Faculty Support and Grants

The vitality of CalArts as an educational institution depends to a great extent on the level of energy each faculty member brings to the Institute. The Institute established this fund to make available to regular faculty and technical faculty grants to aid in continuing professional development. The fund is a way for CalArts to acknowledge that the Institute benefits from the faculty’s professional work and development. The Academic Council sets policy and procedures for administration of the fund; any changes in the details will be generated and approved by the Academic Council.

Eligible Faculty

Regular/Technical Faculty employed at .50 (half-time) FTE and above

How to apply

Please refer to the Faculty Handbook for complete instructions on applying for Faculty Development Fund. The online application form is available via the Hub.

Application deadlines

• Call One will be awarded in May of the present school year for the upcoming year. This call covers the period of July 1 through December 31. (Disbursement of funds for Call One will be distributed at the beginning of the fiscal year that begins on July 1, and all receipts need to be dated July 1- December 31).
• Call Two will be awarded in December and covers the period of January 1 through June 30 (receipts need to be dated during this time frame).

The Research & Practice Fellowship Program is an intensive summer program, which provides faculty members with student-artists to support their projects, allowing faculty members to focus on their own artistic work while introducing future artists to the structure of life in the arts.

The program is open to all regular, technical, and special faculty teaching at CalArts during the academic year. A call for faculty proposals generally goes out in early february with an early March deadline. A call for applications from students goes out in March.

Learning outcomes

Supporting CalArts’ institute values that recognize student as artists, focus on process over product, and provide opportunities to learn by doing, the Research & Practice Fellowship Program is designed to engender the following learning outcomes:

• The student fellow will be able to apply disciplinary-specific skills, concepts, terminology, and/or frameworks learned in coursework to accomplish fellowship tasks in productive ways that benefit the project;
• The student fellow will be able to describe how the fellowship experience enhances understanding of the demands of being a professional working artist;
• The student fellow will be able to analyze how working one on one with an established artist in the development of a creative project translates to their vision of their own practice moving forward;
• The student fellow will be able to develop skills in effective oral and written communication, time management, project management, working to deadlines, and fulfilling tasks set by faculty members throughout the fellowship.

The Creative Leave Program provides the opportunity for faculty to focus exclusively for one semester on the development of artistic, scholarly and/or teaching practices.

Learn more about Creative Leave