ANNOUNCING INTERLEDGER’S FIRST ART & CULTURE GRANT - FUTURE|MONEY

Interledger Foundation is excited to announce our inaugural Inti/vation Grant: FUTURE|MONEY, which asks artists of any discipline to imagine what a financially inclusive future might be.

To inspire and shape our mission at Interledger Foundation (ILF), we are asking artists to imagine a world using any medium and artistic discipline, where equitable financial inclusion for all peoples exists.

The intersection of art and technology has been a driving force in the cultural landscape throughout history. With each technological development, artists have found new ways to express themselves and engage with their audiences.

The rise of the internet and digital technologies has created new possibilities for collaboration, distribution, and interactivity, leading to a new stream of adoption in the New Media Art forms such as AI, virtual reality, and NFTs. The web 3.0 cycle is creating a new paradigm for artists to do their work and engage with stakeholders in a more direct and decentralized way.

Parallel to this burst of innovation, international payment systems have revolutionized how individuals (for some, not all) make transactions, making it easier and more efficient for businesses and individuals to make and receive payments.

Artists and Creative communities are embracing this technology, as it allows for greater flexibility and accessibility for artists and arts organizations to receive funding. But with the speed and complexity of our growing digital economy, we need creative visioning about how we might design a better world with emerging tech and not be further marginalized by it.

We are looking to grant eight artists $25,000 each in unrestricted funds and a platform to showcase their realized work, in exhibition at the 2023 ILF Annual Summit.

FUTURE|MONEY is the first in our new Arts & Cultural stream of awards, which we call Inti/vations. "Inti/vations" is a portmanteau of intention and innovation, centered on the idea that intention exists within the creative core, acting as a catalyst for empathy to evoke positive human reaction. Through empathic, intentional expressions of a financially inclusive future, new systems of economic justice can emerge through the liminal scenarios created.

As a prompt, we ask that proposed pieces consider themes for the future, like decentralization, pan-border interconnectivity, financial services that work for people, and new cultural understandings of the fluidity of money.

So what does all that mean?

The goal is to provide substantive and robust support for underrepresented artists, including Black, Latina/o/x, Indigenous, AAPI, PoC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and income-challenged artists of all disciplines, understanding that artists need the ability to access unrestricted resources to continue or create new work, purchase supplies or equipment, need support to make everyday life earlier, and most importantly to elevate their careers which assists in raising their profile within the local and global communities that interact with their work.

The FUTURE|MONEY art and culture grant opportunity will open on February 23, 2023, and accept applications until March 23rd.

Stay tuned for more details on the Interledger Foundation’s website and community forum for information on the current call for proposal’s eligibility requirements, application form, live information sessions, and other additional information.

All are welcome to the Interledger Slack or contact us at info@interledger.org if you have any questions.

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