Applications now open for The Democracy Cycle’s 2025 Open Call! Info below on how to apply. Deadline: April 1, 2025 at 5:00 PM ET
What is The Democracy Cycle?
In January 2024, The Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) and Civis Foundation (a Galvan Initiatives affiliate) partnered to launch The Democracy Cycle, a new commissioning program designed to support new works that illuminate the promise, practice, imperfection, and opportunity of democracy.
Over a five-year period, The Democracy Cycle will commission and develop 25 new performing arts works across the fields of theater, dance, music, opera, and multi-disciplinary performance.
The commissioned works, to be selected over the course of three annual Rounds of Open Calls (2024, 2025, and 2026) will explore themes relating to the nature, practice, and experience of democracy.
Civis and PAC NYC have come together because of our shared beliefs to create this commissioning program. These shared beliefs are:
- We believe that democratic values are a global expression of humanity’s striving to live with one another with respect and in peace.
- We believe that democracy, as practiced in the United States of America, includes a history of founding exclusions and that it has been, and must continue to be, the ongoing work of our society to expand upon the inclusive ideals embedded in our founding documents.
- We believe that democracy faces significant perceived and actual threats in the current moment, both domestically and internationally.
- We believe that the intersection of capitalism and democracy creates both opportunities and tensions.
- We believe that artists are the beating heart of democratic values because of their ability to imagine new worlds, envision new possibilities, and provoke meaningful discourse across any number of divides.
Our hope is that projects commissioned as part of The Democracy Cycle will enrich and expand the discussion around and participation in democracy – be it in the national, state, regional, or hyperlocal community realm – as it is practiced both within the United States and worldwide.
The Cycle will provide $60,000 in support to each awarded project, consisting of a $30,000 commission as well as an additional $30,000 towards each commissioned project’s development process (research, readings, workshops etc.). The commissions will be awarded across three annual Open Calls, beginning in January 2024. In each Open Call, The Democracy Cycle will commission at least eight projects.
For more information, please read the following material and review our FAQs. Updated Submission Guidelines will be posted before the start of each Open Call.
Alongside this Request for Proposals or RFP, applicants are encouraged to review PAC NYC’s mission and Civis’ mission before submitting proposal materials.
Register here for our live webinar on February 13 at 1:00 PM ET. The Democracy Cycle staff will give an overview of the steps to apply and the application elements, with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. This session will be recorded and posted here.
Eligibility
To be eligible to apply for a commission from The Democracy Cycle, lead applicants must
- Be generative artists who are currently creating new work in theater, dance, music, opera, and multi-disciplinary performance
- Have created 2 or more completed and presented works
- Not be currently enrolled as a full-time student in a degree-granting program. PhD candidates need to have completed their course/work by the application deadline to be eligible
- Be eighteen years of age or older
- Propose a new project that is not a remount, has not yet been premiered, and is not planned to premiere before May 1, 2026
- Propose a new performance project meant to be developed and performed live, and planned to be completed in 2026, 2027, or 2028. Works may be interdisciplinary and can include collaborators in other artistic forms. At the time of application, a work may be in an early, mid, or later stage of development so long as it is not planned to premiere before May 1, 2026
- Artists may either be U.S. citizens, or citizens of other countries, this is a national and international open call. Note: all artists commissioned are responsible for any tax implications involved in accepting a monetary award from a U.S.-based arts organization
Proposals are not eligible if
- The main purpose is the curation or documentation of existing work
- The proposed project has already premiered, or will premiere before May 1, 2026
- The generative artist is enrolled as a full-time student in a degree granting program
- The proposed project advocates by name for the success or failure of a partisan candidate for office or a political party
- The lead artist or any of the main collaborators are employees of, immediate family of employees of, or consultants to PAC NYC or Civis Foundation
Have more questions. Click this link to register for a live webinar on the 13th February where several enquiries will be addressed
Excited about the opportunity? Start your application here