Deadline: 31-Jul-23
The National Performance Network is seeking applications for the Southern Artists for Social Change program to provide $75,000 project grants to artists and culture bearers of color living, working, and engaging in social change in urban, rural, and tribal communities of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
The National Performance Network’s Southern Artists for Social Change (SA4SC) program envisions a world in which people of color living, working, and organizing for community change in the South have the power, resources, and opportunities to thrive. NPN’s mission is to contribute to a more just and equitable world by building artists’ power, advancing racial and cultural justice in the arts, fostering relationships between individuals, institutions, and communities, and working toward systems change in arts and philanthropy.
The grant is part of the Surdna Foundation’s Radical Imagination for Racial Justice initiative, which has partnered with eleven organizations nationwide to support artists of color working to advance racial justice within their local communities. As part of this initiative’s U.S. South learning cluster, Southern Artists for Social Change is a pilot program to expand NPN’s regional support beyond the local community in New Orleans, investing in the Deep South’s strong creative legacies and deep community-based practices.
Funding Information
- $75,000 grants per project. Grantees will receive $25,000 annually.
- Grant activity period runs from September 2023 until September 2025.
Eligibility Criteria
- Artists and culture bearers who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color (BIPOC) living, working, and engaging in social change in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
- Artists and culture bearers with demonstrated practice in any discipline.
- Individual artists as well as artist collectives may apply. Artist collectives must have a demonstrated history of creating new work collectively for at least two years.
- Applicants must be 18 years of age or older by the application deadline.
- Applicants must be AL, LA, or MS residents for at least five consecutive years at the time of both application and payment and must provide a valid state ID.
- Projects should demonstrate a civic practice process to
- identify specific community challenges or needs,
- imagine a different future for the community, and
- practice, test, or design approaches toward that future that center racial justice.
- While projects may be artist-driven, projects should include at least two community members (individuals, agencies, organizations) as collaborators who share a role in decision-making, shaping the project and project outcomes.
- Grants may support any phase of a project (research, development, production, etc.), including new initiatives or ongoing work, and a portion of funding should directly support the artist(s).
Who and What are Ineligible
- Nonprofit organizations, corporations, or other businesses
- Schools (elementary and high) or institutions of higher learning (e.g., college, university, technical and business school, or similar institutions offering a post-secondary level associate or higher degrees)
- Previous Southern Artists for Social Change recipients
- Recipients of NPN’s Creation Fund in the last three years (2021, 2022, or 2023)
- Artists under 18 years of age at the time of the application
- College or graduate students currently enrolled in a degree-granting program at the time of application or during the grant period.
- Current NPN staff, board members, or NPN Partners
- Curators and researchers
- Projects solely focused on creating new work for artists
Evaluation Criteria
- Relevance
- Articulates a clear, compelling community need.
- Articulates an imaginative vision that centers racial justice.
- Community Engagement
- Demonstrates civic practice, in which community members shape the process, share in the decisionmaking process, and have agency over the outcomes. The community’s role in identifying challenges, defining a vision for the community, and co-designing strategies are central to civic practice, rather than an artist conceiving a project and then implementing a strategy in the community.
- Demonstrates an understanding of, commitment to, and relationship with the community in which the project is centered.
- Collaboration and Partnership
- Includes a set of partners with the necessary resources (skills, networks, etc.) to lead the work.
- Demonstrates strong partnership among collaborators, with collective goals and outcomes.
- Strategy
- Is clear how the proposed activities make a bridge from challenges to solutions.
- Is clear how the arts and the contributions of artists/culture bearers inform and have a central role in the process and project.
- Has potential for long-term impact and continued engagement within the community.
- Project Management
- Project activities are realistic and feasible within the proposed timeline and budget.
- The budget reflects the project’s values, including equitable compensation for time and labor for artists and community members.
For more information, visit Southern Artists for Social Change.
