Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts fosters the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. Through project-based grants to individuals and organizations, and producing exhibitions, events, and publications, the Graham Foundation realizes its vision.
The Graham Foundation’s Carter Manny Award, established in 1996, supports the completion of outstanding doctoral dissertations on architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society, exclusively targeting pre-doctoral architectural scholarship. It aims to recognize and support emerging scholars whose work is likely to challenge and change contemporary discourse and significantly impact the field. The Award is open to a wide array of academic disciplines and fields of inquiry that align with the Graham Foundation's mission, covering areas such as architectural history and theory, design, engineering, landscape architecture, urban planning, urban studies, visual arts, and other related fields. It assists students in graduate programs working on architecture topics, offering two types of awards: Research Award for students in the research stage and Writing Award for students in the writing stage of their doctoral dissertation. The Research Award provides up to $15,000, while the Writing Award provides up to $20,000. Applications are evaluated based on originality, potential impact, feasibility, and the applicant's capacity to complete the project.