Artists, Arts Orgs., Venues Urged To Apply For Durham Arts Council Recovery Grants
Durham, NC — Durham Arts Council (DAC) has launched the Arts Recovery Fund to support the arts community during this critical time. Every day the impact of COVID-19 on the Durham arts community escalates with canceled arts performances, classes, residencies, loss of ticket sales, loss of contract income, loss of arts employment, and closure of arts venues — creating a dire circumstance for the arts sector in Durham.
PNC Foundation, Duke University, Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, Triangle Community Foundation, and Manbites Dog Theater Fund have made lead gifts to the Arts Recovery Fund, and individual and corporate donors are also contributing. This support has been and will continue to be carefully distributed by DAC as quickly as possible through an online request process to arts organizations and artists that are experiencing dire impacts from the COVID-19 emergency. Online grant applications opened on April 6th and are still open to receive requests for arts community emergency funding. The DAC Arts Recovery Fund will be ongoing in 2020 to help our arts community recover during and after this time of COVID-19 crisis. The community is encouraged to GIVE SO THE ARTS CAN LIVE!
Durham Arts Council Arts Recovery Fund
The Durham Arts Council is working with private and public partners to provide immediate resources and long-term strategies to respond to the impact of COVID-19. All DAC Arts Recovery Fund proceeds will go directly to the Durham arts community impacted by COVID-19. Donors to the fund will be supporting a diverse community of local nonprofit arts organizations, artists, artist collectives, arts presenters, arts venues and arts businesses. The non-profit arts sector in Durham provides 5,722 jobs and economic impact of over $154.2 million annually.* The arts are a major part of what makes Durham vibrant and unique, and this sector is being critically impacted by Covid-19.
The application process and guidelines for the DAC Arts Recovery Fund are available online at:
ARTS RECOVERY FUND – INDIVIDUAL ARTIST APPLICATION (in English) / (Haga clic aquí para Español)
ARTS RECOVERY FUND – ARTS ORGANIZATION, VENUE, BUSINESS APPLICATION (in English) / (Haga clic aquí para Español)
Duke University to feature LiveStream Performances to Support the Arts Recovery Fund
Duke Arts, Duke Performances, and WXDU are partnering on a live stream series to take place on Facebook Live and Instagram Live via Duke Performances. In the weeks ahead, they’ll feature exceptional artists that are a part of the Duke Performances family each Wednesday evening. More info can be found here. All participating artists will be paid for their contributions to the series. Additionally, Duke partners will encourage viewers to give to both important fundraising efforts organized by local arts organizations — the Durham Arts Council Arts Recovery Fund and Northstar Church of the Arts’ Durham Artist Relief Fund — to directly support the Durham arts community.
The Durham Arts Council Arts Recovery Fund is working in coordination with the Durham Artist Relief Fund established by NorthStar Church of the Arts (on a GoFundMe platform). The two funds, although separate funds, will support, cross-promote, and coordinate with each other to maximize resources available to the arts community. The Durham Arts Council Arts Recovery Fund is critically important because DAC is able to expand the emergency resources by attracting and administering dollars on behalf of public and private funders that are not able to channel their support through a GoFundMe platform. Individual donors may give through either campaign or both.
Here are some of the other funds and resources available to assist artists and arts organizations:
Duke-Durham Fund grants to community groups, nonprofits and small businesses:
Artist Relief. Artist Relief will distribute $5,000 grants to US-based artists facing dire financial emergencies due to COVID-19;
List of resources for Free Lance Artists.
List of resources and advocacy efforts from Arts NC.
Impact Survey by Americans for the Arts – enter your impact to add to the compilation of national impact. Other Funds also linked here.
Actors Fund emergency financial assistance program helps eligible applicants in need. It is not income replacement, but limited funds for basic living necessities. The Actors Fund is also administering COVID19 Assistance programs for performing arts and entertainment unions including SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, Actors Equity Association, American Guild of Musical Artists, and Musicians Local 802.
About Durham Arts Council, Inc.
The Durham Arts Council (DAC) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that has supported the arts in Durham, NC, and the Triangle Region since 1954. Today DAC serves more than 400,000 visitors and program participants, 2,000+ artists, and 200+ arts and cultural organizations each year through classes, artist residencies, exhibits, festivals, grant programs, technical support and information, arts advocacy, creative economy, and creative place-making initiatives. Our Mission: Durham Arts Council, Inc. is a catalyst in the cultural development of Durham – it leads, inspires, and promotes excellence in and access to the creation, experience, and active support of the arts for all the people of our community. For more information visit www.durhamarts.org.
* Americans for the Arts – Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 study