In response to the COVID-19 State of Emergency, the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) has created special grant opportunities that provide emergency funding to arts organizations and artists in Maryland as they adjust to losses sustained because of programming, operations, and events that have been modified or cancelled.
The FY20 Emergency Grant Program is currently closed. The May 5 review (including all grants submitted by the May 1 deadline) included an evaluation of 155 eligible applications totaling requests for $2.6M. $1M was awarded in emergency grant funding across 125 applications (65 arts organizations at $869,318; 60 independent artists $130,682).
Eligibility
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For Organizations:
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The organization must provide an estimate of any anticipated revenue from state and/or federal sources in the budget submission including but not limited to:
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Maryland Small Business COVID-19 Emergency Relief Grant Fund
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National Endowment for the Arts
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Maryland Humanities
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National Endowment for the Humanities
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For Independent Artists:
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Applicants must provide an estimate of any unemployment benefits in the budget submission.
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Applying for a Grant
Grant applications are available to arts organizations and independent artists through Smart Simple.
Emergency Grant for Arts Organizations Guidelines
Emergency Grant for Arts Organizations Rubric
Emergency Grant for Independent Artists Guidelines
Emergency Grant for Independent Artists Rubric
Applications will be gathered for FY20 review on May 1 (for a May 5 review) and May 15 (for a May 20 review). Funding will be recommended through a comparison model (rather than a “first come, first serve” basis). Note that the timeline between approval and payment may be 90-days.
Funding is based on application submission (rather than funding grantees across the board without an application as is being done in some other states).
Contact Information
Dana Parsons Director, Grants and Professional Development Email: dana.parsons@maryland.gov Phone: 410.767.6557