Ignite Fund

Are you an early-career arts professional eager to learn about grantmaking, nonprofit work, and Chicago’s visual arts community? The Ignite Fund is looking for a detail-oriented, curious, and collaborative intern to join us for the 2026 grant cycle!

Since 2022, The Ignite Fund has supported bold, public-facing visual arts projects across Chicago. In 2026, we’ll award six $10,000 grants to local artists and artist-led collectives.

As The Ignite Fund Intern, you’ll gain hands-on experience in:
🎨 Arts grantmaking processes
📣 Nonprofit communications
🗂 Panel coordination & event support
🌐 Website updates
🤝 Supporting in-person artist gatherings

🔗 Application Link In Bio
Questions? Email mailto:[email protected]

✨In anticipation for our next round of The Ignite Fund we’re taking a moment to spotlight our most recent grantees and their projects all week✨

Next up, we have Alonso Galue and Brandon Calhoun!

Artist Alonso Galue (.galue), presents Push-On: The Prophet of the Extra-Life. Blending gaming metaphors with post-colonial folkloric traditions, this project features a modified pinball machine, sculptures, and monumental paintings of syncretic deities walking together.

Brandon Calhoun (), presents Through Their Eyes: In the Shoes of Black Women, a dance-layered visual series that centers a Black woman-led dance company. Shared online and through intimate public events, this series foregrounds the lived experiences, artistry, and leadership of Black women in Chicago, offering space for reflection, respect, and deeper understanding.

✨In anticipation for our next round of The Ignite Fund we’re taking a moment to spotlight our most recent grantees and their projects all week✨

Next up, we have Dorrah Alharbi and Leticia Pardo.
Dorrah Alharbi (), presents their project Objects of Memory (@‌littlepalestineproject), a digital archival documenting and preserving one of the largest Palestinian populations in the US. Located in Chicago’s southwest suburbs. The project conducts oral histories with first generation Arab immigrants who first settled in the community during the 1970s.

Leticia Pardo’s (), project greetings from Chicagoacán (stories from within) gathers oral histories and casts of domestic spaces from members of Chicago’s Mexican diaspora. This project forms a visual and auditory archive reflecting on migration, memory, and the ways home is continually reimagined and rebuilt.