The California Arts Council is inviting applicants for its Individual Artists Fellowship to support artists at key moments in their careers, elevating their capacity for continued contribution to the field and their state.
Donor Name: California Arts Council
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 01/26/2023
Size of the Grant: $800,000
Grant Duration: 1 year 9 months
Details:
The California Arts Council’s policies and practices prioritize racial equity and have a broad geographic reach into communities of all sizes and needs, and this includes providing critical services to artists and to the community at large. The CAC is committed to funding opportunities that support all of California’s creative ecosystem. Offering fellowship support to artists responds to the CAC’s Strategic Framework by directly supporting individuals who embody aesthetics, a key value of the CAC, recognizing all art forms and artistic traditions that enable full and meaningful creative expression. Through a network of regionally based Administering Organizations (AOs), the Individual Artists Fellowship (IAF) program will continue to recognize, uplift, and celebrate the excellence of California artists practicing any art form. In doing so, the CAC will showcase the centrality of artists’ leadership in guiding the evolution of our traditional and contemporary cultures. Excellence, for purposes of this grant, is defined as an artist’s
- Unique artistic vision
- Ongoing commitment to creative practice
- Engagement with and impact on the larger cultural ecosystem
Fellowship grants support individual artistic practice through unrestricted funding. This program is intended to support a broad spectrum of artists working in all disciplines, from diverse geographies and communities of all sizes across the state of California.
Funding Structure
Administering Organizations will regrant fellowship awards to provide unrestricted funding in support of the fellows’ artistic practice. The following three tiers of funding are available. (Awards will be funded at the full dollar amount for each tier, partial awards will not be made):
- CAC Emerging Artist Fellows – $5,000
- Emerging artists are those in the beginning stages of making their work public and engaging the larger community in their practice. Individuals at this career stage may have had a few public showings of their work, but do not yet have ongoing resources or support.
- CAC Established Artist Fellows – $10,000
- Artists in the Established tier regularly make their work public and engage the larger community in their practice. Individuals in this tier can give multiple examples of artistic and/or cultural works that have made significant social impact.
- CAC Legacy Artist Fellows – $50,000
- Artists in the Legacy tier can point to a significant body of work, produced over a substantial period of time, that has engaged their communities and that has made significant social impact. Artists in this tier may be able to point to Emerging and Established Artists that they have mentored or otherwise positively influenced. Each AO will make grants to a minimum of three fellows in each career tier.
Funding Information
Region IV: $800,000 – To serve Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Marin, Mendocino, Modoc, Mono, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Joaquin, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, Yolo, and Yuba counties.
Grant Activity Period
April 1, 2023 – December 31, 2024
Eligibility Requirements
The CAC is seeking applications from AOs with the capacity to administer fellowships to individual artists and culture bearers in all disciplines. The intention of this grant program is to provide as broad a geographic reach as possible and support artists in all 58 counties. Applicants must comply with the requirements below. All applications must include the listed items at the time of submission in order to be reviewed, ranked, and considered for funding.
- California-based – Documentation as being a California-based nonprofit arts/cultural organization; an arts-based unit of municipal or county government; or a tribal government, or nonprofit social service organization with a principal place of business in California
- Arts programming – Applicants must have a minimum two-year history of consistent engagement in arts programming and/or services prior to the application deadline.
- 501(c)(3) organization as applicant – Non-governmental applicant organizations must demonstrate proof of nonprofit status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or section 23701d of the California Revenue and Taxation Code.
- Local government – An arts-based unit of municipal or county government; or a tribal government
- Financial documentation – Applicants must provide a minimum of two years of basic financial information via the Budget Snapshot.
- Certificate of good standing – Nonprofit organizations must have “active status” with the California Secretary of State (SOS) showing evidence of “good standing” at the time of application. You can verify your organization’s status by conducting a search using the SOS online Business Search tool. An indication of “active” (versus “suspended,” “dissolved,” “canceled,” etc.) confirms that your nonprofit corporation exists, is authorized to conduct business in the State of California, has met all licensing and corporation requirements, and has not received a suspension from the Franchise Tax Board.
- Signatures on required attachments – Letters and other attachments requiring signatures must include completed digital or scanned signatures in order to be considered for funding. A blank signature field will not be accepted.
- Existing capacity in the following areas:
- Administering grant programs to individuals, including providing direct grant payments to artists and cultural practitioners
- Providing technical assistance to grant applicants; and
- Employing a robust online grants management system.
For more information, visit Individual Artists Fellowship.
