National Performance Network Southern Artists for Social Change Program 2022
Applications are open for the National Performance Network’s Southern Artists for Social Change Program 2022.
Southern Artists for Social Change
The National Performance Network’s Southern Artists for Social Change program provides $25,000 project grants to artists and culture bearers of color living, working, and engaging in social change in urban, rural, and tribal communities.
NPN’s Southern Artists for Social Change envisions a world in which people of color living, working, and organizing for community change in the South have the power, resources, and opportunities to thrive.
NPN’s mission is to contribute to a more just and equitable world by building artists’ power; advancing racial and cultural justice in the arts; fostering relationships between individuals, institutions, and communities; and working toward systems change in arts and philanthropy.
Southern Artists for Social Change is part of the Surdna Foundation’s “Radical Imagination for Racial Justice” initiative, supporting civic practice projects that bring artists of color into collaboration and co-design with community partners and local residents of color around a community-defined vision.
NPN’s Southern Artists for Social Change envisions a world in which people of color living, working, and organizing for community change in the South have the power, resources, and opportunities to thrive.
NPN’s mission is to contribute to a more just and equitable world by building artists’ power; advancing racial and cultural justice in the arts; fostering relationships between individuals, institutions, and communities; and working toward systems change in arts and philanthropy.
Grant
- $25,000 grants per project for one year;
- Grantees must be available for an orientation session and participate throughout the 2021–2022 grant period in cohort meetings and other gatherings;
- A select set of grantees may have the opportunity for a Participatory Action Research (PAR) component that focuses on a grantee project, in collaboration with the Highlander Research and Education Center.
Eligibility
- Open to artists and culture bearers who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color (BIPOC) living, working, and engaging in social change in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
- Artists and culture bearers with demonstrated practice in any discipline can apply.
- Individual artists as well as artist collectives may apply. Artist collectives must have a demonstrated history of creating new work collectively for at least two years.
- Applicants must be 18 years of age or older by application deadline.
- Applicants must be AL, LA, or MS residents for at least five consecutive years at the time of both application and payment and must provide a valid state ID.
- Projects should demonstrate a civic practice process to
- identify specific community challenges or needs
- imagine a different future for the community,
- practice, test, or design approaches toward that future that center racial justice
- While projects may be artist-driven, projects should include at least two community members (individuals, agencies, organizations) as collaborators who share in decision-making, shaping the project and project outcomes.
- Grants may support any phase of a project (research, development, production, etc.), including new initiatives or ongoing work, and a portion of funding should directly support the artist(s).
Application
This pilot program awarded its first grants in 2020. To see the announcement of the 2020 Southern Artists for Social Change cohort and to learn about their projects, click here.
The deadline to apply for Cohort 3 is July 29, 2022 at 5:00 pm CST.
Click here to watch a recording of the information session hosted on June 17, 2021. This webinar to provide details to potential applicants about the Southern Artists for Social Change grant and goes over the Letter of Intent.
Southern Artists for Social Change is a program of the National Performance Network and is supported with funding from the Surdna Foundation’s “Radical Imagination for Racial Justice” Initiative.
