Funding intended to provide direct relief to artists impacted by pandemic and natural disasters
BATON ROUGE – The Louisiana Office of Cultural Development’s Division of the Arts (LDOA) will open the application period for Individual Artist Relief Grants starting Monday, March 29, 2021. The purpose of this grant is to provide relief directly to individual Louisiana artists impacted during the current pandemic or other natural disasters affecting our state in 2020. The deadline to submit an application is Friday, April 16, 2021.
“Working artists in Louisiana are crucial to the mission of the Louisiana Division of the Arts, and to the culture of our state – culture that Feeds You Soul,” said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser. “We recognize that the pandemic and the natural disasters Louisiana experienced in 2020 greatly impacted the career and livelihoods of our artists to a great extent.”
The LDOA is partnering with the nine Regional Arts Councils around Louisiana to administer these grants. The grant applications will be collected by LDOA and each Regional Arts Council will review the applications and select recipients for funding. Grant award amounts will be up to $1,500 each. Funding is limited and grants will be awarded based on eligibility criteria until funding capacity is reached in each region.
Eligibility criteria for the Individual Artist Relief Grant include:
- The artist/applicant must be an individual artist, defined as one who is dedicated to producing artwork on a regular basis, for at least the past year, as a means of generating income and is able to provide at least 2 of the following:
- Link to professional website or social media account
- Uploaded resume/CV/brief bio
- Uploaded examples of work (at least 3 examples)
- The artist/applicant must be able to describe how they have lost income as a working artist due to COVID-19 or other natural disasters that affected our state in 2020.
- The artist/applicant must be 18 years of age or older.
- The artist/applicant must be a resident of the state of Louisiana.
- The artist/applicant must not be a current board member, honorary committee member, major funder, staff member, or immediate family member of such a person of the Regional Arts Council administering this grant.
- The artist/applicant cannot apply on behalf of any organization, collective, company, band, group, and/or ensemble.
All applicants selected for funding must provide a valid ID, proof of residency, as well as a W-9.
To apply, individual artists must create an account in our online grant platform Submittable. Once an account is created, the application and guidelines can be accessed through the Louisiana Office of Cultural Development Grant applications manager.
Information and resources for the arts sector during the crisis are available at the Louisiana Division of the Arts Creative Relief webpage. For more information on Louisiana Division of the Art’s grants programs and other services, visit the agency’s website at louisianaarts.org. Artists can also contact the Regional Arts Council serving their area with further questions. Find the contact information for your council on the LDOA’s Regional Arts Council webpage.
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