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Performing Arts

COVID-19 Resources for the Performing Arts

Updated on June 17, 2020

Below is a list compiled by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Arts Program consisting of resources for arts organizations and artists contending with the impacts of COVID-19. As we become aware of additional resources, we will update this page.


Databases 


Relief Grants for Artists

  • Actors Fund: Entertainment Assistance Program provides services and financial support to entertainment professionals facing personal or work-related problems. It is also a conduit for emergency financial assistance in times of pressing need or in response to catastrophic events.
  • Alternate ROOTS launched The Solidarity Fund which provides financial assistance to ROOTS members experiencing financial need including – but not limited to – loss related to COVID-19, theft, natural disaster, health emergency or an inability to pay an outstanding bill.
  • Arts and Culture Leaders of Color Emergency Fund is for US-based BIPOC artists and administrators.
  • Artists Fellowship: Emergency Aid provides emergency aid to professional fine artists and their families in times of sickness, natural disaster, bereavement or unexpected extreme hardship. (Meeting monthly from September to June, the Board of Trustees reviews all applications to determine if they have been properly submitted and if they are eligible. Applicants are encouraged to do this early in the month. The Board does not meet in July and August.)
  • Artist Relief is a national partnership between seven arts grantmakers and a consortium of foundations that offers immediate, unrestricted grants for individual artists of all disciplines, and as well as other information and resources to help those in need.
  • Artist + Activist Relief Fund was created by The Soze Foundation, TaskForce, and Invisible Hand, and will support artists and activists whose work has been impacted by COVID-19. They will be making $250 grants to selected applicants on an on-going basis and currently have $42,000 total for the first round of grants. (This application is closed, waiting list available.)
  • Boston Artist Relief Fund will award grants of $500 and $1000 to individual artists who live in Boston whose creative practices and incomes are being adversely impacted by COVID-19. (This application is closed.)
  • Cambridge Artist Relief Fund will meet immediate needs in the arts sector. Over the next six months, effective Thursday, March 19, the Foundation will accept applications on a rolling basis to provide grants to organizations and individuals facing a financial burden. (This application is closed.)
  • Center for Cultural Innovation launched The San Francisco Arts & Artists Relief Fund to mitigate COVID-19 related financial losses that artists and small to mid-size arts and culture organizations have suffered. (This application is closed.)
  • The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) and Community Partners aims to provide relief to artists and small ensembles that are LA-based and were financially impacted by cancelled public performances. (The application deadline is July 31, 2020.)
  • The Colorado Artist Relief Fund supports artists experiencing economic distress as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This fund is a collaboration between multiple funders and arts organizations working at state, regional and local levels.
  • The Creator Fund is providing financial assistance to active creators who are experiencing financial hardship due to COVID-19. If you have medical, childcare, housing or grocery needs, please apply for assistance. (This application is closed.)
  • The Dancers Fund provides short-term financial assistance to Chicago dance professionals in times of critical health need
  • Dance/NYC: Coronavirus Dance Relief Fund invites eligible New York City metropolitan area dance makers with annual expense budgets between $25,000 and $500,000 experiencing loss of income resultant of COVID-19 to submit proposals for one-time grants between $2,500 and $5,000. (The application for freelance dance workers seeking funding for the month of June will open on Friday, June 12, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. and will close on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 at 5:00 p.m.)
  • Disabled Creator and Activist Pandemic Relief supports disabled activists and creators that have lost honorariums and sales due to conference and event cancelations, volunteers are collecting information to organize a relief fund. If you are a disabled creator or activist and you would like to participate, please indicate what sorts of interactions you would like to do. (This application is closed.)
  • Dramatists Guild Foundation - Emergency grants for writer provides emergency financial assistance to individual playwrights, composers, lyricists, and book writers in dire needs of funds due to severe hardship or unexpected illness.
  • The Freelancers Relief Fund, which is a collaboration between Wethos and the Freelancers Union, will provide $1,000 to to freelancers in need of emergency assistance. 
  • Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA): Emergency Grants Program for visual and performing artists.
  • The Haven Foundation offers interim financial assistance to freelance professionals in the arts who face crises.
  • Indie Theater Fund COVID-19 Emergency Grant is for indie theater companies and individual artists. (This application is closed.)
  • The International Association of Blacks in Dance has reinstated its Emergency Fund to provide support to artists and organizations within its membership that are dealing with economic hardships brought about by the COVID-19 disruption. (This application is closed.)
  • Jazz Foundation of America: Musicians’ Emergency Fund provides housing assistance, pro bono medical care, disaster relief and direct financial support in times of crisis.
  • The Jazz Road Quick Assist Fund, which was created by Jazz Road, a regrant initiative managed by South Arts in partnership with five other regional arts organizations, is a relief fund to support freelance jazz musicians across the country who have lost work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (The application process for this grant closed at 11:59 pm on April 13th.)
  • For The People Artists Collective: Artists of Color Emergency Grants are offering emergency microgrants of up to $500 to Illinois-based artists and freelancers of color whose income has been affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. (This application is closed.)
  • The Lewis Prize for Music established a $1 million COVID-19 Community Response Fund. The fund will distribute over 20 grants of $25,000 to $50,000 to responsive and adaptive Creative Youth Development (CYD) music programs. (The application will close on Friday, May 8 at 5pm PT with grants distributed on June 16.)
  • The Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation (LAEF) Board of Directors has created The Louis Armstrong Emergency Fund for Jazz Musicians to provide $1 million in much needed financial support to musicians (vocalists and instrumentalists) in the New York Metropolitan Area who have lost income due to coronavirus related closures. The fund will award one-time grants of $1,000 to assist individual freelance Jazz Musicians that live in the NYC region and work with regularity in the five boroughs of New York City. (This application is closed.)
  • New Music Solidarity Fund is designed to help new/creative/improvised music freelancers whose livelihood has been threatened as a result of performances which have been canceled during the COVID-19 crisis. (This application is closed.)
  • Newport Festivals Foundation has established the Newport Festivals Musician Relief Fund to provide financial relief to musicians in the Folk and Jazz communities experiencing a loss of income as a result of COVID-19 through rapid micro and full grants. The focus and priority will be on artists who have played the Newport Jazz or Folk Festivals and those in the Rhode Island community. All other applications will be considered on a case by case basis.
  • New York Foundation for the Arts- Rauschenberg Emergency Grants are open to visual and media artists and choreographers. (This application will be reopened from 5/18/20 - 6/15/20.)
  • North Carolina Artist Relief Fund has been created to support creative individuals who have been financially impacted by gig cancellations due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Artists and arts presenters in North Carolina can apply for emergency funding.
  • Springboard for the Arts Personal Emergency Relief Fund helps artists in Minnesota recover from personal emergencies by helping pay an unanticipated, emergency expense. As part of our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have expanded the guidelines to include lost income due to the cancellation of a specific, scheduled gig or opportunity (i.e. commissions, performances, contracts) due to COVID-19 precautionary measures. Artists can request up to $500 to compensate for cancelled work that was scheduled and lost. (Application closes on July 1, 2020.)
  • The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) created an Emergency Assistance Fund to aid Members of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) who are experiencing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 crisis.
  • Theatre Community Benevolent Fund provides financial relief in a confidential, respectful manner to individual theater practitioners and non-profit theater organizations of Greater Boston and the surrounding areas, facing occurrences of a catastrophic nature including but not limited to extreme illness, devastating acts of nature, housing emergencies, vandalism, and theft, and who have limited or no resources with which to handle such events.


Guides for Artists & Organizations


Other Resources

 


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