No strings attached
Usually when someone is awarded a grant, there are stipulations as to how the funding is spent and how long you have to spend it. Well there was recently two grants awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, as “genius grants” at $500,000 each, with limitations on how they spend the money or where. This is highly unusual because grants are awarded to people on certain guidelines or qualification, and the grant is to be spent accordingly, but with these “genius grants” the rules could change. There is nothing that prohibits the foundation from granting them that ability and they are confident that James Longley, a documentary filmmaker, and Heather McHugh, a poet, will spend their grants in responsible ways.
“This is a very special moment, and one has to be careful,” said Dan Socolow, director of the MacArthur Fellows Program, from his Chicago office.
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