California Arts Council Launches New Individual Artist Fellowships Program

Agency returns to individual artist funding for first time in 18 years; grants will support individual artistic practice through unrestricted funding

The California Arts Council has announced the opening of a new fellowship program intended to recognize, uplift, and celebrate California artists as part of its 2021 grant opportunities.

The Individual Artist Fellowships will support artists from a broad spectrum of artistic practices, backgrounds, geographies and communities, whose work addresses themes such as race, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. In doing so, the CAC will showcase the centrality of artists’ leadership in generating social impact and the evolution of our traditional and contemporary cultures.

The Individual Artist Fellowships will support artists, 18 years of age and older, at key moments in their careers, elevating their capacity for continued contribution to the field and our state. The grant identifies three career tiers at which artists may benefit from this support:

CAC Emerging Artist Fellows – $5,000 per award (approximately 70 artists to be supported)Artists with between two and four years of artistic practice.  
CAC Established Artist Fellows – $10,000 per award (approximately 50 artists to be supported)Artists with between four and 10 years of artistic practice.
CAC Legacy Artist Fellows – $50,000 per award (approximately 10 artists to be supported)Well-established artists with 10 or more years of artistic practice.

The application and further details for the 2021 Individual Artist Fellowships opportunity can be found at https://arts.ca.gov/grant_program/individual-artists-fellowship.

Applications are due April 1, 2021.

More information for grant applicants, plus informational workshops, webinars and more are here: https://arts.ca.gov/grants/resources.

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