The Princess Grace Awards recognize both creative generators (including but not limited to theater directors, designers, playwrights, choreographers, film directors) and performance-based creatives (including but not limited to actors, dancers).

• • Open to U.S. based artists currently living and working in the United States. Applicants who are not U.S. citizens must have permanent work authorization from USCIS.
  • Princess Grace Awards are only available through a nomination process.
  • Nominations can be by a non-profit university, organization, media arts center or previous Princess Grace Award winner.
  • Self-nominations are not allowed.
  • An artist can only be nominated by 1 organization or individual in a given year. Applications are evaluated on the individual artist’s artistic merits.

Applications for the 2024 Princess Grace Awards open on January 15, 2024.

The Princess Grace Awards are for emerging artists, or artists at the onset of their careers.

The Princess Grace Foundation recognizes “emerging” as a spectrum. In its evaluation of emerging, the Review Panel considers the aggregate of the applicant’s work. However, the Review Panel also expects that the applicant will have a body of work that allows the Review Panel to assess the nominated artist’s application, including work samples, and effectively evaluate their promise of extraordinary.

Probably, not yet.

The Princess Grace Awards are for emerging artists, or artists at the onset of their careers. In general, competitive applicants will have significant professional training experience, i.e., be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree program, or a similar intensive training program, in theater, dance or film; or have some professional work experience in theater, dance or film.

For applicants whose primary form is film or the moving image, competitive applicants will have completed at least 1-2 short films.

No.
Applicants must be living and working in the United States. The grant is paid directly to the artist. If the artist is not a U.S. citizen, the artist must have permanent work authorization from USCIS.

Universities and training programs:

• • Must be an independent 501(c) (3) non-profit organizations.
  • Nominations should be on behalf of the entire department and come from the Dean/Chair of the School/College
  • Professional training program or accredited universities
  • Universities/Colleges may nominate 1 undergraduate artist and 1 graduate artist per category of theater, dance, choreography, film, and animation
    • Should the University have separate colleges or schools with programs that contain eligible applicants, each college or school may nominate an applicant
  • Non-profit training programs may only nominate 1 artist per year per category of theater, dance, choreography, film, and animation

Organizations such as non-profit theater companies, dance companies, media arts centers

• • Nominations should come from the Artistic Director or Executive Director
  • Be in continuous operation as an independent 501(C) (3) company or have a fiscal sponsor
  • Employ professional administrative staff
  • Theater companies, dance companies and media arts centers may only nominate 1 artist per year per category of theater, dance, choreography, film, and animation

Individual previous Princess Grace Award winners and honoraria can nominate

• • Princess Grace Award winners and honoraria may each nominate 1 artist per year

Yes.

If you are university who has multiple separate tracks/schools for different categories within a discipline, i.e., in Theater a separate acting program/track and costume program/track; or in Film a separate documentary program/track and narrative program/track, then each program track/school may nominate.

If you are an organization that has a 2nd company (i.e., a dance company with a second company and first company) with separate artistic staff (i.e., Artistic Director), your organization can nominate artists from both companies.

If you are a professional company that also has a pre-professional training program, you may also nominate an artist from your professional company and an artist from your pre-professional training program.

We are happy to provide feedback on previous Princess Grace Awards applications. Please note that applicants for the Playwriting Fellowship administered by our partners, New Dramatists, are unable to request feedback on their application as it is a separate program.

To request feedback, please email grants@pgfusa.org.

Coordinate with the artist you would like to nominate, let them know you would like to nominate them and have them start the application (available January 14). Once they begin the application, they will be prompted to enter your information including your email which will then send a notification to you to complete the nomination component of the application.

No.

The Princess Grace Awards recognize both creative generators (including but not limited to theater directors, designers, playwrights, choreographers, film directors, etc.) and performance-based creatives (including but not limited to actors, dancers, etc.).

Award winners are selected annually by experts in theater, dance and film. Applicants are assessed in review stages consisting of both online and in person panel reviews by Adjudicators. Each Adjudicator brings their own experience and aesthetic to the table, however decisions are made by consensus.

Stages of Review

• • Round 1: The Nomination: Adjudicators evaluate each component of the application within their specific area(s) of expertise via the online application system.
  • Round 2: The Full Application:
    • Adjudicators review applicants within their specific area(s) of expertise via the online application evaluating each component of the Full Application including work samples.
    • Multidisciplinary artists: Adjudicators convene to discuss applicants who have identified themselves and wish to be reviewed by multiple disciplines. Adjudicators share knowledge and perspective from their respective disciplines.
    • Adjudicators convene in person to discuss the applications and select the Princess Grace Award winners.

About the Selection Panelists 

Selection panels are curated collaboratively by the Arts Advisory Board, Director of Programming and CEO. Princess Grace Award Adjudicators participate and review applications in all stages of the review process. They are experts within the disciplines of theater, dance, choreography, film, and animation, and are also equipped to evaluate applicants based on the Princess Grace Foundation’s mission and values.

The Arts Advisory Board Chair and Director of Programming facilitate and moderate each stage of the process and are not voting members in the selection of the Princess Grace Awards.

Learn more about the Arts Advisory Board, Adjudicators and the panel process here.

The Princess Grace Award is an unrestricted cash grant paid directly to the artist. Recipients will receive a 1099 from the Princess Grace Foundation and for more guidance should consult a tax advisor. Non U.S. citizens or permanent residents may be required to file a non-residential return and should consult a tax advisor.

Playwriting Fellowship is a year long residency with New Dramatists and a $7,500 grant paid by New Dramatists.

The grant period occurs from September 1-August 31. The residency must happen within that time period, but when and how is determined on a case by case basis between the winning playwright and New Dramatists. Some playwriting winners living in NYC at the time of the grant choose to spread out the residency over the year. Others (particularly those outside the NYC area) choose to do a concentrated residency over the set period weeks.

In all categories, you may reapply if you did not receive a Princess Grace Award as long as you still meet all the criteria in the guidelines.

You can also request feedback on your application. To do so email grants@pgfusa.org.

No, not at this time.

The Princess Grace Awards are for individual artists and the Selection Panel reviews each applicant individually. Artists that submit as a duo/pair would not be competitive and should be nominated individually.