SOURCE: News release from Indiana Arts Commission
(Indianapolis, Indiana) Arts Midwest announced today that it is partnering with peer United States Regional Arts Organizations to distribute funds from a $10 million emergency investment from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The fund will prioritize organizations that are led by and serving people of color and Indigenous people, and/or led by and serving people from rural communities (a community with a population of 50,000 or less).
The impact of COVID-19 has created incredible financial obstacles for the arts, with some estimates placing losses for the sector at $6.8 billion – the equivalent of a 26 percent deficit for organizations in the field over the course of just one year. These losses exacerbate deep, existing inequities present across the Midwest and the nation. Historically under-resourced communities and organizations now face an additional lack of access to critical support, investment, and capitalization to weather the pandemic, putting their work acutely at risk.
Each of America’s six Regional Arts Organizations, a national collective of place-based nonprofit arts service organizations, will be receiving allocations of the $10 million United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund. Arts Midwest will work with its state arts agency partners, including the Indiana Arts Commission, to distribute more than $1.5 million among small and mid-sized 501(c)3 arts organizations in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin and the Native nations that share this geography by September 2020.
Anyone may nominate an arts organization to receive a $30,000 – $75,000 award by filling out a simple online form between June 15th and July 8th, 2020.
Organizations may also self-nominate to support their own work. Arts Midwest will work with its partner state arts agencies to put together diverse advisory panels who will review all submissions, and invite a selected number of the nominated organizations to submit brief proposals. In Indiana, Arts Midwest will be working with the Indiana Arts Commission.
For more information on the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund nomination guidelines and awarding process, please visit the Arts Midwest website.