The Elevate Grant offers $10,000 to $75,000 grants for arts organizations, individual artists, and creative businesses that produce culturally vibrant and diverse artistic content.
Donor Name: City of Austin
State: Texas
City: Austin
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/27/2023
Size of the Grant: $10,000-$75,000
Details:
The Elevate Grant program seeks to provide funding in support of arts and cultural organizations, individual artists, and arts groups that produce culturally vibrant and diverse artistic content for the public. This funding broadly supports the creative, administrative, and operational expenses incurred in the production of creative activities and events for the people of Austin and its tourists. This investment in Austin’s cultural producers will elevate the City’s diverse arts and culture tourism sector, amplify equity, and prioritize inclusive programming.
Priority will be given to those who have been at immediate risk of cultural erasure and displacement within Austin and/or have been institutionally marginalized and under-funded by the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division.
Key Elements
- Applicants must have a one-year history of operating in the cultural sector in the Austin metro area and must produce public arts/culture activities, within the Austin 10-1 districts and extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), that add to the City’s diverse arts and culture tourism sector.
- Applicants who prefer to work with a Fiscal Sponsor may do so. Fiscal Sponsorship will not be a requirement for applicants.
- Awards will be based on the application and alignment with the program’s funding priorities. Operational budget will not be the primary factor in determining award amounts.
Grant Priorities
Priority will be given to:
- Projects that invest in local artists
- Projects that engage in meaningful community-based partnerships
- Projects that elevate creative innovation
- Applicants and projects that demonstrate a measurable commitment to the equity goalsand principles of the City of Austin’s Equity Office through representation in leadership and program development
- Applicants who represent the diverse cultures of Austin, particularly those who are from backgrounds that have been historically under-represented in Austin’s Cultural Funding programs
Funding Information
The award amounts in Elevate range from $10,000 – $75,000.
What Elevate funds
While Elevate supports a breadth of creative projects, all projects funded by HOT revenue are required to:
- be open and advertised to Austin residents, visitors, and tourists
- promote and enhance Austin as a cultural destination
- occur in Austin or its ETJ
Eligible Activities
- Operations related to the applicant’s ability to produce public events
- Exhibitions
- Performances
- Workshops, classes, and camps that include a performance or exhibition that is open to and marketed to tourists
- Public art projects that are installed on public or private property and accessible to the public
Eligible Expenses
- Administrative and creative costs incurred in the preparation and implementation of cultural activities that are open to and marketed to tourists (including artists’ salaries)
- Costs related to improving the applicant’s ability to produce cultural events
- Insurance costs
- Subscription costs or license fees for software needed to complete contracted activities
- Fiscal sponsor fee, if applicable.
Eligibility Criteria
- 501(c) nonprofit arts organization
- An individual aged 18 or older with an annual operating budget $500,000 or less
- A creative business with an annual operating budget $500,000 or less
- May apply directly or with a fiscal sponsor
- Individual Artists and Creative Businesses, which include unincorporated arts groups, may apply for up to $25,000
- Applicant’s primary mission and over 51% of their body of work is the production, presentation, or promotion of arts and culture. This includes organizations that provide professional support to creatives
- One year of operating history in the Austin metropolitan statistical area (MSA) which includes Travis, Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, and Williamson Counties
- 51% or more of the application’s creative production is within the Austin 10-1 districts or extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ).
- Proposed activity meets all program requirements as outlined by the Hotel Occupancy Tax. All events are open to the public and marketed to tourists, or applicant is an arts service organization
- Applicants who are not receiving City funding for the same activities in the fiscal year in which they are applying.
For more information, visit City of Austin.
