.
• Test a new and previously unrealized idea that expands the scope of the applicant’s current practice.
• Not be considered as an exhibition or the production of a ‘show,’ but rather a series of events and/or actions aimed at engaging the public.
• Occur during the Fellowship year.