Applications Open! Get Support for your Radically Ridiculous Midterm Election Project

We’re helping you realize bold, strategic, and spectacular pro-voting election projects for the midterms.

Fill out the brief application below by midnight ET on Sunday, September 13. We’ll be selecting up to 10 projects to receive:

• Training in tactical frivolity from experts in the field
• Individual mentorship to help take your project to the next level
• $1000 minigrants to support your project’s financial needs
• Connection to a national network to promote and advance your work

• Doing election protection and voter turnout work this fall, including: leaders and staff at advocacy organizations, members of community groups, and individual organizers and artists
• Working in communities facing especially high challenges to voting
• Interested in bringing strategic humor, spectacle, and play into serious pro-voter work

Looking for project ideas and tactical frivolity basics? Head here.

We’ll be reviewing applications according to these criteria:

• Focus and Clarity: Is the project clear in the people it’s trying to reach and the specific nonpartisan voting objective it’s trying to accomplish? Is it countering a major barrier to the midterms being free and democratic?
• Ingenuity and Impact: Does it center a tactically frivolous or otherwise strategically absurd idea? Do we see it succeeding and making a big splash?
• Ambition and Feasibility: Does it push the boundaries of what pro-voting activism can be, while seeming possible to achieve according to the timeline and resources laid out in the application?

Application

We’re looking for the best ideas vs. the best writing. We encourage you to be bold, honest, and brave. Together we know we can win big!

If you have any issues with the form or questions about the application, reach out.

Program Timeline

Program Focuses

Projects should focus on mobilizing and/or protecting voters. Of course Election Day could be a focus, but there are so many opportunities to support the vote throughout the fall. Here are a few dates you could consider:

What is tactical frivolity?

Tactical frivolity* uses humor, absurdity, and play to ridicule power and move people to act against it. It’s tactical because it works: it gets tons of attention, it’s surprising and weird enough that the police state doesn’t know what to do with it (and so usually doesn’t use force against it), and it’s taken down authoritarian regimes around the world. You’ve probably seen it this year with the frogs and unicorns standing up to ICE. It made us laugh and kept us fighting, even against the biggest bullies.

The claims being made against the upcoming elections are just as absurd, and they demand all of our ridicule. Let’s make it tactical, too. Let’s laugh our way to safe elections, play ourselves into huge voter turnout numbers, and have the best time getting our country back on track.

(*People call this all kinds of things. Laughtivism, causeplay, serious play, tactical performance — pick your fave or make your own. We’re here for it all.)

How will this actually help the midterms?

We’re going big on spectacle because in this moment, it’s strategic.

One thing our friends at the ACLU have been thinking about is ICE at the polls. We don’t know if ICE or other bad actors will be there, but actual presence, fear of presence, or lies about ICE presence could all significantly depress turnout.

So what if we throw the most spectacular, visually-dynamic, and tactically frivolous parties by polling sites? This would totally shift the narrative around what’s happening at voting locations. The amazing visuals would spread through earned and social media, countering fear and changing narratives about what it means to vote in 2026. People would be reassured that it’s safe for them to go to the polls, and they would have so much more fun making their voices heard.

That’s just one example of how tactical frivolity can help this fall.

Program Trainers and Mentors

Leaders on the Center for Artistic Activism Staff, including Steve Lambert, Rachel Gita Karp, and Krystal Barrett, will be providing support along with:

L.M. Bogad, Senior Mentor of Electoral Tactical Performance

Award-winning artist, author of Tactical Performance, and famous dancing mailbox

Mark Kendall

Comedian and co-founder of CoolCoolCool Productions, whose work has appeared on Comedy Central, HBO, NPR, and more, and who’s fought for fair districts in the funniest of ways

Ian Madrigal

Activist, filmmaker, and creator of some of the most unforgettable political interventions of the last decade (aka Monopoly Man)