New tubes of acrylic paint. Photo by 2023-24 Arts + Equity artist Onicas Gaddis.
Welcome to our Arts + Equity Opportunity!
¡Bienvenidos a nuestra Oportunidad de una Subvención de Artes + Equidad! ¿Prefiere leer en español?
In response to an arts landscape that doesn’t yet reflect the demographics of Chatham County, we’ve raised $7,500 specifically for funding projects by Black and Brown, super-rural, and disabled artists in the 2024-25 season. These are responsive funds ranging from $250 to $2,500. There’s no deadline, so you can apply any time money’s still available. If you apply by the 15th of any given month, you’ll hear back the following month.
We understand that a $250 application needs to be short and sweet, and we’ve talked with artists of multiple disciplines in an effort to make this application as artist-friendly as possible. We estimate that it’ll take you between 20 and 50 minutes to complete.
Applications are open as of Thursday, September 26. Take a look at the (very short) eligibility and reporting requirements, and consider what might help you make your work happen. And then submit your proposal here!
Eligibility Requirements:
There are just two:
- You are a performing, visual, or literary artist or arts-worker living in Chatham County, North Carolina.
- You identify in at least one of the following three ways: (1) As Black, Brown, BIPOC, Hispanic, Latine, Asian, Middle Eastern, Indigenous American, or Pacific Islander; (2) As a person with one or more visible or invisible disabilities, or (3) As a resident of a super-rural community in Chatham with a total population of fewer than 4,000 folks.
Reporting Requirements:
There’s just one here: You’ll share with us five photos (captions included) of your art-making process via our online form. We’ll feature those photos in a public process-sharing about all our Arts + Equity artists, and they’ll serve to document your work.
Funding process and timeline:
- Applications available online: Thursday, September 26
- Application submission rolling deadline: You can apply at any time while funding lasts!
- Panel review: Monthly
- Funding Announcements: The 15th of each month. (For example, if you apply by October 15, you’ll hear by November 15.)
Questions You Might Have:
- Who can I contact if I have access or accessibility challenges with completing the application online? Please reach out to our Investing in Artists Program Manager, Heather O’Shaughnessy, via email here. If a phone call is better for you, please call Heather at 301-801-0671.
- What level of funding is available? We have $250 opportunities, $500 opportunities–and one $2,000 opportunity that we’ll award in May to one of the Arts + Equity artists from this season.
- Can I apply on behalf of a collaborative group? Yes! You may apply as an individual artist–or as a collaborative group. If you are a collaborative group, at least one member of the group must reside in Chatham County.
- What types of funding can I/we request? We’re not putting a lot of restrictions around this, because you know what you need to make your arts work better than we do. Here are some possibilities, but don’t rule something out just because you don’t see it in this list. You could apply for dollars to fund: small stipends for actors to perform a reading of your new script, rehearsal space for your ensemble’s new dance work, materials like brushes or canvases or fabric, technology like playwriting or design software, the final few hundred bucks to buy a kiln, studio time to record your new solo album, a babysitter or time away from a day job to give you uninterrupted creative time toward a specific project, a few hours of coaching, marketing materials . . .
- Will Arts + Equity be evaluated based on financial need or artistic merit? Artistic merit will be part of the evaluation, but financial need will not be.
- Who will own the rights to work created with the Arts + Equity funds? Artists will retain ownership of their work.
- Who will evalute the proposals? We’ll have a small panel, including at least one panelist who identifies as part of each of the three areas of identity eligible for this season’s Arts + Equity.
- How will you ensure that Arts + Equity supports some Black and Brown artists, some artists with disabilities, AND some super-rural artists? Great question. As we did last season (our first Arts + Equity year!), we intend to manage funding in a way that allows us to fund at least two proposals that include artists who identify as BIPOC, at least two proposals that include artists with disabilities, and at least two proposals that include super-rural artists this season. If we haven’t received any proposals from a community for whom we’re holding dollars by March 15, we’ll revisit previously unfunded proposals at that time.
Submit your proposal here!
PS: Special thanks to these folks for helping making Arts + Equity possible in our community . . .
Anonymous Family Donor
PS again: Thanks also to these folks for supporting the behind-the-scenes work to make this effort possible . . .
