The Queer|Art Design Grant supports new creative projects exploring queer histories, legacies, and futures, while helping provide visibility and opportunity for emerging LGBTQ+ design talent.

The Queer|Art Design Grant is a new initiative supporting projects that explore queer histories, legacies, and futures. The program will award two $10,000 USD grants to emerging queer creatives across the design industry, making it the largest cash grant for LGBTQ+ designers in the country. Applications are due August 14, 2026; apply here. Winners will be announced at Queer|Art’s Annual Party in Fall 2026.

The Queer|Art Design Grant provides critical support to US-based designers working across a variety of disciplines, including graphic design, architecture/landscape architecture, industrial/product design, fashion/textile/wearables, digital design, service design, furniture/home decor, materials research, interior design, and more.

In its inaugural year, The Queer|Art Design Grant will be judged by an esteemed panel of designers, curators, architects, and cultural leaders, including Bex McCharen, Salome Asega, Cristina Grajales, Jaffer Kolb, and Paul Soulellis. Across their diverse and dynamic creative practices, the jury reflects the breadth and transformative impact of queer perspectives on culture, public life, and the built environment.

The Queer|Art Design Grant is the first major program launched under the new partnership between UGG and Queer|Art. The two organizations have partnered through a shared commitment to championing creativity, individuality, and self-expression by supporting queer and trans creatives through meaningful programming, cultural experiences, educational initiatives, and artistic opportunities. As part of the year-round partnership, Queer|Art board member and award-winning creative strategist Fran Tirado (she/her) will serve as Community Curator, helping shape programming and engagement throughout the year.

2026 JUDGES

Salome Asega is the Deputy Director of Strategy & Innovation and Director of NEW INC, the New Museum’s cultural incubator for creative practitioners working across art, design, and technology. Asega is an artist, researcher, and educator working between participatory design and emerging technologies. Prior to joining NEW INC in 2021, Asega was the inaugural New Media Art Research Fellow for Creativity and Free Expression at the Ford Foundation, where she supported artists and organizations in the new media arts ecosystem. She is also a cofounder of POWRPLNT, a digital art collaboratory based in Brooklyn offering free and sliding-scale workshops run by established media artists. Since 2015, Asega has been teaching studio and design methodology courses in the MFA Design & Technology program at Parsons School of Design.

Cristina Grajales is a pioneering gallerist who has played a significant role in establishing contemporary design as both a cultural and collectible field. Born in Colombia and based in New York since the late 1980s, she introduced postwar European design masters to new audiences before founding Cristina Grajales Gallery in 2001. Known for its innovative, material-driven exhibitions, the gallery champions both historic and contemporary designers. Grajales advises leading collectors and institutions worldwide, helped launch Design Miami, founded the “Dialogues with Design Legends” series, and has received numerous honors recognizing her contributions to the design world.

Paul Soulellis (he/him) is an artist and educator based in Providence, Rhode Island. His practice includes teaching, writing, and experimental publishing, with a focus on queer methodologies, network culture, and archival justice. He is the founder of Queer.Archive.Work, a non-profit project that supports queer artists with access to studio space, tools, and other resources for publishing. Soulellis maintains his own art practice centered on publishing, and his work is in special collections at The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Walker Art Center, and many other institutions. He is Professor of Graphic Design at Rhode Island School of Design. His book Survival by Sharing: Essays on Queer Typography, is forthcoming from Bikini Books in 2027.

APPLY

APPLICATIONS DUE AUGUST 14, 2026

What information does the application require?

• Contact info, narrative bio, and headshot

• Demographic information

• Resume/CV

• One sentence description of your proposed project

• 300 word description of your proposed project

• Timeline for project completion

• Project budget

• 2 references that can speak to your practice

• Work samples (10 examples of completed work, 5 samples demonstrating your proposed project)

Work Sample Specifications:

Choose from any of the following formats to upload work samples that best represent your practice. Allowed Media Types:

• Images (up to 5MB each)

• Video (up to 250MB each)

• PDFs (up to 10MB each)

• Audio (up to 30MB each)

• 3D Models

• External media from YouTube, Vimeo and SoundCloud

Images do not have to be a particular size, as SlideRoom's servers will process them to fit their system. Their processors will resize anything larger than 1280 x 1280 x 72 ppi to fit within those limitations.

Image file formats accepted: .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .tif, .tiff, .bmp, .tga
Video file formats accepted: .m4v, .mov, .mp4, .wmv, .flv, .asf, .mpeg, .mpg, .mkv

Please include title, medium, year, and brief description of each work sample.