Iowa artists and nonprofit arts organizations can now apply for a one-time emergency grant from the Iowa Arts & Culture Emergency Relief Fund to help them cope with disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund, which is administered by the Iowa Arts Council, was activated as soon as Gov. Kim Reynolds signed her emergency declaration on March 17.
The application process for the first round of funding opened on Monday. The deadline for applying is Friday, April 17 at 11:59 p.m. Applications are available online.
Individual artists can apply for a $1,000 grant. Grants of $2,500 are available for nonprofit arts organizations.
According to the Iowa Arts Council, to be eligible for a grant an artist must be 21 years old and a current resident of Iowa who has lived in the state for more than 182 days in 2019. The artist must have had “reportable income of at least $5,000 in the last 12 months from employment in the arts, excluding full-time or part-time employment as an educator in K-12 or higher education.”
Only individual artists are eligible for the one-time emergency grant program; this excludes “bands, artist collaboratives and artist collectives.” Anyone enrolled in either an undergraduate or graduate program is also ineligible.
The department said the following criteria will be used to judge applications.
• Demonstration of need and loss of opportunity
• Demonstration of activity as Iowa artist or arts worker engaged directly in the production of works of art or arts and cultural events
• Underrepresented artist who identifies as female; who identifies as a person of color; who identifies as a person with a disability; who identifies as LGBTQIA+; who lives in a rural community (located in an eligible rural county)
• Order of submission
To be eligible for a grant, an arts organization must be classified as a nonprofit in Iowa, had annual operating expenses of $50,000 to $150,000 during the most recent fiscal year and have a projected loss of 25 percent of its anticipated earning due to closures or cancellations that occurred after March 17. An organization must also have had “at least 3 years of continuous artistic programming since March 17, 2017 and an operating surplus or deficit of 10% or less, compared to budget, for the organization’s previous fiscal year.”
Arts organizations that use “a fiscal agent or the Iowa nonprofit or federal tax-exempt status of another organization” or are part of an educational institution are not eligible.
The Iowa Arts Council said it will use the following criteria to evaluate applications from organizations.
• Demonstration of need and loss of revenue
• Demonstration of artistic and financial performance
• Organizations that primarily serve underrepresented populations who identify as female; identify as persons of color; identify as persons with disabilities; identify as LGBTQIA+; and/or organizations located in rural communities (located in an eligible rural county)
• Order of submission
More information about the emergency relief fund can be found on its page on the Iowa Arts Council site.
