Backslash Fellowship, New York City

$50,000 Backlash Fellowship and $11,000 Interventions program for artists working with emerging technology at Cornell Tech.

The $50,000 Backslash Fellowship at Cornell Tech supports an established practicing artist creating a significant new work that engages bleeding-edge digital research and technology. Backslash also offers Interventions, $11,000 grants for emerging and mid-career artists who want to transform an existing work through engagement with emerging technologies. The application deadline for the 2026 Fellowship and Interventions is May 8, 2026.

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What: Backslash Fellowship and Backslash Interventions
Who: Established practicing artists for the Fellowship; emerging and mid-career artists for Interventions
Where: Cornell Tech, New York City, United States
Award / Support:
Fellowship: $50,000 total, including $20,000 stipend, $20,000 project materials, $10,000 collaborator support, studio space, and badged campus access.
Interventions: $11,000 total, including $8,000 stipend and up to $3,000 in student collaborator support.
Residency Duration: Fellowship: one-year Visiting Fellow appointment beginning September. Interventions: one-year Visiting Artist academic appointment beginning September 2026 with the start of the 2026–27 academic year.
Deadline: May 8, 2026
Strategy Coach Notes: At the endof the post
Official Link: https://backslash.org/fellowship

Want the Strategy Behind This Application

This call is structured around collaboration, technical clarity, and transformation of practice. Most applications fail at the level of positioning. Strategy Coach Notes break down how to approach each question, what the panel is evaluating, and how to structure a competitive proposal.

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About the Opportunity

Backslash is currently accepting proposals for the 2026 Backslash Fellowship. The Fellowship supports one established practicing artist in creating a significant new work of art that engages bleeding-edge digital research and technology. The program provides sustained teamwork with a committed technical PhD collaborator, with the goal of enabling deep exploration of new artistic forms, expressions, and features.

Backslash Interventions are $11,000 grants for emerging and mid-career artists who want to transform an existing work and advance their technical agency through emerging technologies. Artists join the Backslash community on campus and gain access to Cornell Tech’s expertise, labs, campus resources, and collaboration with faculty and students.

What Is Offered

Backslash Fellowship

• $50,000 Backslash Fellowship
  • $20,000 artist stipend for the Fellowship
  • $20,000 for Fellowship project materials
  • $10,000 for a dedicated technical PhD or faculty collaborator
• One-year Visiting Fellow appointment at Cornell Tech
• Studio space on campus for the academic year
• Badged campus access for the duration of the appointment

Backslash Interventions grant

• $11,000 Backslash Interventions grant
  • $8,000 stipend for Interventions artists
  • Up to $3,000 for PhD and Masters student collaborators
• One-year Visiting Artist academic appointment at Cornell Tech for Interventions artists
• Access to Cornell Tech’s makerspace, labs, events, and community through Interventions

Who Should Apply

Backslash defines established artists as artists who have “developed a sustained professional practice and achieved institutional recognition, including exhibitions at major venues, significant grants or fellowships, published critical coverage, and a distinct, developed approach to their practice.”

Backslash defines emerging and mid-career artists as artists “in the early stages of their professional practice, with limited exhibition history and minimal institutional recognition.” The Interventions page adds that these artists are “typically in the process of developing a distinct artistic voice and have not yet received many significant grants, fellowships, or critical press coverage.”

Application Structure

For the Fellowship, applicants submit “a 2-4 page proposal for a new artwork engaging with the research activities listed below as mediums.”

For Interventions, applicants submit “a 1-3 page proposal on how you might use one or more of these Tech Activities to advance your work.”

Timeline

Application Opens: Not listed
Deadline: May 8, 2026
Fellowship Start: September, at the start of the academic year
Interventions Start: September 2026, with the start of the 2026–27 academic year

Why This Opportunity Matters

The $50,000 Artist Fellowship positions artists inside Cornell Tech’s research environment, with direct support for new work, project materials, technical collaboration, campus access, and studio space. The listed research areas include computational and digital fabrication, accessibility, robotics, human-robot interaction, computer vision, computer graphics, algorithmic fairness, statistics, urban planning, interpretability, and human-AI interfaces.

Backslash describes its priority as artists taking “nonlinear, unconventional, and exceptional approaches towards emerging tech.” This makes the program especially relevant for artists whose work treats technology as a medium for research, experimentation, and artistic transformation.

Apply

Apply through Backslash at Cornell Tech: https://backslash.org/fellowship

Photo: Miao Ying