Future Aesthetics Fund for Worlds Worth Building

Seeking artists, writers, designers, architects, and scientists creating optimistic, realistic visions of the future.

The Future Aesthetics Fund supports artists and scientists who imagine new worlds worth building. We believe the stories, images, discoveries, and ideas a civilization shares about tomorrow shape what it chooses to discover and build today. Run by the Foundation for Future Aesthetics, a nonprofit advancing optimistic, realistic visions of the future through art, science, and culture, this fund champions speculative fiction, visual art, design, architecture, exhibitions, and interdisciplinary projects that replace dystopian sentiment with ambitious, achievable futures that we can adopt and act to bring about. Note for applying projects: Our curators assess project submissions on a rolling basis, and will make a determination about your project submission by or on the nearest Sunday. Thanks for your patience!

Eligibility

We welcome creators working who imagine futures humanity will become inspired by and can aspire to build. Whether you're an independent artist, writer, researcher, collective, or interdisciplinary team, we're looking for projects that display a combination of imaginative ambition and artistic excellence, with a future-forward focus on discoveries and innovations that could shape the real world.
To qualify for this fund, projects must meet the following eligibility requirements:
- Envision and display (through creative works) a path to an optimistic, realistic future that expands our imagination of what humanity could become or achieve. Not dystopias, not utopias. Blueprints to a tomorrow that will be real and good.
- Submit or link to a portfolio of past artistic or creative work or projects; this is manditory for approval!
- Demonstrate artistic rigor, originality, and a clear creative vision. Limited use of AI is preferred.
- Engage meaningfully with science, technology, philosophy, culture, on the topic of humanity's future through research, collaboration, or informed speculation.
- Be presented in any creative medium, including fiction, illustration, sculpture, design, architecture, exhibitions, film, music, installations, research, or other creative or experimental work.
- Balance imaginative ambition with real-world plausibility, presenting futures that feel both visionary and grounded.
- Encourage curiosity, hope, and human agency by helping audiences imagine new possibilities for civilization.
- Interdisciplinary collaborations between artists, scientists, engineers, designers, researchers, and technologists are especially encouraged.
- Projects connected to the Future Aesthetics ecosystem, including exhibitions, publications, literary works, or other initiatives advancing optimistic future-building, are welcome but not required. Reach out to us if you'd like to learn more about our ecosystem!
FFA generally funds artistic works, tangible or digital creative projects, and some art/science events and exhibitions—not infrastructure, pop-up cities, communities, or digital communities—so please keep this in mind when determining whether to apply!
Thank you!

Projects (57)

53 submitted · 4 curated

Project	Status	Raised
Re:IMAGINED	curated	$1,215
OURS - Exhibition and Salon	curated	$0
Possibilia Magazine - Issue 0	curated	$1,690
QUANTICA MENTIS	curated	$8,516
Coralverse - Reef Revival	submitted	$3,709
Bloom Network	submitted	$9,268
CL-057 Inner Alchemy	submitted	$5,569
FutureZoo	submitted	$215,046
The Acoustic Power of Reef	submitted	$2,463
adopt a tree	submitted	$14,777
Wecelium Network - Supporting Projects & Sharing Resources	submitted	$28,189
International Artists Project	submitted	$462
ONCE - a hyperstition studio for the Europic Renaissanace	submitted	$1,460
A New Musical Traumedy: BEHIND THE MASK	submitted	$19,558
Reset and Rise	submitted	$0
MusicaW3	submitted	$52,007
Trench Heart	submitted	$30,875
Papertoys reimagined	submitted	$450
Labour Union of Higherdimensional Shapeshifters	submitted	$360
ZuAfrique	submitted	$111,330
Akuya	submitted	$234
MetaGraff Gallery & Hall of Fame	submitted	$120
MetaCorral Cultural Club Technologies Network	submitted	$995
THE FUTURE IS _____	submitted	$10
Unplug to Upskill: The Card Game That Brings AI Literacy to Every Child	submitted	$62,725
Swahili Futurism Residency	submitted	$25,974
Tune In Show	submitted	$269,534
Libp2p: The Internet Without Gatekeepers	submitted	$60
Everywhere I grow	submitted	$260
Sky Commons - Low Water (SC)	submitted	$0
Every Other Breath - Animating the Marine Carbon Cycle	submitted	$5,254
Artisanal Intelligence — Exhibition Tour	submitted	$5,915
THE NAYDO LANGUAGE	submitted	$1,875
HolyHats: bucket hats with a hole made from RTVs upcycled ocean fishnets	submitted	$37,191
Lab Rats Design Studio	submitted	$569
The International Artists Project Documentary	submitted	$563
The First Light Initiative	submitted	$0
Artists and Athletes for Change	submitted	$450
FMLY BZNS	submitted	$6,753
Rostros Vivos	submitted	$8,576
Valley Arcade Games	submitted	$110
Support Solarpunk Journalism	submitted	$8,520
Element of Chawaza	submitted	$1,356
Altered Frequencies	submitted	$1,352
Voices of my Community: Anthology Project	submitted	$0
🍀Short-Film Series about Sustainability Visions & Alternative Lifestyles	submitted	$184
MiddleBelt Archive	submitted	$1,742
Kanji School VR	submitted	$8,049
Multidisciplinary Project: "La Historia tambien es Cueca"	submitted	$814
Comunicação Sustentável	submitted	$209
Amazon Art Residency - Via + CL-029 VERDE	submitted	$11,377
Touring Musician's Resource Map	submitted	$19
Hands of Hope Foundation	submitted	$0
The weight of light	submitted	$30,988
your body is the altar: an act of remembering	submitted	$7,360
Technological Metamodernism	submitted	$179,970
Sao Mateus Pico Arts and Research Residency	submitted	$111