The Spark Award for Oregon Artists

Eligible:

To be eligible for this grant program, applicants should be an individual literary or media artist who meet the following criteria:

• 30 years or older (as of 12/31/2025, no exceptions).
• have been a resident in the state of Oregon for the last five years (since 2020 or earlier) and at the time of application and anticipate staying in residence in Oregon for the next year. This includes enrolled members of tribal communities situated in the state. A “resident of Oregon” is defined here as a person who would be required to file a resident Oregon income tax return.
• 7+ years of active artistic practice in their primary artistic discipline (not including schooling). Miller Foundation defines an "active artistic practice" as presenting their work to the public on a regular basis. This could be via readings, distribution, public screenings, exhibitions, residencies, talks, etc.
• at a midcareer stage of their professional practice. “Midcareer” is defined here as an artist able to demonstrate a sustained artistic practice of 7+ years in their discipline, with likely future contributions to the field. This program is not focused on supporting artists who are in an emerging or advanced stage of their careers.
• ongoing practice involves creating new original work (rather than interpreting, translating, arranging, reviving, remounting or copying the work of others/ previously existing material).

Discipline-Specific Eligibility Requirements: 2025

FOR LITERARY APPLICANTS:

This award is intended for midcareer literary artists, defined as writers who have published multiple completed works over the last 7 years or more in publications with a competitive selection and editorial process. This includes one or more of the following:

·      A novel or novella, or

·      At least five different short stories, excerpts from novels or memoirs, or creative essays (or any combination thereof) in two or more publications, or

·      A volume of short fiction or a collection of short stories, or

·      A volume of creative nonfiction, or

·      A volume of poetry, or

·      Twenty or more different poems or pages of poetry in two or more publications.

For online publications, a page of poetry is considered to be twenty lines or less.

If you are a writer who has published primarily in periodicals or on websites that do not fall within the above guidelines, your application for the Spark Award may not be competitive.

*Self-published authors or those who do not go through a critical publishing review process must be able to demonstrate significant sustained reader engagement with their work.

Eligible: Literary artists creating new original works of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and/or graphic novels; and interdisciplinary artists whose work includes literary arts as the primary form of expression.

Ineligible: Arts critics; Journalists; Authors of scholarly/ academic work; Picture books authors; Editors; Publishers; Technical writers; AI-generated work, work that is interpreting, translating, arranging, or copying the work of others/ previously existing material; Playwrights(eligible in the 2024 Performing Arts cycle); Screenwriting (eligible to apply in the Media category). This is not an exhaustive list. If your practice doesn’t fall within the eligible genres listed above, contact us at artists@millerfound.org to determine eligibility.

FOR MEDIA APPLICANTS:

This award is intended for midcareer media artists, defined as artists who have presented multiple completed media projects over the last 7 years or more through screening and/or distribution on platforms or establishments with a competitive selection process**. This includes one or more of the following:

• One feature-length film (over 40     minutes), or
• Three short films (under 40 minutes),     or
• One series of episodic video (TV     series, web series, digital series etc.), or
• One series of episodic narrative audio.      

If you are a media artist who has primarily self-presented or has presented your work through passive distribution (i.e. an upload to a platform like YouTube or social media), your application for the Spark Award may not be competitive.

**Media artists who self-present their work outside of platforms with a competitive selection process must be able to demonstrate significant sustained viewer/listener engagement with their work.

Eligible: Media artists creating new original works of animation, experimental, narrative, and documentary video/audio; and interdisciplinary artists whose work includes media arts as the primary form of expression.

Ineligible: work designed for promotional/commercial purposes; producers/ actors/ cinematographers who are not also writers and/or directors; work that is interpreting, translating, arranging, reviving, remounting or copying the work of others/ previously existing material; Technology arts: XR, games, digital art, data and web art, etc. (eligible in the 2026 cycle); media artists who make work primarily for an installation/exhibition context; photographers (eligible in 2026); journalistic content. This is not an exhaustive list. If your practice doesn’t fall within the eligible genres listed above, contact us at artists@millerfound.org to determine eligibility.

FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY MEDIA/LITERARYAPPLICANTS:

This award is intended for midcareer interdisciplinary media/ literary artists, defined as artists who have presented multiple completed bodies of work in a combination of the literary and media genres and forms listed above over the last 7 years or more via publications,  platforms or establishments with a competitive selection process. The projects must include one or more of the forms listed under the media and literary sections [for example, an artist who has completed and presented one feature-length film/three short films, etc. and/or one novel/a volume of poetry etc., and able to demonstrate additional publicly shared works in either discipline].

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Not Eligible:

1. Applicant cannot currently be enrolled in a creative degree program (associates, low residency, undergraduate, graduate). The award funds cannot support tuition toward a degree program.
2. Applicant cannot be an emerging artist (less than seven years of professional practice     outside of schooling) and cannot be an advanced artist in the later stages of an artistic career. The Foundation defines ‘advanced’ as a well-established artist who has experienced significant regional and national recognition and achievements over an extended period.
3. Artists working in the performing and visual arts are not eligible to apply in 2025.‍
4. Applicants employed by an arts organization in an artistic or leadership capacity are only     eligible if they have an individual artistic practice independent from the work of that organization.*‍
5. This funding is to support individual artists rather than artistic teams. If you work within a collaborative, you must be able to represent your ongoing individual and original contributions in your application narrative and work samples.
6. ‍‍Former recipients of a Spark Award from the Miller Foundation are not eligible to apply.
7. Applicant cannot be a family member of an employee or board member of the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, or the Foundation's namesakes (Family member is defined  as a spouse, domestic partner, parent, child or sibling).

* These grant funds are intended to support the work of individual artists rather than the work of arts organizations. Arts organizations are eligible to receive operating support through other Miller grant programs. We would like to ensure that organizations who receive funding from the Miller Foundation to support their staff and operations are not receiving duplicate support through this program (i.e. supporting an artist through Miller organizational grant AND a Spark Award).

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