Dear Members,

As you know, Americans for the Arts is deeply committed to supporting the arts across America. Today, a consortium of funders announced the creation of the Artist Relief Fund, a $10 million national emergency relief fund for artists and creative workers that will provide $5,000 no-strings-attached grants. It is intended for anyone who earns income from their creative or artistic practice and who has also been affected by COVID-19.

Americans for the Arts is proud to have been brought on as the research partner in that effort, and in that role was asked to develop and deploy the COVID-19 Impact Survey for Artists and Creative Workers, which is designed to capture financial and creative impact of COVID-19 on creative workers, highlight the resiliency and generosity of the creative sector, and make sure that the 5 million creative workers in the U.S. are supported and heard during this ongoing crisis and the eventual recovery. This new survey is a counterpart to our ongoing Economic Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on Arts and Cultural Organizations survey, which over 11,000 organizations have completed to date.

We invite you to share the Artist Relief Fund webpage and funding application, as well as the survey, with any artists or creative workers you know who have been negatively impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. In addition to ensuring creative workers can sustain their practice, our goal in collecting this data is to provide research that will support our Federal policy efforts in the next phase of stimulus and COVID-19 recovery; policies that are specific to individual creative workers.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions.

Sincerely,

Jessica Stern
Private Sector Initiatives Programs Manager

She/her/hers
Americans for the Arts
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www.AmericansForTheArts.org
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The $10 million in the Artist Relief Fund is comprised of a $5 million matching gift from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, as well as contributions from 7|G Foundation, Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Amazon Literary Partnership, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Arison Arts Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, Ford Foundation, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation COVID-19 Relief Effort, Jerome Foundation, Joan Mitchell Foundation, Kraus Family Foundation, LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Neiman Foundation, Metabolic Studio, Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation, Richard Salomon Family Foundation, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, The Sue Hostetler and Beau Wrigley Family Foundation, Teiger Foundation, The Wallace Foundation, and The Willem de Kooning Foundation.