Arts and Cultural Equity Fellowship Grants
OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES
The Arts and Cultural Equity Fellowship grants program will support up to six emerging to mid-career creative artists and leaders – who work within or on behalf of communities of color – with grant funds and training to increase the impact of their work. A collaborative effort between Creative Sonoma staff, its advisors, and local arts and equity consulting group Kimzin Creative, this program is designed to promote cultural awareness and understanding of the diverse racial and ethnic communities that comprise Sonoma County.
The program includes three components:
- Grants to pursue each Fellow’s art work and/or leadership development
- Training – a series of workshops and marketing sessions on topics to help Fellows be more effective in their work (up to 20 hours of training during the grant period)
- Stipends to attend the trainings and offset costs associated with it (time off from work, transportation, childcare, etc.)
Additional benefits will include networking opportunities with:
- Other Fellows in the cohort
- Workshop presenters and program staff and consultants
- Other nonprofit organizations, as available
- Other community businesses and leaders, as available
IMPORTANT DATES
- Application Opens: Monday, January 23, 2023
- General Info & Application Workshops (via Zoom): Tuesday, February 7, 2023 at either 12:00pm or 7:00pm. A recording of the 7pm workshop is available HERE.
- Open Office Hours (via Zoom) – drop in any time to ask your application or grant-writing questions:
- Application DEADLINE: Monday, March 6, 2023 11:59pm PT
- Funding Notification: Late March 2023
- Funding Period: April – December 2023
- Fellows Community Presentation: Early 2024
GRANT AMOUNTS AND FEATURES
- $5,000* grant for advancing art work or leadership. This can include new creative work, documentation of new or existing work, registration and submission fees to art fairs, festivals, conferences, and trainings, creating social media sites to promote Fellow’s work or organization, etc.
- $1,250* to participate in up to 20 hours of training during February-December 2022 and to offset costs including transportation, missed or rescheduled work, childcare, etc.
- Professional development through training sessions with community experts. Training topics will be developed based on the participants’ needs but will likely include grant writing, budgeting, marketing, community engagement techniques, selling your work, etc.
WHO IS ENCOURAGED TO APPLY
- While all Sonoma County residents are encouraged to apply regardless of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender identity, religious creed, age, and any other protected basis, and there will be no preferences that are not available to all applicants, applicant artists, artisans, and/or arts and culture workers should ideally have a lived experience or an understanding or appreciation of the lived experiences of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities, or be interested in acquiring such an understanding or appreciation.
- Applicants are ideally emerging to mid-career creatives and are in the process of launching or expanding a professional career in arts or culture work.
- Applicants must be a full-time resident of Sonoma County, age 18 or older. Non-United States citizens are welcome to apply with work authorization in the United States.
See the Guidelines document (attached under “How to Apply”) for more detailed definitions for each of the above items, as well as for who will not quality to participate in this program.
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
Applications will be evaluated by a diverse panel of arts and culture workers (both local and non-local). Panelists will review and evaluate all application materials based on the following:
- The purpose and quality of the creative work or leadership to date
- The strength of the proposed activities and use of funding
- The potential impact on the applicant’s creative career advancement and their community.
APPLICATION PACKET & HOW TO APPLY
Read the guidelines in the Application Packet, which also lists all of the application questions along with instructions on answering them. Applicants will need to have or create an account in Submittable (creativesonoma.submittable.com/submit), our online application portal. Once the application opens on January 23, 2023, it will appear on Submittable. Applicants may utilize either the English or Spanish application.
CURRENT GRANTEES
QUESTIONS
Email CreativeSonoma@sonoma-county.org or call 1-707-565-6121.
Learn more about our program partner, Kimzin Creative.