Rhizome — the pioneering organization dedicated to born-digital art and internet culture — opened its commissions program this year, funding the creation of new work made for and of the digital realm. Founded in the 1990s and affiliated with the New Museum, Rhizome has spent decades championing net art, software art, and internet-native practice, and stewarding one of the field’s most important archives through its digital-preservation work. Its commissions support artists making pieces that live online or in software — browser-based works, net art, apps, and experimental digital forms — a corner of the field with a much longer history than the current AI-art moment suggests.
Watch: Rhizome and the New New Museum (YouTube)
A different, older lineage of digital art
Much of today’s conversation about digital art centers on AI image and video tools, but Rhizome represents a distinct and older tradition: art made for the internet itself, treating the browser, the network, software, and online culture as the medium rather than the distribution channel. That lineage — net art, glitch, software art, the poetics and politics of the web — is exactly what Rhizome has championed and preserved since the early days. For artists working in that vein, its commissions are one of the few dedicated sources of support and one of the most credible platforms, distinct from the residencies, festivals, and prizes elsewhere on this site’s community beat.
Preservation as part of the mission
What makes Rhizome unusual is that it pairs commissioning new work with preserving the field’s history — its digital-preservation initiatives keep born-digital and net-based artworks alive as browsers, platforms, and formats decay and disappear. That dual role, supporting the new while safeguarding the fragile past, reflects a hard truth about digital art: without active stewardship, work made for the internet vanishes as the internet changes. For applicants, it means engaging with an organization that thinks seriously about the medium’s longevity. As with the other open calls this site tracks, prospective artists should review the current program’s focus, eligibility, and deadlines on Rhizome’s site, and explore its archive to understand the tradition the commissions extend.