The Fulbright-Kennedy Center Fellowship for Performing Arts and Science

The program provides an opportunity for a Fulbright visiting scholar to connect with artists, staff, educators, and audiences at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. This fellowship is made possible through a partnership between the U.S. Department of State and the Kennedy Center’s departments of International Programming and Arts and Wellbeing. The award was established to support research and innovative multidisciplinary projects addressing the connection between the performing arts, the environment, health, and wellbeing from the point of view of artists and/or scientists. Wellbeing can be defined as communal wellbeing (focusing on climatology, sociology, anthropology, etc.) or individual wellbeing (tapping into medical fields such as neurobiology, psychology, audiology, kinesthesiology, etc.).
The selected Fellow will work with the Kennedy Center’s departments of International Programming and Arts and Wellbeing as an advisor and partner to develop a project that focuses on the intersection of performing arts, science, and wellbeing that will inform or reflect work being done at the Kennedy Center. The Fellow will have access to performances, rehearsals, special events, Kennedy Center programmers, artistic advisors, artists, staff of the education department and administrative staff as requested and approved. They will also be able to utilize connections that the Center has with other institutions, including but not limited to: NIH, The SoundHealth Network, Johns Hopkins University, and environmental organizations. The Fellow will be a part of the Kennedy Center team while in residence, with the hope that their work will influence what the Center presents and how it operates in the years to come. Strong applicants will be emerging or established experts in their fields, self-motivated, with experience and projects in the arts and/or sciences that align with the Kennedy Center’s mission, values, and goals.

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Photo by: Richard Barnes

• Outstanding academic and/or professional achievements.
• Leadership qualities.
• Demonstrable ambassadorial skills required to promote mutual understanding between the United States and Israel (Fulbright Scholars serve as cultural ambassadors and should be prepared to speak about their countries, communities, cultures and research to academic and community groups).
• English language proficiency is an important evaluation criterion.

• Grantees must travel on a J-1 Exchange Visitor visa sponsored by the Fulbright program.
• It is a condition of the visa that upon expiration of their exchange visitor status, grantees must return to Israel and reside in the country for two years before being eligible to immigrate to the U.S., to return to that country as permanent residents or to enter the U.S. with a work permit. The purpose of the two-year home residency requirement is to ensure that exchange visitors return home and fulfill the exchange objectives of the Fulbright program.
• Holders of J-1 student visas who have departed from the United States after a stay of six or more months must remain abroad for at least twelve months before being allowed to re-enter the United States with a J-1 professor/research scholar visa.   There is no such limitation to re-entry to the United States as the holder of a J visa in another category (short-term scholar, specialist, international visitor), or as the holder of a student or tourist visa.
• Dependents of grantees will enter the US as holders of J-2 visas. Many conditions applying to the grantees as holders of J-1 visas, such as the two-year home residency requirement, also apply to the holders of J-2 visas.
• Program fellows who enter the U.S. as J-1 visa holders must receive a special waiver in order to change their visa status to J-2 while in the United States.  The Department of State does not support such change of status requests.
• Awards cannot be deferred to the following academic year.