About the Special Awards Program
Since 1987, The Gerbode Foundation has made innovative grants through its Special Awards Program to San Francisco Bay Area arts institutions to commission new works by gifted individual artists: playwrights (including Tony Kushner of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Angels in America"), choreographers (such as Alonzo King and Alleluia Panis), composers (John Adams, Carla Kihlstedt, and Marcus Shelby among them), as well as visual artists, poets, and multi-media artists.
In a time of cultural shifts and fiscal insecurity in the arts, these coveted, nationally respected awards have helped underwrite culturally and aesthetically diverse, acclaimed new works by prominent artists and artists who are up-and-coming. The grants have supported artists at critical junctures in their careers, enabled local nonprofit arts organizations to develop and premiere substantial new works, and enriched Bay Area audiences, readers, and viewers by giving them first access to ambitious, original creations.
The Special Awards cycles are announced annually in May. Applications for the Special Awards are due in late August and awards are announced the following January.
Press Release:
Gerbode and Hewlett Foundations Announce 2013 Music Commissioning Awards
May 23, 2013
The application and guidelines for the 2013 Music Commissioning Awards can be downloaded here:
Application deadline is August 22, 2013 by 4pm.
View Special Awards Recipients 1987 through 2012 here.
