ARAC Announces Updates for New Fiscal Year

You talked - we listened!

The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council’s (ARAC) board of directors has approved a number of updates to our grant programming for our fiscal year starting July 1, 2024. We have made note of applicant feedback over the years and have decided it’s time for change. ARAC hopes these changes will create a more equitable process and consistent schedule for each grant round. 

The biggest change applicants will see is a consolidation of our grant programs. We will now have four main grant programs and one small grant program. There will be two main grant deadlines in a fiscal year and each program will only be offered once a year. Small grants will run quarterly. This will allow us to fund more projects throughout our region and have funds spread out among more applicants.

The four main grant programs we’ll be offering are the Art Project Grant for Individuals, Art Project Grant for Organizations, Operating Support Grant for organizations, and the Artist Equity Grant for Individuals. We will be allocating a percentage of funding in these programs specifically to rural groups and teaching artists. We also acknowledge how much time and work goes into writing and submitting an application and have taken every measure possible to reduce the workload of our applications. We encourage potential applicants to review our grant guidelines closely for any other minor changes. 

Additionally, we recognize there has been a larger amount of applications for ARAC’s community grant panelists to review, so we are increasing our grant panel stipends to account for the larger commitment of reviewer’s time.

We will also be devoting staff time to support accessibility. Funding will be made available specifically to assist artists and organizations ensure their projects are accessible to all, whether it be filling a need for interpreters, accessibility ramps, etc. Please stay tuned for more information on how to get support through this programming.

ARAC expects these changes to better suit the organization’s capacity to allow more time to communicate with new and existing applicants, as well as increase our programming and resources for artists and organizations. 

Our staff and board of directors look forward to an exciting year ahead!