Located on the Ithaca, New York, campus of Cornell University, Cornell Council for the Arts (CCA) is a university-wide cultural organization that provides a platform for the creation of and public discourse on the contemporary arts on campus.

Through an annual grant competition in April, CCA selects 15-20 Cornell faculty and students to receive funding for creative projects that are distinctly outside of their academic responsibilities. Funding is capped at $2,500 per faculty member and $1,000 per student. The next competition will be in April 2025.

Every other year, CCA curates the Cornell Biennial, a semester-long arts festival on campus that features the work of international and Cornell artists. CCA hosts a Biennial grant competition every other January and selects 10-12 Cornell faculty and students to receive funding for creative projects that fit the Biennial theme. Funding is capped at $8,000 per application. The next competition has not been scheduled.

Do you want to be notified when a grant cycle opens? Email cca@cornell.edu and we will add you to our email list.

The 2022 Cornell Biennial focused on Futurities, Uncertain, and featured artistic environments that provoked University-wide conversation about singular utopic models, colonial visions, and socio-cultural sameness. Forty artists hosted 36 events across Ithaca, Cornell University, and Cornell Tech in NYC from July through December 2022.

CCA provides financial support through an annual grant program, promoting interdisciplinary, collaborative, and experimental artistic ideas. We aim to inspire innovative and challenging projects.

When Cornell University closed in response to COVID-19 in March 2020, CCA turned its attention to assisting senior undergraduate artists left stranded away from their departmental studios at the end of their Cornell careers. CCA collaborated with the Department of Art on mounting the 2020 BFA Thesis Gallery.