Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts makes project-based grants to individuals and organizations and produces public programs to foster the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. Architecture and related spatial practices engage a wide range of cultural, social, political, technological, environmental, and aesthetic issues. We are interested in projects that investigate the contemporary condition, expand historical perspectives, or explore the future of architecture and the designed environment.

The Carter Manny Award supports dissertation writing by promising scholars whose projects have architecture as their primary concern and focus and have the potential to shape contemporary discourse about architecture and impact the field. Projects may be drawn from the various fields of inquiry supported by the Graham Foundation: architectural history, theory, and criticism; design; engineering; landscape architecture; urban planning; urban studies; the visual arts; and other related fields.The award assists students enrolled in graduate programs in architecture, art history, the fine arts, humanities, and the social sciences working on architecture topics.

The Graham Foundation offers Carter Manny Awards to support students at the writing stage of the doctoral dissertation. The writing award is acknowledged with up to $20,000.