FREE to Apply!

The Rural Regenerator Fellowship is an 18-month fellowship that brings together rural artists, creatives, and culture bearers to deepen their relationships, grow their work, and support rural exchange and solidarity across the Upper Midwest.

Artists, culture bearers, and makers are essential to the future of rural places—and to the ways those places help our society develop and build new systems or policies that are human-centered, equitable, and resilient. Since 2021, Springboard for the Arts’ Rural Regenerator Fellowship has invested more than $1 Million in rural cultural organizers across the Upper Midwest, building a lasting and resilient network of support, solidarity, and exchange. 

For this next Fellowship cycle, we will support artists who are organizing their rural places for care, safety and solidarity. This includes, but is not limited to: artists who use creative processes to develop mutual aid networks, provide spaces for vulnerable communities to gather and connect, share stories to combat harmful narratives, and more. 

This year’s Fellowship will support six rural artists, creatives, and culture bearers with an unrestricted award of $15,000, one in-person retreat, $3,000 to support travel for Fellow Exchanges, and the opportunity to attend and present at Springboard’s Rural Futures Summit.

The Rural Regenerator Fellowship brings rural artists into a supportive peer network, helping to sustain and deepen their existing work, while cultivating a network of geographic exchange, mutual support, and solidarity across the rural midwest. 

The 2026-28 Fellowship will take place over 18 months (September 2026 – March 2028).

Applications due: June 18, 2026.