Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation Exploratory Travel Award

The Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation offers travel awards of up to $5,000 to PhD students who want to travel to Latin America to visit archives, museums, and art collections and connect with local scholars. The award is intended for projects that will contribute to the study of the Art of the Spanish Americas (roughly 16th-19th c.); projects from all areas of Latin America and the Caribbean will be considered, with preference given to projects that make specific contributions to the history of painting and sculpture in viceregal South America. Exploratory Travel Awards will enable students to develop viable and innovative research projects for future application to pre-doctoral fellowships, including the Marilynn Thoma Pre-doctoral Fellowship in Art of the Spanish Americas. The Exploratory Travel Award is intended to fund travel of 1-2 months in Latin America as preparation for more extensive archival and collections-based research in the future. Applicants must be enrolled in an accredited PhD program. This funding is intended only for early-career PhD students; for example, in Europe, this generally refers to students in their first year of study, and in the United States, it means pre-candidacy. Students whose institutions offer similar preliminary travel funding are not eligible for the award. Individuals in Europe and Latin America, where comparable sources of external funding are less available, are strongly encouraged to apply. The application deadline is January 15, 2026. Funds will be disbursed within six weeks of the application deadline, and travel must commence within six months of the award. Application materials include: an application CV; a letter of recommendation from a PhD supervisor; a project description of up to 1200 words plus a 1-page bibliography; and a 1-page travel budget. Applications will be evaluated by an anonymous jury of experts in the field according to the originality of the proposed research, the anticipated contribution it will make to the field, and the ability of the applicant to carry out the project. Please visit the award's website for more information.