Applications are now open for 2026!
We’re fortunate to partner with the fine folks at the Durham Arts Council to bring the Emerging Artist Grant opportunity to Chatham County artists.
Funding opportunities for individual artists are rare—particularly in the performing arts—so this is pretty special.
Artists, if you’re in one of these two places in your artistic life, check out the guidelines and application:
- You’ve mastered the basic techniques of your art form, and you’re undertaking a project that will further your professional artistic career, or
- You’ve been a working artist for a long time, and you’re undertaking a project that will move you to a new stage in your professional artistic career.
If you have questions, drop us a line here.
Eligibility
Emerging Artist Grants are open to artists living in Chatham, Durham, Granville, Orange, and Person counties. To be eligible for an Emerging Artist Grant, you must have lived in one of the five partner counties at least a year, must be 18 years of age, and cannot be a student enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program in your art form.
Criteria for making the awards include the accomplishment and commitment of the artist, the feasibility of the proposed project, and the impact the project will have on the applicant’s career.
Application and Deadline
The 2025 grant application deadline is January 4, 2026. Lots of information—including online applications, guidelines, and information sessions via Zoom—is available at the Durham Arts Council’s website.
Past Recipients
Go ahead. Check out these Chatham County artists who have reached a new stage in their work over the years thanks to an Emerging Artist grant.
- Alexander Percy, Visual Artist
- Britt Flood, Painter
- Wendy Spitzer, Performance Artist
- Belle Boggs, Writer
- Allison Tierney, Painter
- Elisabeth Lewis Corley, Theater Artist
- Diali Cissokho, Musician
- Will Ridenour, Musician
- Matthew Ford, Photographer
- John Westmoreland, Musician
- Michael Lento, Photographer
- Ann Corley Silverman, Paper Artist
- Darren Kendrick Powers, Sculptor
Inspired? Maybe this is your year.