The Art of Community: Rural SC Grants Program is designed to support arts-based projects that engage rural communities throughout South Carolina.
Donor Name: South Carolina Arts Commission
State: South Carolina
County: Allendale County (SC), Bamberg County (SC), Calhoun County (SC), Edgefield County (SC), Hampton County (SC), Lee County (SC), Marlboro County (SC), Saluda County (SC), Union County (SC), Williamsburg County (SC)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 03/02/2026
Size of the Grant: $1000 to $10,000
Grant Duration: Less than 1 Year
Details:
This grant can also support partnerships between libraries and artists or arts organizations and encourage communities to participate in artistic and cultural activities. The project must serve the rural community in which the applicant is located.
Grant-funded activities should:
- expand community access to the arts in rural areas and
- include a public engagement component and
- engage a project steering committee to lead the project.
A project steering committee is the group of people who will be collaborating on and leading this project. This group should have a strong understanding of the project and the applicant organization.
The project steering committee is responsible for, but not limited to, providing advice and direction, setting the project timeline and budget, monitoring the quality of the project, evaluating and monitoring the success of the project, and defining project outcomes.
Funding Information
Up to $5,000.
Grant Period
August 11, 2025 – May 31, 2026.
Eligible Expenses
Grant funds must be used for actual project costs, defined as consumable and non-consumable items needed to complete the proposed project. Those might include but are not limited to:
- Artist residencies.
- Exhibitions.
- Digital projects.
- Arts festivals.
- Workshops.
- Community murals.
- Equipment (e.g., kilns, lighting or sound equipment, musical instruments, storage).
- Furniture (e.g., easels, music stands).
- Professional services (e.g., performance space rental, web designer, consultant fees).
- Artistic services (e.g., professional artists, muralists, performers, instructors, or presenters such as those listed on the S.C. Arts Directory).
- Performances that have a public engagement component.
- If you are hiring artists or teaching artists
- For all grant-funded activities (including group lectures, demonstrations, performances, residencies, and short-term arts teaching experiences), the use of S.C. Arts Directory members is required for school and school district grantees and encouraged for grantees that are organizations.
- Artists identified as Verified Teaching Artists on the S.C. Arts Directory have been additionally vetted by SCAC through the submission of sample lesson plans, recorded teaching samples, and letters of recommendation. For any grantee whose grant-funded activities are for K-12 student services, SCAC encourages the use of Verified Teaching Artists. Many school districts require the use of SCAC Verified Teaching Artists for classroom residencies. If working in a school environment, always check with both the individual school and the school district about policies related to hiring artists, arts organizations, and teaching artists.
Geographical Areas
Priority will be given to applicants located in one of the SCAC’s Opportunity Initiative Counties:
- Allendale
- Bamberg
- Calhoun
- Edgefield
- Hampton
- Lee
- Marlboro
- Saluda
- Union
- Williamsburg.
Eligibility Criteria
- The applicant must be
- a college or university; OR
- a unit of state or local government, OR
- a public library, public library authority, network of public library authorities, or organization managing a public library authority as defined under the Public Libraries & Museums Act 1964; OR
- a nonprofit organization
- currently registered as a charity with the S.C. Secretary of State’s Office Note: Applicants who are exempt from this registration must upload their registration exemption approval.
- reflecting S.C. as the primary address on all current official organizational documents
- with federal tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service
- applying through a tax-exempt fiscal agent/receiver organization Note: Applicants who are applying through a fiscal agent/receiver must submit a letter outlining the working relationship and responsibilities of both parties.
- The following are ineligible to apply:
- College/university libraries.
- Schools and school districts.
- Individual artists.
- Individual Commissioners and staff of the S.C. Arts Commission and members of their immediate families are not eligible to apply for any individual SCAC programs, grants, fellowships, or services that provide financial support or career recognition.
- In accordance with federal government policy, all organizations – including (but not limited to) private schools, public school districts, government entities, and nonprofit organizations – must provide a valid UEI number to receive an SCAC grant award.
For more information, visit SCAC.
