Beauford Delaney┋Villa Albertine Research Grant

Villa Albertine and the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (INHA- French National Institute of Art History),France’s premier   art history institution s created in 2001 with the mission of  supporting academic research and international cooperation in the realm of art, are partnering to offer the Beauford Delany Research Grant with the support of the Ford Foundation (United States). This grant is intended for French or France-based researchers in art history, who wish to conduct original research in the United States on Afro-descendant artists whose journey  led them to stay, work, and create in the United States or in the broader Americas.

Named after the painter Beauford Delaney (1901-1979), this grant is open to research projects focusing on Afro-descendant artists, regardless of time period (19th- 21st centuries) or nationality. Projects must   consider  Afro-descendant artists in the context of global artistic and cultural practices, with a focus on transnational circulations, transfers, and contact zones. The main goal of the grant is to understand the practices of understudied artists  in terms of their singularities and their relationship to a complex, global art history. The grant is intended exclusively for research in the United States, regardless of the terms and conditions.

This grant is part of Villa Albertine's larger residency program, which notably aims to promote research into the work of Afro-descendant artists and their public recognition. For several years now, the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art has been working on the theoretical challenges of a globalized art history and on uncovering relevant related corpus.

Grant Details

The Beauford Delaney Research Grant will be awarded to one recipient per year.

The winner will receive $20,000to be used in 2024 for fieldwork, i.e. to study archives, document collections, and works of art, and to meet with living artists, curators, art historians, collectors, etc., in the United States. During the duration of the grant or at the end, recipients should produce a tangible work (e.g. an article, book chapter, exhibition, book, doctoral thesis) and present their project and the results of their research at the invitation of the funding institutions in any format (conference, debate, interview, etc.). The winner will be included in Villa Albertine’s program in the United States during the 2024 season.

This grant provides funding for research but is neither an employment contract nor exclusive of other sources of income.  Successful candidates must submit a research report no later than twelve months after receiving the grant, outlining the use of the allocated funds. The funding institutions reserve the right to request partial or total reimbursement if the proposed project cannot be carried out.

Applicants must comply with all applicable regulations to enter the United States.

Applicant Eligibility

This grant is open to art history researchers of all nationalities at any stage of their career, from PhD students to experts in the field. The call for applications is open to art history researchers active in France, whether independent or affiliated with institutions (universities, museums, art schools, etc.), who will or have received  a PhD or equivalent professional experience.  American citizens, who have completed their studies in the U.S. are not eligible to apply. 

Application Details

The application file (in French or English) must include:

1. A letter of motivation addressed to the Executive Director of the INHA and to the Director of the Department for Studies and Research of the INHA;

2. A resume;

3. A detailed research plan (6 pages maximum) in both French and English, including a brief description of the project, of the state of the art, of the methodology, and of the goal  of the research project (publication of a book, a thesis, an article, etc.), as well as a provisional timeline for the planned research visits (detailed indication of sources, collections, artworks to  investigate, artists and other professionals to meet, etc.), and an estimate of the required budget (in USD) to carry out the research . A bibliography indicating any sources to consult will complete this file.

Applications for the 2024 selection must be submitted online via the INHA platform HERE before September 15, 2023, at 11:59PM, Paris time.

Only applications submitted online via the INHA platform will be considered.

Selection

Applicants will be selected on the basis the strength of their application.

The selection jury will include the Executive Director and the Director of the Department of Research and Studies at the INHA, a representative from the FACE Foundation or the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US, and two qualified individuals, including an expert in African and/or African-American art. The jury will meet once a year to select the winner.  Candidates will primarily be evaluated based onEthe merit and relevance of their projects.

Contact Information : 

Département des études et de la recherche de l'INHA : der-dir@inha.fr

Please Consult the jury report in 2022