Creativity Grants for General Operating Support

The organization

• must produce or present arts programs, services or projects that are relevant to its community and are available to the public. 

• may not be in the Grants for Organizations (GFO) or County Arts Development (CAD) program, or an Arts & Entertainment District (A&E).

For full eligibility criteria, please review the Guidelines.

Please note that applications forms in Smart Simple have been updated for FY24. Your application ID # should begin with '2024.' If it does not, you are working off a draft started from a previous year and will not be able to submit it. Please open a new FY24 application under the "Funding Opportunities" menu.

FY24 How to Apply webinar - Organizations

FY24 How to Apply slide deck - Organizations

The Creativity Grant for General Operating Support application for organizations represents one of two options for Creativity Grant funding - the other is for Project-Based Support (for Independent Artists or Organizations).

Applications are submitted through the SmartSimple system, linked above. Please refer to the Creativity Grant Application Scoring Rubric as you respond to the application questions.

MSAC convenes a group of panelists, comprised of members of the public statewide representing a range of discipline expertise, to electronically review and score all applications according to the review criteria above.

New for FY2024: Creativity Grant applications submitted by the last day of the month will be reviewed by the panel in the following month, with notifications to follow early the following month.

See Guidelines for a detailed schedule.

Upon execution of the Creativity Grant agreement, payment will be processed for receipt in 6-8 weeks. Grantees are encouraged to keep records for the final report that will be required at the completion of the funded project. For detailed reporting requirements, please see the Grant Guidelines.

All MSAC grants are paid on the same timeline. To learn more, click here.

If awarded a Creativity Grant, the recipient must file a final report online in Smart Simple. The report will be added to the grantee's Smart Simple profile as soon as the Grant Agreement Form is fully executed.

Applications submitted between June 2023 and December 2023 will have a Final Report deadline of August 15, 2024. Applications submitted between January 2024 and April 2024 will have a Final Report deadline of December 31, 2024.

See Grant Guidelines for further information.