NYC Performance Fellowship — The Performance Project

A year-long creative career mentorship for early-emerging performing artists in New York City. Music sits squarely inside it: the work-sample instructions name spoken word, music, theatre, ensemble performance, dance and interdisciplinary work. Across the 2026/27 year you meet monthly as a cohort, meet the Artistic Director individually, attend required workshops, and build a new piece towards two public showings — a five-to-ten-minute work-in-progress at the Fellows SHARE! in June 2027, then two twenty-to-thirty-minute performances at FlowFest in October 2027. Rehearsal time at Speyer Hall on Eldridge Street is available when the room is free, and performances are professionally documented, so you leave with footage you can use.

You need to be based in New York City and 18 or over, and you cannot currently be enrolled in a degree-earning programme such as a BA or MFA. The scheduling is the real filter: required in-person meetings and workshops run on weekdays, generally between 10am and 2pm, and the form asks for your Monday-to-Friday availability.

The money is modest and comes as stipends rather than a project grant — 500 dollars on completing the fellowship, 100 dollars for performing at the June SHARE!, 300 dollars for FlowFest. No application fee, no match funding required.

Applying means a free online form covering your artistic development, professional ambitions, current challenges, intended social impact and relationship to an audience, plus a two-to-five-minute sample of performance work you created yourself. Applications close 18 September 2026 at 11:59pm EST.