Rhizome Opens Its 2026 Microgrants for Web-Based Art

Rhizome has opened its 2026 microgrants, the annual open call through which the New York digital art organization funds new web-based work with grants of $500 to $1,500. Applications are due Nov. 20. The open call, announced Oct. 26 with a short teaser, says applicants do not need to identify as artists or to have made digital work before. Rhizome's microgrants FAQ says it accepts applications internationally and pays awards in U.S. dollars.

Proposals go into four categories. PERMANENCE, presented with Larva Labs, the studio behind CryptoPunks, asks for work built to last as its tools and networks change around it. MISUSE wants projects that turn a platform against itself. HANDMADE asks for digital work where the maker's touch can be felt, and Rhizome says entries in that category should not be made with AI. CO-OP covers collective work, including multiplayer games, and its brief points to the thousands of keystrokes that still managed to finish a game of Pokémon. Larva Labs juries alongside Natalie Stone, Joygill Moriah, Herdimas Anggara and Annie Rauwerda.

A separate Terrell Davis Microgrants Fund, set up with Moriah and Liz Mputu of LVLZ Healing Hub, adds money for projects that speak to Black and Afrodiasporic experiences. It honors the self-taught digital artist and curator who cofounded the virtual gallery TenSquared with Moriah at 16. Projects in any category can opt in.

Games have a place in the program. The 17 projects funded last round included Jonny Hopkins's three.js tool for turning uploaded photos into walkable, fixed-camera adventure game scenes, and Erisa Bakalli's study of death animations in Vectorman, Serious Sam: The First Encounter and other early 3D games. Developh, the Manila organization founded by Chia Amisola, was funded for Binondo Global Solutions, a simulated call center staffed by Filipino public figures. Hundred Rabbits sat on that jury. Proposals go through Rhizome's application form.

For more reading, see Killscreen's Andrew Thomas Huang made an art game at Rhizome's 7x7, Rhizome ran its 30th benefit on artist-made money and Game engines meet stagecraft in dmstfctn's Rhizome talk.