QM-Jerome Foundation Fellowship 2027–28: $20,000 and a Debut Solo Museum Exhibition for Two Emerging New York City Artists

QM-Jerome Foundation Fellowship 2027–28: $20,000 and a Solo Project Exhibition for Two Emerging New York City Artists

Historical reference — the 2027–28 application round is closed. The Queens Museum’s official open call says applications are now closed and gives September 28, 2026, at 11:59 pm EST as the deadline. The Museum’s program listings show this round and earlier rounds; they do not announce a later QM-Jerome cycle. This page records the terms and process published for the closed round. It is not an active application invitation, and no future deadline should be inferred from the fellowship’s past schedule.

The QM-Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists is a Queens Museum program supported by a grant from the Jerome Foundation. For its eighth iteration, the Museum selected two visual artists living in New York City’s five boroughs. Each fellow was to receive $20,000, professional development consultations with Queens Museum staff, and mentorship from an established artist based in New York. Each fellowship lasts one year and culminates in a solo project exhibition at the Museum in 2028.

The round is useful to keep on file because the eligibility definition is unusually specific and because its resources combine production funding with institutional exhibition experience. Anyone considering a later round should treat the information below as the published 2027–28 terms, then check the Museum’s official program page for any revised requirements, dates, or application materials. The source is the Queens Museum open call and FAQ.

2027–28 round at a glance

The Museum’s call did not describe the $20,000 as an unrestricted personal stipend. It said the award covers the artist fee, materials, and relevant production expenses for the work made for the exhibition. The payment is a lump sum in two installments. Those details matter for understanding the scale of the commitment: a fellow has to shape a project that can be realized within a defined production award while accounting for their own fee and the practical costs of making and presenting the work.

The mentorship is structured around each artist’s practice. Fellows are invited to propose a list of established local artists whose work aligns with theirs. In consultation with the Queens Museum team, one artist is invited to take part in four feedback and mentorship sessions across the fellowship year. The Museum also offers professional development consultations related to the artist’s project. The principal public outcome is an individual solo project exhibition at the Museum, scheduled to culminate in 2028.

Eligibility published for the closed round

The fellowship was for emerging visual artists living in one of New York City’s five boroughs. Applicants were expected to have resided in the city for at least one year before the fellowship began in January 2027 and to remain city residents until the fellowship period ended. The Museum’s wording focuses on residence, not merely a connection to New York through work, school, or exhibition history.

For the purposes of the program, an emerging artist had between two and ten years of experience generating new artistic work outside a degree-granting program. The Museum describes a generative artist as someone who develops new original work from conception through completion. Time spent in an optional post-graduate degree does not count toward the experience window. Demonstrable breaks such as caregiving or medical leave also do not count as part of the period used to define the two-to-ten years of eligible practice. Applicants who relied on one of these exclusions would need to describe their circumstances clearly enough for the eligibility calculation to be understood.

Applicants could not be currently enrolled in a degree-granting program and could not be tenured faculty at a university or college. Age and formal training in a degree program were not eligibility factors. The program accepted applications from individuals as well as artist collectives with no more than two members.

The Museum also set boundaries around prior recognition and exhibition history. An eligible artist had not yet had a solo exhibition at a museum and had not presented a solo show at an established commercial gallery in the United States, or in New York in particular. Limited exhibitions in other countries were not an automatic bar, but the Museum said eligible artists had not had major exhibition opportunities in the United States or New York. Applicants could have a few grants or fellowship awards, but could not have received major awards aimed at mid-career or established artists. The Museum named the Hodder Fellowship, Lee Krasner Award, MacArthur Fellowship, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Ellsworth Kelly Award, and Herb Alpert Award as examples, while noting that the list was not exhaustive.

These rules should be read together rather than reduced to a general idea of being “early career.” A long list of group exhibitions does not itself answer whether a person has had a disqualifying solo show; the status of a gallery and the location of a show may matter. Likewise, the practice-year count excludes certain study and leave periods. The official FAQ is the authority for individual edge cases, and its terms may change in a later call.

What the jury considered

The Queens Museum said applications would be shortlisted based on the strength of the proposed project, the applicant’s overall practice, and work samples. Strong applications were described as showing a clear and ambitious vision, readiness to expand and experiment in the artist’s practice, and an understanding of the context at the Queens Museum. The jury consisted of Museum curatorial staff and two guest jurors.

This framing connects the proposed exhibition to the artist’s existing work. Work samples establish the practice and help the jury judge what kind of development the proposal represents. A project proposal can then make the intended next step legible: what might change in scale, material, research, collaboration, or the relationship between work and site? The Museum did not require applicants to have a fully engineered installation plan. It specifically said that floor plans, sketches, and renderings were not required, though applicants could include visual material related to a proposed project as work samples if they had it.

The Museum also emphasized context. Its FAQ says strong proposals show an understanding of the context at QM. The Queens Museum is located in Flushing Meadows Corona Park and describes community as central to its work, including collaboration with neighbors and community partners across Queens. That does not mean every fellow must make participatory work. It does mean the application was expected to consider the actual institution, audiences, and setting rather than simply substitute the Queens Museum’s name into a generic exhibition proposal.

Published selection timeline

The open call specified a deadline of September 28, 2026, at 11:59 pm EST and stated that late submissions would not be accepted. After the deadline, a jury made up of Queens Museum curatorial staff and two guest jurors would review applications. Shortlisted artists would be invited to an in-person interview at the Museum in November. The Museum said it hoped to inform all applicants before the new year. The fellowship was to begin in January 2027, last one year, and culminate in exhibitions in 2028.

The Museum also held two online information sessions, one on July 16 and another on September 9, 2026. Attendance was encouraged but not mandatory. Those events have passed with the application window, so they are included here only as part of the historical record, not as upcoming opportunities.

Application steps and materials: what the call confirms

The application window for this round has closed. The current official page is an archive of the call, not an open application portal, and the Museum explicitly said it would not accept late submissions. There is no remaining step by which a new applicant can submit for the 2027–28 cohort.

For its evaluation, the Museum identified the proposed project, overall practice, and work samples. The FAQ confirms that sketches, floor plans, and renderings were optional rather than required. It does not make those visuals a condition of eligibility. The source page provides the authoritative call and FAQ; applicants in the closed cycle would have followed the application route linked from that call while it was live. The precise form fields and any file specifications should not be reconstructed from memory or assumed to carry over to a future cycle.

As a reference for preparing for a future open call, an artist can use the published criteria to review whether their practice and exhibition history fit, gather representative work samples, and develop a project idea that relates specifically to the Queens Museum. Those are preparation suggestions based on the stated criteria, not claims that the Museum has opened a new application or published future requirements. Before committing to a proposal, check the official page for a new cycle, its form, deadlines, eligibility terms, and any required supporting documents.

Understanding the exhibition and production award

The award covered several connected needs: artist fee, materials, and relevant production costs. A project plan would therefore have needed to consider both the artist’s labor and the costs of realizing the exhibition work. Large fabrication, specialized equipment, shipping, installation, or outside collaborators can change a project’s budget substantially. The published description does not provide a detailed budget template or specify a separate unrestricted living allowance, so neither should be presumed.

The two-installment payment structure also has practical consequences. Production costs do not always arrive in equal portions over a year. An artist could need to map deposits, purchases, fabrication, and installation against the payment schedule and ask the Museum for details during the process if selected. This is an interpretation for project planning; the official FAQ only confirms the lump-sum award paid in two installments and what it covers.

The fellowship’s institutional support is distinct from the cash award. Consultations with Museum staff and four sessions with a mentor offer opportunities to think through the project and the artist’s development. The fellow proposes possible mentors, then works with the Queens Museum team to identify one established local artist. The exhibition provides a public culmination, but it also requires collaboration with the institution over research, planning, production, and installation. The testimonials on the call describe fellows’ experiences with those aspects; they are examples, not guarantees about what any future fellow’s project will involve.

Access and contact information

The Queens Museum says it is committed to reasonable accommodations for physical or cognitive needs, including for parts of the application process. Its published contact for accessibility questions and accommodation requests is [email protected] or (718) 592-9700 ext. 145. Because this specific application round is closed, prospective applicants should contact the Museum only about current accessibility needs or questions relevant to a future, officially announced process.

Official source

• Closed open call and FAQ: Queens Museum — 2027–28 QM-Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists
• Program support: grant from the Jerome Foundation, as stated by the Queens Museum.

The official page is the final reference for the closed round’s terms. It states that applications are closed and gives the deadline, award, eligibility definition, review process, and fellowship structure summarized here. As of this page’s update, the Museum’s listings do not announce a later cycle. Keep this entry as a record of the 2027–28 opportunity and revisit the Museum’s official program listings before relying on any dates or requirements for a future round.