Spark Award FAQ

In 2025, Oregon artists in the literary and media arts who are 30 years of age or older with 7+ years of an active artistic practice in their primary discipline (not including schooling), and who are regularly creating and presenting new and original work to audiences, are eligible to apply. Applicants must have been Oregon residents for the last five years and at the time of application. Please review the full eligibility criteria, as well as a list of those who are ineligible to apply.

This is a three-year pilot program during which the Foundation expects to support 60 individual Oregon artists in total (20 per year) across artistic disciplines. Each year will focus on a different discipline(s). In 2024, we supported artists in the performing arts (view awardees); in 2025, literary artists and media artists; and in 2026, visual artists.

The pilot phase of this program ends in 2026. We will have more information in early 2027.

You are eligible to apply in 2026. Look for details in April 2026.

Yes, artists must have turned 30 years or older by December 31, 2025, no exceptions.

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.

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, webseries, 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.

We define a working artist as someone with an individual artistic practice that is current and ongoing, who regularly and actively shares their work with public audiences. Participation in or completion of a creative or other degree program is not a prerequisite for applying to this program.

The Miller Foundation defines an "active artistic practice" as presenting their work regularly to public audiences. This could be via readings, distribution, public screenings, exhibitions, residencies, talks, etc.

In the application materials, applicants will be asked to demonstrate “publicly-shared or distributed" bodies of work: for media artists examples include work shared at presenting venues or organizations, film festivals, or online platforms with a juried selection process; and for literary artists: work published on platforms and in publications that have a critical review process. If a writer or media artist is self-published/ self-presented, they must be able to demonstrate ongoing reader/viewer engagement with their work.  

New original artistic work refers to a body of work that the artist conceived of from initial concept to actualization, rather than interpreting, translating, arranging, reviving, remounting or copying the work of others/ previously existing material.

At this time, this program is intended for individual artists rather than artistic teams. If you work within a collaborative, you must be able to represent your ongoing individual and generative contributions in your application narrative and work samples.

While we recognize that many works are created collaboratively, the Spark Award is an opportunity intended to support individual artists. Accordingly, your work samples should reflect your original, individual practice: we strongly encourage applicants to submit at least two samples from works that were not co-created so that the review panel is able to properly evaluate their individual artistic practice.

‍

No. Applicants must be Oregon residents at the time of application and anticipate staying in residence in Oregon for the next year.

Yes. Brief absences are acceptable as long as you maintained an Oregon residence during that time period (a “resident of Oregon” is a person who would be required to file a resident Oregon income tax return). We cannot make exceptions to the overall 5 year Oregon residency requirement.

Yes.

No. Applicants may not be currently enrolled in a creative degree program (Associate, low residency, undergraduate or graduate).

Applicants employed by an arts organization in an artistic capacity are only eligible if the majority of their individual artistic practice is independent from the work of the nonprofit organization by which they are employed. These grant funds are intended to support the work of individual artists rather than the work of arts organizations. We would like to ensure that organizations who are eligible to receive funding from the Miller Foundation to support their staff and operations are not potentially receiving duplicate support through this program (i.e. supporting the creation of a single work with Miller organizational support AND a Spark Award).

We welcome applications from literary artists creating generative work in all forms of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, graphic novels*; and interdisciplinary artists whose work includes the media or literary arts as the primary form of expression.

* If applying as a graphic novelist you must be the author of the work.

Ineligible: Arts critics; Journalists; Authors of scholarly/academic work; 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.

We welcome applications from 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*.

* Applications from video and media artists creating non-narrative and experimental digital media or film made primarily for an exhibition or installation context will not be considered this year. They are eligible to apply in 2026 as visual artists. Technology artists, including XR, games, data art, web-based visual art projects, etc. should also apply in 2026.

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 2026cycle); media artists who make work primarily for an installation context; 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.

Yes. Learn more about available resources here. We have more tips on general grantwriting and how to fill out different parts of our application here.

No. This funding does not need to be used in support of a specific project.

An info session was recorded in mid-May 2025 that provided an overview of the Spark Award program, the application and grant writing tips. You can watch it here.

You can view a PDF of the session transcript here.

Email Yaelle Amir at artists@millerfound.org.

For technical support accessing our Grants Portal, you can email artiststech@millerfound.org. For assistance with your application or for other questions about the program, please contact Yaelle Amir at artists@millerfound.org.

Applications are due on Wednesday, July 2, 2025 by 5pm PDT. Late submissions cannot be accepted.

No, late submissions will not be accepted. For this reason, please begin filling out your application several days prior to the deadline.

No. Applications must be submitted through our Artists Grants Portal, available by visiting www.millerfound.org. Email applications cannot be accepted.

If you need assistance with our Grants Portal, email artiststech@millerfound.org

Following an initial screening for eligibility, applications will be reviewed by a panel of regional and national experts in the applicant’s selected discipline categories. The panel will recommend a final roster of awardees to the Miller Foundation Board of Directors each year.

This funding is intended to support you as an artist. As such, the funding may be used to support any activities and expenses that sustain your practice, including - but not limited to - living costs such as rent, healthcare, childcare, and/or training, materials, equipment, research costs, etc.

There are two types of expenses that these funds cannot support:

1. Tuition toward completing a college degree program (creative or non-creative); and

2. Compensation for creative work an artist is doing as an employee of a nonprofit organization with an arts-based mission. 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 support AND a Spark Award). Read more below in the Application Preview section of the guidelines.  

Yes, the IRS considers this award taxable income and as such recipients will be asked to fill out a W-9 and will receive a 1099-MISC form. Awardees have the option to receive funding in a single payment, quarterly or 12 monthly payments.

Payments for this award must be made to individuals, and cannot be made out to fiscal sponsors.

You should only apply if you anticipate remaining an Oregon resident for the next year.

All applicants will receive notification via email by mid-November 2025, regardless of the outcome. Updates will also be posted in the Grants Portal.

If selected for an award, you will be asked to complete a grant agreement and W-9 shortly after you accept the award. Once completed, the Foundation will issue payment(s) within a month. Recipients can receive the award in a single payment or in multiple payments. The funding is taxable income.