The Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant honors traditional artists and encourages the continuation of Kentucky’s living traditional arts by funding mentor artists to teach skills and practices vital to their cultural heritage to less experienced artists within their communities.
Donor Name: Kentucky Arts Council
State: Kentucky
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 03/31/2026
Size of the Grant: $1000 to $10,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
Goals
- To provide an opportunity for the apprentice to advance toward excellence in the folk art form.
- To support the recognition and continuation of Kentucky cultural traditions.
Funding Information
- The Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant total is $4,000. This amount is intended to compensate the mentor’s and apprentice’s time to complete their work plan. The mentor receives $3,500 and the apprentice receives $500.
- All activities and expenses must occur between July 15, 2026, and June 30, 2027.
Program Support
The arts council staff will offer the following support to ensure program standards and goals are met:
- Assistance from arts council program directors in selecting appropriate program categories, and in answering questions about programs.
- Consultation regarding applicant eligibility, competitiveness for funding, budget issues, etc.
- Referrals to potential partners for programs.
Performance Expectations
Your application will be assessed using the following performance expectations.
- Excellence of the Mentor Artist
- Mentor artist’s practice of the traditional art form was learned in the folk community.
- Mentor artist’s work samples demonstrate artistic excellence as defined by the community.
- Mentor artist demonstrates an effective teaching plan based on apprentice’s potential.
- Excellence of the Apprentice
- Apprentice’s current skills in the traditional art form were learned in the community.
- Apprentice’s work samples demonstrate potential excellence and representation of the traditional art form.
- Apprentice’s capacity to share the traditional art form within the community and beyond.
- Apprenticeship Work Plan
- Work plan will advance the apprentice toward excellence in the art form with appropriate schedule of sessions and locations.
- Work plan addresses how the mentor artist will teach knowledge, techniques and stories about the art form to the apprentice.
- Plans for both the mentor artist and apprentice to document progress during the apprenticeship experience.
- Plans for the mentor artist and apprentice to share the traditional art form with their community or the public.
Who May Apply?
- A mentor artist 21 or older, and an apprentice 16 or older, apply together. Apprentices younger than 18 will require a legal guardian’s signature on the application.
- Applicant artists must be full-time residents of Kentucky for a period of one year immediately prior to the application deadline, and remain a resident of Kentucky for one year following award notification. Applicants must be United States citizens, lawfully admitted to the U.S. for permanent residence or have permission from the Department of Homeland Security to work permanently in the U.S.
Restrictions
Kentucky Arts Council grant funds may not be used for the following purposes:
- Purchase of equipment, property, library holdings or acquisitions.
- Capital improvements, facility construction, structural renovations and restorations.
- Publications or recordings for commercial purposes.
- Scholarships or other activities related to academic credit or degrees.
- Activities intended primarily for fundraising.
- Food, beverages or other refreshments.
- Requests designed to reduce or eliminate existing deficits.
- Interest on loans, fines, penalties and/or litigation costs.
- Expenses incurred before the starting date of the period covered in the grant request.
- Investments of any kind.
- Performances not available to the general public.
- Programs that have sectarian purposes.
- Costs such as utility bills (water, electric, gas); non-project (permanent/current) staff salaries or benefits; and rental for currently owned or leased properties (office space or other facilities, car payments and maintenance).
- Indirect costs unless 1) per a current federally-negotiated indirect cost rate agreement (official documentation required), or 2) “de minimus” indirect costs not to exceed 10 percent of total modified direct costs.
- The application of new artistic work to historic buildings or structures unless approved by the state historic preservation office as being in compliance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.
For more information, visit KAC.
