Amplify Arts Fellowship 2027: $10,000 in Project Support for Omaha-Area Artists

Amplify Arts Fellowship 2027: $10,000 in Project Support for Omaha-Area Artists

Amplify Arts is accepting applications for its 2027 Fellowship, a year-long program for artists and collaborative groups based in the Omaha/Council Bluffs Metro Area. The fellowship provides $10,000 in project support, individualized mentorship, and critical feedback in a small cohort-based learning environment. Applications opened on August 31, 2026, and close at 11:59 p.m. on October 4, 2026.

This opportunity is designed for project-based work that engages people, places, and civic life beyond conventional gallery or museum settings. Amplify names site-responsive installations, books and publishing projects, films, performances, and other publicly engaged work. For 2027, it will give preference to projects connected to Migration, broadly understood to include the movement of people, languages, labor, waterways, seeds, species, capital, and culture.

The fellowship fits an artist with a defined project that can be developed and completed over twelve months, a meaningful connection to the Omaha region, and a work sample that supports the proposed work. It is not a general tuition award, unrestricted personal stipend, or worldwide competition. Applicants should explain what the $10,000 will pay for and what the public will encounter.

Key details

What the fellowship offers

The central financial benefit is a $10,000 project budget. Amplify’s published criteria say the proposed project should be fully realizable with that amount. Applicants therefore need to treat the budget as part of the artistic argument, not as an afterthought. The budget should show that the scale of the work, materials, access needs, production costs, artist labor, and public-facing elements are proportionate to the award.

The financial support is paired with professional and creative support. Fellows receive individualized project mentorship from arts professionals based outside Omaha, selected through a matchmaking process that responds to each artist’s questions, methods, and ambitions. The program also includes feedback in a small cohort environment. Fellows are expected to participate in regularly scheduled cohort meetings and contribute to a culture of generosity, curiosity, and shared learning.

Amplify describes the program as a way to support artists working outside conventional art spaces. A project might take the form of an installation, film, performance, publication, workshop, archive, or other public work, but it should have a clear reason for meeting people in a particular place or community context.

Who can apply

Eligibility is primarily geographic, age-based, and project-based. An applicant must maintain a residence within the Omaha/Council Bluffs Metro Area. Amplify lists Washington, Douglas, Cass, Sarpy, and Saunders counties in Nebraska, along with Pottawattamie, Mills, and Harrison counties in Iowa. If your residence is near the region but outside those listed counties, do not assume that proximity is enough. Confirm the address rule with Amplify before investing in the application.

Applicants must be at least 19 years old, and a formal art degree or other formal education is not required. This leaves room for self-taught artists and community-based practitioners whose experience comes through organizing, making, performance, publishing, or public work.

Amplify accepts applications from individual artists, artist collectives, and collaborative groups. A collective or group should be able to show a significant history of working together. A newly assembled group with no shared practice may have difficulty demonstrating that it can deliver a year-long project as a team. If the project depends on collaborators who are not formal members of the applying group, identify their roles clearly and explain whether they are confirmed, prospective, or community participants.

The project itself must be project-based: it needs a clear scope, timeline, and public outcome that can be realized during the twelve-month fellowship. The call is not limited to one medium. It names site-responsive installations, books and publishing, films, performances, and other publicly engaged projects. The common thread is an active artistic inquiry that can develop into something people can encounter, contribute to, or discuss.

How the Migration theme should shape an application

Migration is the 2027 preference, but the call does not require an application to tell a narrow story about immigration. Amplify explicitly includes the movement of people, languages, labor, waterways, seeds, species, capital, and culture. It also asks applicants to consider how movement and displacement complicate ideas of borders, citizenship, home, and permanence.

A strong response will make the theme concrete. Instead of saying that a project is about migration because it includes movement, explain what is moving, who or what is affected, and what the audience will learn or notice through the work. A route-based performance, language-history publication, or workshop about ecological memory could all be relevant approaches, but these are examples rather than requirements from Amplify.

The project should remain yours. Do not force the theme into a practice that has no relationship to it. If your existing work already examines place, belonging, ecology, labor, memory, diaspora, or exchange, show that connection plainly. If the project is new, explain what question led you to it and why Omaha or the Council Bluffs region is an essential site for the work.

Materials and application process

Applications are submitted online through Submittable. Amplify identifies five required components:

• An Artist Statement describing the applicant’s practice and the ideas that drive it.
• A Project Description explaining the proposed work and how it will be realized during the fellowship year.
• A Project Budget showing the costs associated with making the work.
• A Work Sample containing examples of recent and past work.
• A Works Cited page with more information about the individual works or bodies of work in the sample.

These pieces should function as one application. The artist statement establishes the practice; the work sample supplies evidence; the project description explains the next step; and the budget tests whether that next step is credible. A reviewer should not have to reconcile a community-facing project description with work samples that give no sense of the applicant’s ability to work in public or at the proposed scale.

The work sample needs context. Use the Works Cited page to identify titles, dates, media, dimensions or duration where relevant, the applicant’s role in collaborative work, and anything else needed to make the evidence legible.

Amplify’s application is available in English and Spanish, including written and read-aloud versions. The organization also says applicants can contact staff for help navigating Submittable, finding a reliable wireless connection, or finding a quiet place to work on the application. Questions can be sent to [email protected] with “2027 Fellowship Open Call” in the subject line.

Timeline and review stages

The application opened on August 31, 2026. The deadline is October 4, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Amplify’s published schedule lists application review from October 5 through October 18, applicant interviews from October 19 through October 23, and status updates on October 30. The fellowship begins in January 2027 and ends in January 2028.

The selection process has four stages. Amplify staff first check eligibility and completeness. Eligible applications are then reviewed and scored by a panel of arts professionals. Panel members recommend up to five applicants for interviews. Amplify staff conduct those interviews and select up to three fellows based on the panel’s recommendations.

The published evaluation criteria are useful preparation prompts. Reviewers will consider whether the project is public-facing and speaks to Migration, whether it can be fully realized with the $10,000 budget, whether the work sample shows an active practice, and whether the application sparks interest in learning more. If invited to interview, applicants receive preparation questions in advance and may interview in person or on Zoom.

The call includes an inconsistency about the virtual information session: one part of the page says September 9 at 6 p.m., while the timeline lists September 8 at 6 p.m. Treat the date shown in the registration listing as the operational detail and check the official page or registration confirmation before attending. This does not change the application deadline, but it is a good example of why applicants should verify event logistics directly.

How to prepare a competitive project

Start with a project that can be described in one sentence without losing its specificity. Name the form, place or community involved, central question, and public result. If the project needs a page of background before anyone can understand what will happen, it may still be at the research stage.

Build the budget from the project plan. List major materials, fabrication or production, accessibility, documentation, venue or site costs, travel, collaborator fees, and other direct expenses that genuinely apply. If the award does not cover every possible cost, say how you will address the gap. Do not make the project appear inexpensive by omitting the labor and access requirements that will determine whether it is responsible to deliver.

Make public engagement specific. “The community will participate” is not a method. Explain who is invited, what they will be asked to do, how consent and attribution will work, and what the audience receives in return.

Use the work sample to show trajectory rather than only polish. Select pieces that demonstrate the skills, questions, and sensibility needed for the proposed project. If the fellowship project changes medium, explain the connection. For collaborative work, identify your contribution. Reviewers should be able to see both what you have already done and why this fellowship is the right next period of development.

Finally, leave time for a technical review. Open every file, confirm that links work, and make sure the budget totals match the narrative. Submit before the final evening if possible.

Common mistakes to avoid

The most obvious mistake is applying from outside the listed metro-area counties. Read the geographic rule literally and ask Amplify if your residence is unclear. Another is treating $10,000 as a personal award rather than explaining the project costs. The call asks whether the project can be fully realized with that budget.

Applicants can also lose clarity by submitting a general portfolio rather than a purposeful work sample. The panel is assessing whether the applicant has an active practice and a credible path to the proposed public project, so captions, dates, roles, and a short rationale for the sample order can help.

Do not make Migration a slogan. Explain the movement, the stakes, and the audience relationship. Do not promise a huge public program without a workable production plan. Amplify values public engagement, but the project still needs a scope that fits twelve months and $10,000. Also avoid ignoring the fellowship commitment: selected fellows are expected to participate in cohort meetings and contribute to the shared learning environment.

Frequently asked questions

Is the $10,000 an unrestricted personal stipend?

No. Amplify describes it as project support and says the project should be fully realizable with the $10,000 project budget. Build a project budget rather than presenting the award as general personal income.

Can a collective apply?

Yes. Artist collectives and collaborative groups are eligible, provided they maintain residence in the defined metro area and can show a significant history of working together.

Do applicants need an art degree?

No. The official call states that formal education is not required. The application still needs evidence of an active practice through the work sample and Works Cited page.

Does the project have to be about immigration?

No. Migration is interpreted broadly in the call. It can concern people, languages, labor, waterways, seeds, species, capital, culture, or other forms of movement and displacement.

How many fellows will be selected?

Amplify says staff will select up to three applicants after panel review and interviews.

When does the fellowship take place?

The fellowship is one year, beginning in January 2027 and ending in January 2028. Fellows are expected to participate in regularly scheduled cohort meetings during that period.

Where can I ask questions?

Email [email protected]. The official call also offers an information session and individual office hours, including feedback on an artist statement or work sample. Check the registration details because the page contains conflicting dates for the information session.

Official links and next steps

Read the official Amplify Arts 2027 Fellowship Open Call and use its Submittable application link for the current form. Check the call for the information-session and office-hours schedule.

Before submitting, confirm four things: your residence falls within the listed Omaha/Council Bluffs counties; you will be at least 19; your project has a clear public outcome within the twelve-month period; and your budget makes the $10,000 support credible. Then reread the application as a reviewer would. The strongest version will make the project easy to picture, show why it belongs in this place and moment, and give the panel solid evidence that you can carry it through.