COVID-19 Arts Resilience Grant for FY22

By Jared Morrison, Director of Performing Arts –

The Tennessee Arts Commission is excited to announce that its popular and impactful Special Opportunities: COVID-19 Arts Resilience Grant, a program created last year in direct response to the coronavirus pandemic, will return in Fiscal Year 2022. Applications open on September 15 for projects occurring October 15, 2021, through June 15, 2022.

This opportunity provides non-matching funds ranging from $500 to $5,000 (paid on a reimbursement basis) to nonprofit organizations and entities of local governments to support creative responses to COVID-19 through the arts. Through this program, the Commission invested over $370,000 in FY2021 for a wide variety of projects reflecting the ingenuity and resilience of our state’s creative sector. Some examples of funded activities included

• Purchasing equipment to facilitate neighborhood and community outreach concerts;
• Supporting after-school student learning resources delivered virtually;
• Producing recordings for distribution to hospitals and nursing homes;
• Purchasing equipment used to create video recordings for online, virtual concerts;
• Converting productions of a play/musical/concert from an in-person experience to a virtual setting;
• Paying artists/performers to present interactive virtual concerts for students and community members;
• Presenting online festivals/conferences;
• Engaging Tennessee writers to create works inspired by the pandemic;
• Purchasing equipment/supplies for a mobile stage to be used for virtual and live performing arts and other artistic programming;
• Creating new, interactive, online musical experiences inspired as a response to the pandemic;
• Paying artists/performers and other expenses to produce Covid-safe outdoor concerts.

Like last year, current grantees, including organizations receiving operating support, are eligible to apply for a Special Opportunities Grant as long as the proposed project is a separate and distinct project not currently funded under other Commission grant programs during FY22. The Commission also encourages submissions from new applicants that meet eligibility requirements.

For more information or to begin an application, please visit the Special Opportunities – COVID-19 Arts Resilience Grant guidelines or contact your program director directly.