The Arts Work Fund for Organizational Development

Arts Work Fund is Shifting Its Grantmaking – Take a Look 👀

We are changing and expanding our grant opportunities for the coming year in response to the extraordinary challenges Chicago’s cultural community is currently facing. We have:

actualized our commitment to equity
streamlined our process
expanded eligibility
instituted a peer review panel process
changed to final report process to amplify sharing of lessons learned from these grants.

Think

Think through a question, analyze challenges and opportunities, and develop plans or small tests of change

About Think Grants

Explore

Test and implement fully developed ideas with resources to support creativity and risk-taking

About Explore Grants

Forget grant reports. Strengthen the community through genuine sharing of lessons learned—failures and triumphs

More About Sharing

Adapt to Change. Address Challenges. Focus on Equity.

Think • Explore • Share grants will enable arts and culture organizations to develop and test possible solutions to challenges posed by COVID-19, or challenges that hampered nonprofits before the pandemic (e.g., lack of access to resources for artists of color and artists with disabilities, declining ticket sales, etc.). Challenges can relate to management, production, technology, fiscal planning, or artistic mission. Multiple organizations can apply to collaborate on a shared challenge.

Who’s Eligible to Apply?

Arts organizations led by, for, and about black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), with operating expenses of $2 million and below.
Any arts and culture organization with operating expenses of $800,000 and below.

Grant Size

Think Grants – up to $20,000 and Explore Grants – up to $30,000 for arts organizations led by, for, and about BIPOC, people with disabilities, LGBTQ people, and women.
Think Grants – up to $15,000 and Explore Grants – up to $25,000 for all other eligible organizations.

Our goal is to allocate 65% of all grants to organizations led by, for, and about BIPOC communities.

Upcoming Application Deadlines: [March 30, 2021]

Grant Guidelines

AWF Connect Listserv: A Supportive Community of Over 500 Organizations

AWF Connect is a discussion list specifically geared for the arts community. Members of the AWF Connect list include: seasoned arts administrators, funders of the arts, artists, and other amazingly talented folks in the arts community.

Join the Conversation

Emergency Relief Fund

From the beginning, it was clear that COVID-19 would have a devastating impact on the arts and cultural sectors and that Arts Work Fund needed to pivot to provide unrestricted, immediate support to arts organizations as they grappled with the fallout. In short order, a robust collaborative was formed between Arts Work Fund, 3Arts, Arts Alliance Illinois, the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, the local philanthropic community, and individual donors. Called the Arts for Illinois Relief Fund, Arts Alliance Illinois administered the fund, 3Arts leveraged its expertise to make grants available to artists, and the Arts Work Fund focused on grants to nonprofit arts organizations. Read More...

source: @CEKIMpRADmt

Reaching Forward

Throughout 2019, the Arts Work Fund AWF partnered with 21 African American, Latinx, Arab American, Asian American, and Native American arts leaders to co-design a new grant program and refine our grantmaking criteria and processes. COVID-19 interrupted the launch of our new grant program as we shifted to respond to emergency relief efforts. But we have instituted the grant making refinements that emerged from this process. Read More...

Grantee Voices

I think the Arts Work Fund is particularly unique in that they are excited to–this is going to sound nuts–but, they're excited to see how you can fail and learn and grow.

Kate Piatt-Eckert

Executive Director, Steep Theater

If you really want to get something going, you've got to think outside the box and do it a little different. Arts Work Fund helped us get there.

Billy Ocasio

President & Chief Executive Officer, National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture

What makes the Arts Work Fund so different is that there is a lot of risk taking. There are arts organizations who are coming to them with big bold ideas. We certainly saw that in our grant cycle.

Lauren Sivak

Managing Director, 2nd Story

Arts Work Fund was pivotal for reimagining what True Star 2.O would be. It was the first kind of investment into us imagining what our next steps would be.

DeAnna McLeary-Sherman

Founder, True Star Media & Foundation

Creative Organizations