Artist Resources

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CARES Act Emergency Grants

As part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), which became law on March 27, 2020, the National Endowment for the Humanities received $75 million to protect at-risk humanities positions and projects at museums, libraries and archives, historic sites, colleges and universities, and other cultural nonprofits that have been financially impacted by the coronavirus. As of May 29th grants have been distributed and each following month there are more opportunties for cultural organizations to apply for grants.

Artist Booster Grant

Two $500 unrestricted grants to support artists and their ongoing work in these challenging times. Organized by A View from the Inside Out, a mentor-mentee program that builds community art projects while advocating for ethical labor policies and practices. For more information on A View, please visit: www.brucemckaig.com

Open to all artists. Period.

Deadline to apply: May 15 2020

Awards Announced: May 29 2020

Artist Relief Fund

Artist Relief will distribute $5,000 grants to artists facing dire financial emergencies due to COVID-19; serve as an ongoing informational resource; and co-launch the COVID-19 Impact Survey for Artists and Creative Workers, designed by Americans for the Arts, to better identify and address the needs of artists.

Nomu Nomu

Nomu Nomu is an arts curatorial project that has provided an excellent site of resources including:

Events Calendar Voluntering Activists Resources Direct Giving Rent Strike

Mental Health Visual Artists Resources Resource Guide Suggested Reading

Maryland State Arts Council

Emergency Grant for Independent Artists. On Rolling Deadline.

Unemployment opens up to self-employed gig workers (aka most artists) on Friday, April 24.

The Department of Labor will be launching a new one-stop unemployment insurance application for the self-employed, independent contractors, gig economy workers, etc. Those eligible for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program will be able to submit applications online and receive benefits retroactive to their earliest date of eligibility.To get notified when this program opens, sign up for email updates on the Labor website.

Baltimore City COVID-19 Small Business Assistance Initiative

Small Business Assistance Fund Grants: The Baltimore Development Corporation is now accepting grant applications for the Small Business Assistance Fund until May 15, 2020 at 11:59 PM.

Manufacturing of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Fund Grants: The Baltimore Development Corporation is administering a $100,000 grant fund to assist Baltimore City manufacturers with start-up costs related to the production of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Request for PPE: The City of Baltimore has allocated funds for the procurement of locally-made personal protective equipment (PPE) for city staff and agencies. Baltimore Development Corporation is seeking proposals from Baltimore City-based manufacturers currently making PPE.

Americans for the Arts

CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE AND RESPONSE CENTER

Up-to-date news and highly detailed and extensive resources for the arts and culture field.

Creative Capital

Creative Capital has shared a list of resources for artists including national grants, workshops, and events that have been moved online. Please click the link above and share with your friends and network of creatives. Highly recommended site and organization.

Ways to Support the Arts and Artists

Here is a link to various ways to donate, adovate and support the arts industry and the individuals that fuel it.

Creative Youth Development

The CYD Toolkit Series is a virtual learning series featuring dynamic online conversations with youth, experts, funders and practitioners to explore new paths forward for supporting youth through creative youth development practice.

Practitioners will especially benefit from these conversations as they strive to support youth during this moment of crisis.

Upcoming Webinars

Advocacy and Policy: Wednesday April 8, 1:00–2:00pm ET
Preparing Artists and Educators: Tuesday April 28, 1:00–2:00pm ET
Funding, Sustainability, and Partnerships: Friday May 29, 1:00–2:00pm ET
Program Evaluation: Tuesday June 23, 1:00–2:00pm ET

Recordings of Past Webinars

Working With YouthTrends in CYDWorking in Social JusticeCYD and Social Justice in the Classroom

A Letter from Artists U


Dear artists,
This is what we train for.This moment is a health crisis, a brutal one. It is also a crisis of meaning. It is a crisis of connection, of story. It is a crisis of who we are to each other and the agreements that hold us together. And those are things we artists know how to work on.The script for how we will be together in this time has not been written. Artists will have a huge impact on that story.My longtime dance collaborators and I used to say: All our art making and community building are really just basic training for some future moment of crisis. We were strengthening muscles for the rupture or emergency to come. And here we are.
Your skills are sorely needed.If you mostly hang out with artists, you might think your skills as an artist are normal. They are not. Few people have the range, depth of practice, and follow-through to discover and manifest new visions.
Artists navigate the unknown. We go in our studios and ask new questions, pushing away from shore and into uncertainty. In this time of roiling uncertainty, we know how to stay awake and responsive, and how to help others do the same.
Artists build possible futures. This moment desperately needs futures beyond the sobering medical news and the jarring contortions of policies and markets.
We are connectors, conveners, community builders.
We understand rhythm, flow, and negative space. Not everything we do right now needs to be doing. Silence is a way of telling. Stillness is movement.
We bear witness. We listen to and reveal what it is like to be alive right now.
We use what we have on hand to build what we need. We make sculptures from discarded materials, dances out of everyday gestures, music from found sounds. At a time when many are lamenting what is being taken away, we know how to begin with what we have.
We create the images and songs and dances and stories that are needed, that comfort and challenge and inspire, that return us to our deeper selves or urge us forward into transformation.
We build alternative economies based in collaboration, barter, D.I.Y. resourcefulness, and repurposing what others do not value.
We challenge assumptions and reframe the world. How we see this current emergency and how we see ourselves within it will determine how we emerge from it. Artists look past the noise to deeper, more radical possibilities.
I don’t know what your art is. I don’t know your connections to community. But wherever you are, I call on you to unleash your practice as an artist and maker and re-imaginer.
In this crisis of meaning, you are first responders.You don’t need to save the world. You need only carry your gifts and skills into this present challenge. A concert out your window. A public ritual you and your neighbors can do from your front steps. An expressive moment added to an online conversation. A project to mourn what is lost, a project to invite what is yet to come.Use your collaboration skills to organize your neighbors, or your D.I.Y. skills to build something from nothing. Or declare these weeks of separation an artist residency.
Make the art this moment needs.May we be completely safe with our health and bold as all hell in our practice.This is what we train for.
yours, andrew simonet


The Economic Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the Arts and Cultural Sector

On January 20, 2020, the first coronavirus patient in the United States was confirmed. This survey is designed to collect information about the financial and human impacts that the spread of the coronavirus have had on arts and cultural organizations and artists since that date. The survey also collects basic information about the participating organizations and artists so that the data can be parsed by specific geographic regions, artistic disciplines, and budget categories. Thank you in advance for spending five minutes to fill it out!

Wake Up Everybody: Healing and Care Series

Join the 30-day Virtual Series beginning Sunday, March 29th at 7AM and ending on Monday, April 27th at 8AM. The series will include 30 VIRTUAL webinars that will take place over zoom video conference lead by healers/experts from a variety of disciplines. Each healer will lead a one hour session from 7AM - 8AM, and will guide participants through an experience that will educate, empower and expand their LIGHT.

MSAC COVID-19 State of Emergency Statement & Resources

Sub links below. MSAC has made a great and expansive list that includes:

Creative Conversations

Virtual content-list: online events, shows, classes

MSAC Program Grants

Economic Injury Disaster Loan Project

Relief Funding

Unemploment Insurance

Resource List

Maryland Government Resource