Announcing Cultural Sustainability: Operational Grants for Small Arts Organizations
By Elizabeth Snell
Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) is now accepting applications for Cultural Sustainability: Operational Grants for Small Arts Organizations, a pilot program that will offer grants of $50,000 to culturally driven arts organizations and arts-centric businesses with annual operating expenses under $500,000.
What is it? Cultural Sustainability: Operational Grants for Small Arts Organizations is a general operating grant pilot program that offers grants of $50,000.
Who can apply? Cultural Sustainability invests in culturally driven organizations with annual operating expenses under $500,000. Nonprofit organizations, fiscally sponsored organizations, federally recognized tribes, and arts-centric businesses can all apply for this grant.
Where? Your organization must be located and have an arts and culture presence in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, or the Native Nations that share this geography.*
When to apply? Applications are open now and close at 5:00 p.m. CST on January 10, 2025. Grants will be made in April 2025.
How to apply? View the grant guidelines, register for M-AAA’s office hours, and apply on M-AAA’s website at www.maaa.org/for-organizations/cultural-sustainability. Virtual office hours will be offered on most Wednesdays from 2:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. CT beginning November 6, 2024.
Guidelines and frequently asked questions will be available in English and Spanish.
* If your organization is located outside of M-AAA’s six-state region, you still may qualify for a Cultural Sustainability grant through another US. Regional Arts Organization. Learn more here.
About Cultural Sustainability
Cultural Sustainability is a new pilot grant program offered by the six U.S. Regional Arts Organizations (USRAOs) in partnership with The Wallace Foundation. It will give general operating support grants to arts and cultural organizations rooted in communities of color with annual operating expenses under $500,000.
In total, M-AAA will award 22 general operating grants across our six-state region of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas including the Native Nations that share this geography.
Over the 15-month pilot program, M-AAA will offer online, monthly workshops on topics focusing on long-term visioning and sustainability planning. Grantees will also be invited to join peer networking sessions and regular check-ins with M-AAA staff.
This opportunity is part of The Wallace Foundation’s Advancing Well-Being in the Arts initiative, which funds arts organizations rooted in communities of color to advance their well-being, enhance understanding of their contributions to community. Through this work, Wallace hopes to help to build a more equitable and sustainable arts ecosystem.
About Mid-America Arts Alliance
Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) strengthens and supports artists, cultural organizations, and communities throughout Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and beyond. To learn more about M-AAA grants, programs, exhibitions, and fellowships, visit www.maaa.org and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
About The Wallace Foundation
Based in New York City, The Wallace Foundation is an independent national philanthropy whose mission is to help all communities build a more vibrant and just future by fostering advances in the arts, education leadership, and youth development. Wallace aims to help solve problems facing the fields in which it works, benefiting both the organizations it funds directly and the broader field by developing credible, useful knowledge to inform policy and practice nationwide. Research commissioned and produced by the foundation is available without charge at www.wallacefoundation.org