Funding

Partial / Stipend

Program dates

Jan 25, 2027 – Nov 19, 2027

Fellowship•USA · Lake Forest

Ragdale Fellowships

Ragdale

Application Deadline

Closed · May 14, 2026

Reopens ~May 2027

Official Page

Ragdale is a nonprofit artist community on the former country estate of the architect Howard Van Doren Shaw and the poet and playwright Frances Wells Shaw, in Lake Forest, Illinois, about an hour north of Chicago. It awards more than 200 eighteen-day residencies a year, and inside that programme it awards a set of named fellowships to emerging and established artists on merit. A fellowship waives the residency fee and adds a cash stipend, so a fellow arrives with housing, a private live/work studio, weeknight dinners and a small grant already covered. The fellowships are split two ways: some are tied to a discipline, such as dance, photography, media art, new musical composition, fiction and nonfiction; others are tied to a circumstance or a subject, such as caregiving, disability, incarceration, mental health, spirituality or social justice. One application covers everything. Applicants fill in the standard residency application and tick the fellowships they want to be read for.

Benefits & funding

  • A fee-waived 18-day residency. Everyone else pays a self-determined sliding scale of US$35–280 a day, which is US$630–5,040 across the 18 days.
  • A stipend on top: US$1,000 with most fellowships, US$2,000 with the Waud Fellowship for Formerly Incarcerated Artists, and a travel and materials stipend with the McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships.
  • Individual housing with a private bathroom, and a private live/work studio.
  • Chef-prepared communal dinners Monday to Friday, with self-serve breakfast and lunch on weekdays and basic groceries stocked.
  • Access to the 80-acre nature preserve behind the house, including 20 acres of remnant Illinois prairie.
  • Room and board for a personal care assistant, on the Prairie Fellowship and the Craig H. Neilsen Fellowship.
  • Travel to and from Lake Forest is the artist’s own cost. Ragdale puts the true cost of a residency at about US$280 a day per artist.

Eligibility

  • Open to emerging and established artists in any discipline: writing, visual art, dance, music and composition, photography, media arts and interdisciplinary work.
  • No publication, exhibition or performance record is required. Ragdale asks that applicants work at a professional level.
  • No degree requirement, no age limit and no nationality or residency requirement are published.
  • Ragdale states that it does not discriminate on the basis of age, ability, gender, origin, race, religion or sexual orientation.
  • Each named fellowship carries its own criterion on top of that: a writing project that raises awareness of a social justice issue; a project relating to spirituality or faith; dancemaking; new musical composition; photography; media art; fiction or nonfiction; Latine artists, with a preference for Cuban and Cuban-American artists; Vietnamese artists; artists with disabilities or access needs; artists whose practice was interrupted by a caregiving role; artists whose work is informed by mental health and well-being; formerly incarcerated artists; and Native and Indigenous artists of the Greater Midwest.
  • An applicant may ask to be considered for more than one fellowship, with up to 500 words written for each.
  • A few fellowships are closed to general application in a given cycle, either because a partner organisation selects the recipient or because the recipient is already named. The fellowships page marks each of these.
  • Applicants who are not awarded a fellowship may still be offered a residency at the sliding-scale fee.

Can you apply?

Open to all applicants

No nationality, residency, education, or experience limits are listed.

We only check the criteria we have data for. Always confirm full eligibility on the official page before applying.

Application process

  1. 1
    Wait for the Submittable portal to open. It opens in February for the residencies and fellowships that take place the following year.
  2. 2
    Complete the standard residency application. The same form covers residencies and fellowships.
  3. 3
    Name each fellowship to be considered for and set out how the criteria are met, in up to 500 words per fellowship.
  4. 4
    Pay the US$35 processing fee. Ragdale grants fee waivers on request.
  5. 5
    Submit by 11:59 PM CST on 14 May. Late submissions are not accepted.
  6. 6
    Wait for the review. Decisions reach applicants by email by September.
  7. 7
    On acceptance, complete the residency contract with a non-refundable US$100 deposit. A fellowship waives the residency fee itself.

Program timeline

  1. Submittable application portal opens for the following year’s residencies and fellowships

    February

  2. Application deadline

    14 May, 11:59 PM CST

  3. Decisions sent by email

    By September

  4. 25 January to 19 November 2027

    The ten 18-day sessions of the 2027 residency season

  5. The 2027 cycle closed on 14 May 2026 and the Submittable portal now shows no open calls. The next cycle, for 2028 residencies, opens in February 2027. Ragdale publishes the month, not an exact opening date.