Applications for Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture’s annual Community Arts Grants program are now open. Grant support is available to arts and culture organizations seeking general support and to organizations and groups seeking funding for arts and cultural projects that serve Phoenix residents.

The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture’s General Support program strengthens the community’s access to arts and culture programming. The General Support program provides core operating support to arts and cultural organizations of all sizes that have a primary mission to create, produce, or provide arts and cultural programming to enhance the quality of lives for Phoenix residents. The Project Support program supports guest artist fees/expenses, production fees, and marketing expenses for in-person, socially-distanced, and/or virtual projects that engage Phoenix residents, including but not limited to, arts workshops, pop-up performances, and collaborations with artists.

See a timetable of the grants process and register for a one-on-one virtual appointment with grants staff to discuss your application.

Grant review panelists needed! The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture seeks knowledgeable individuals to serve as grant review panel members. Panelists are critical to the integrity of the grants process, and include laypersons as well as artists, arts professionals, and educators, each representing different points of view and various cultural orientations. Grant panels will be convened virtually this year, and will be open to the public, as they are every year.

To learn about the full responsibilities and commitment, and to express interest to participate, visit www.phoenix.gov/arts/panelist.

Arts Attorney Sarah Conley Odenkirk returns to dive deeper into copyright law on March 18, 2021. This free online workshop gives artists the opportunity to build on the previous business and legal workshops.

Artist Bill Dambrova will lead a second Digital Files for Public Art workshop on March 25, 2021. This session will provide more in-depth demonstrations of graphic editing and 3D modeling software commonly used to design and fabricate a wide range of public art projects.

The workshop is 60-minutes and is open to the public but require advance registration.

On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, which includes significant relief funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). This historic legislation represents a significant commitment to arts and culture and recognizes the sector's value to the nation's economy and recovery.

The Americans for the Arts Action Fund will hold a webinar on Thursday, March 18, 2021, at 3:00 p.m. ET to provide a comprehensive overview of the American Rescues Plan, as dozens of federal agencies are already beginning to implement the $1.9 trillion of COVID health and economic relief aid to those in need. Please register in advance.

Also, the NEA is providing key information about how arts organization can reopen their venues in an upcoming webinar called the Art of Reopening. Special guest Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health, will provide opening remarks. This free event will be held on Tuesday, March 23, 2021, from 3:00–4:00 p.m. ET. Please register in advance.

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) reopened the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for First Draw PPP Loans the week of January 11, 2021. SBA began accepting applications for Second Draw PPP Loans on January 13, 2021. PPP provides loans to help businesses keep their workforce employed during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.

Applications will be accepted through March 28, 2021, but we suggest you apply as soon as you are able. Please visit the SBA's PPP page for more information.

The Shuttered Venue Operators (SVO) Grant program was established by the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act, signed into law on December 27, 2020. The program includes $15 billion in grants to shuttered venues, to be administered by the SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance.

Eligible applicants may qualify for SVO Grants equal to 45% of their gross earned revenue, with the maximum amount available for a single grant award of $10 million. Two billion dollars is reserved for eligible applications with up to 50 full-time employees.

The program is actively under construction, with updates, adjustments, and clarifications arriving frequently. For additional details, see the SBA's Shuttered Venue Operators Grants Frequently Asked Questions (revised March 12, 2012). As of March 11, 2021, entities can apply for both the PPP and SVOG Programs.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Challenge America program offers support primarily to small organizations for projects in all artistic disciplines that extend the reach of the arts to populations that are underserved. Challenge America features an abbreviated application, a robust structure of technical assistance, and grants for a set amount of $10,000.

Challenge America guidelines include important new details on eligibility requirements, as well as the program description, project types, and what the NEA means by "underserved." The deadline to apply is April 22, 2021.

Artlink invites the public to participate in the transformation of a nearly 20,000 square foot basement space at Phoenix’s Park Central into a multidisciplinary arts space for Arizona artists.

In partnership with Park Central, and with support from the Flinn Foundation and the Virginia G. Charitable Trust, Artlink launched the ART+FORM project in 2018, with the intent to forge stronger partnerships between our region’s real estate development and arts and culture sectors.

As part of this ongoing initiative, Artlink invites open and inclusive community engagement, and is asking for feedback that will help shape a discovered space located at the center of midtown Phoenix to meet the growing needs of our burgeoning art capital.

Through a series of in-person and online tours scheduled as part of the annual Art Detour 33 event, February 27 to March 31, 2021, the community can provide input and complete a survey that will help inform the direction of the project.