Illinois Humanities is excited to announce Foreground Rural Initiative! A new multi-year project that seeks to strengthen the civic fabric of the state by amplifying the voices and lifting up the experiences of rural residents and their communities through the arts and humanities.
Donor Name: Illinois Humanities
State: Illinois
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 08/15/2022
Grant Size: $10,000
Grant Duration: 2 years
Details:
As a statewide nonprofit, Illinois Humanities’ mission is to activate the humanities throughout all of Illinois, particularly for counties and towns in rural areas and small arts and cultural organizations.
The goals of this three-year effort are:
- Provide grant-funding to rural Illinois communities to support humanities, arts organizations and projects that facilitate civic engagement. Learn more about grant opportunities and apply here.
- Strengthen humanities and arts organization through capacity building, community building, and peer skill sharing over the course of three years.
- Pilot a community-based “hubs” strategy intended to systemically bolster and highlight the existing arts and humanities work taking place in rural communities across Illinois while helping to foster and activate community connections, collaboration, and artistic and civic engagement.
- Strengthen existing partnerships with rural organizations and initiate new ones using an equity-and need-based rubric for applications from organizations that serve and/or represent Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), immigrant, youth, geographically isolated communities, and predominantly low- income communities.
- Explore new partnerships with national, state and local agencies and organizations to deepen our impact and expand our outreach in rural communities.
Funding Information
The Foreground Rural Initiative Grants opportunity, part of the Foreground Rural Initiative, consists of two-year General Operating (unrestricted) grants of $10,000 to groups and $5,000 to individuals doing cultural work in rural communities in Illinois.
What kind of groups are eligible?
Certainly humanities, cultural, and arts groups qualify. But so do public libraries, public high schools, chambers of commerce, civic groups, groups doing economic development, and others, providing that cultural work is an area they value and consider a core part of their current strategy. Applicants must be tax exempt organizations (though not necessarily 501c3) and based in the state of Illinois. (Note that for-profit businesses are not eligible for direct grants, though they may certainly be partners in this work!)
For more information, visit Illinois Humanities.
