The Center for Art and Advocacy is excited to announce the 2027 Center Fellowship (formerly Right of Return), marking the ninth year of the fellowship. The application submission window will run from September 18-October 25, 2026.
Launched in 2016, the Center Fellowship is the first to offer dedicated support and mentorship to directly justice-impacted artists via an annual award of $10,000 in unrestricted funds and $10,000 in project development funds. The award provides material resources and community to a diverse and multidisciplinary group of seven fellows, including one youth fellow aged 18-25, marking the second year of the Youth Fellowship. These resources are given with the aim of supporting artistic projects focused on transforming the criminal, legal, and immigration systems, which hold approximately two million people behind bars, and nearly four million more in some form of state supervision.
The Center's model remains rooted in trust, autonomy and proximate leadership. The Center does not ask artists to conform to predetermined narratives about incarceration or justice in order to receive support. Instead, it invests in them as artists, people and creators, trusting that directly impacted communities are best positioned to define their own needs, visions and solutions.
Previous fellows have gone on to achieve success, support and recognition in a variety of spaces including, but not limited to, MacArthur Fellowships, Pulitzer Prizes, Guggenheim Fellowships, Creative Capital Awards, Emmys and Art for Justice Grants.
The Center Fellowship is open to any directly justice-impacted U.S.-based artist working in visual art, film, music, creative writing, performance, design or other multidisciplinary practice who is aged 18 years or older, regardless of citizenship status, felony convictions or formal training in the arts. Fellows will be notified in December of their application status, with a public announcement to follow in January 2027. There is no fee to apply.
The jurors for the 2027 Center Fellowship include Salome Asega, Melissa Joseph, Nicholas Galanin, Legacy Russell, Anisa Jackson and Storm Ascher, with more to be announced.
The annual, open-call Fellowship is generously supported by the Art for Justice Fund, The Mellon Foundation, The Hearthland Foundation, the Arison Arts Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
if you are inetrested in applying, please click HERE.
Image courtesy of The Center for Art and Advocacy
