Scenic Artist Exploration Grant
The Guild’s Scenic Artist Exploration Grant provides up to $1,000 in funding to support independent research projects led by our Scenic Artists. Designed to advance the Guild’s mission of education and career development, this grant empowers our members to investigate topics, tools, or techniques that enrich and fuel creativity in our industry.
How to Apply & Idea Pitch Requirements
Ready to bring your project to life? To submit your application, please include a short Idea Pitch containing:
Project Proposal
What topic, technique, or tool do you want to explore, and how will this project fuel creativity or learning in our field?
Community Impact
How does your idea support the Guild’s mission of education and benefit the wider scenic art community?
Proposed Deliverable
What will you share with the community upon completion (e.g., event, article, resource guide, presentation)?
Budget Overview
A basic estimate of how you plan to use the grant funds (up to $1,000).
Recipient Celebration
Andrea Heilman
Scenic Sessions – 2026
What started as a simple idea to time-lapse a session at USITT evolved into creating a documentary video with interviews of four professional industry scenic painters. The grant money was used to support the editing of this documentary.
Joline Dames
Bringing an Online Archive to LIfe
Scenic Route Article – 2025
With the support of the Research Exploration Grant, she began researching what it would take to build a digital reference library specifically for scenic artists—a shared resource where we could access, contribute to, and collaborate on an archive that reflects the unique needs of our craft.
Karen Maness
Inspiration from Hollywood’s Artists
Webinar – 2023
Applied for this grant in support to continue her research on writing the book The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop. She interviewed dozens of artists in Los Angeles to investigate the history and art forms of Hollywood Motion Picture Backdrop painting.
Mary Novodvorsky
Dye It’s Not Paint
Webinar – 2020
As our inaugural Research Exploration Grant recipient, Mary set a high standard and blazed the trail for what in-depth craft research can achieve. Mary combined her hands-on practical experience with a deep dive into the science behind scenic dyes—exploring different dye types, application techniques, and the chemical “why” behind how they work. She capped off her project by sharing her findings in an educational webinar for our community.
