Deadline: 31-Mar-22
The Arts Work Fund for Organizational Development has announced AWF EXPLORE Grants. Explore grants provide arts organizations who have fully developed ideas with the resources to test and implement the concept. These grants hope to foster the creativity and risk-taking that is essential to creating new and better ways of operating in the current COVID-19 world and addressing some of the aspects of arts organizations that were not working well before the pandemic. Priority will be given to projects that have maximum potential benefit for the organization and the field.
Adapt to Change. Address Challenges. Focus on Equity.
- THINK – EXPLORE – SHARE offers grants to enable arts organizations – or collaborative groups of arts organizations – to identify and test what they can do in the here and now to adapt to challenges posed by COVID-19, or challenges that hampered them before the pandemic (e.g., lack of equity and accessibility for artists of color and artists with disabilities, declining ticket sales).
- Challenges identified for support can be managerial, production, technological, fiscal planning, and artistic. (If you are seeking a grant for an artistic project, the project should be in service of the organization as a whole, versus in support of a specific piece of work, and have a social engagement goal or address a community issue or need). The goal is to cultivate unconventional thinking to address the immediate challenges of COVID-19 and devise more effective ways for arts organizations to meet their desired outcomes.
Criteria for EXPLORE Grants:
- Clear identification of challenges to be address.
- A clear and appropriate plan that informs implementation.
- Appropriateness of the proposed budget.
- The capacity of the organization to carry out the project.
- Methods for tracking process and progress.
- A system for assessing the potential impact on the organization(s).
- Potential to impact the organizations(s).
- Potential to inform the field.
Who’s Eligible to Apply?
- The applicant organization must have an arts-based mission.
- A current IRS 501(c) (3) public charity designation determination letter.
- Arts organizations led by, for, and about black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), with operating expenses of $2 million and below.
- Any arts and culture organization with operating expenses of $800,000 and below.
- Located in and serving Chicago and Cook County.
- If a former Arts Work Fund grant recipient, you must have submitted a final report for previous grant activities.
For more information, visit https://artsworkfund.org/explore.html
