From: Jerelle Jenkins <jejenkins@artsusa.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2021 4:03 PM
Subject: June 15, Coronavirus (COVID-19) News Update

Greetings, 

Here’s the latest Coronavirus (COVID-19) news…  

A reminder that we are circulating this news digest weekly on Tuesday. We are continuing to update the Resource Center on a regular basis. If you see interesting or helpful items or have a resource to share, please email me at jejenkins@artsusa.org.  

We invite you to share this news roundup with your networks and colleagues.   

AFTA NEWS/UPDATES

• American Rescue Plan State & Local Block Grant Arts Tracker - Help us document your success and inspire other arts organizations by example! If you are working with your state or local city, county, or tribe governments to secure ARP block grants for economic relief and recovery for the arts, please take a few minutes to fill out the Americans for the Arts Tracker Google Form, so we can share your examples.
• Check out the new Creative Workers.net! This site now houses the Put Creative Workers to Work policy platform, talking points, coalition and endorsers list, and action steps.   
• We urge all arts and cultural organizations to complete the new COVID-19 Impact Survey for Organizations. This revised survey enables Americans for the Arts to continue tracking the human and financial impacts of COVID-19 on arts organizations as well as understand the challenges with recovery and re-opening. All types of arts and cultural organizations should participate. Please share the link with other organizations and businesses in your community. 
• Americans for the Arts and Artist Relief, with support from the Ford Foundation, have launched a new COVID-19 Impact Survey for Artists. This revised survey enables the partners to gauge what is happening to our creative economy and address what is needed to provide relief and spur recovery. All types of creative workers should participate practicing artists, culture bearers, educators and teaching artists, creative entrepreneurs, and hobby artists). Please share this link with your artist networks. 
• Current Research Findings (June 14, 2021): COVID-19’s Impact on The Arts—The coronavirus continues to have a devastating impact on America’s arts sector. Even as arts organizations cautiously begin to open, artists remain among the most severely affected segment of the nation’s workforce. 99% of producing and presenting organizations have cancelled events and financial losses to nonprofit arts organizations are $16.5 billion. Among organizations yet to reopen, 42% lack the funds needed to restart in-person programming and most expect it will take 3+ months to assemble those funds.
• Book Randy Cohen, VP of Research to speak to your community’s arts leaders and decision makers about the pandemic’s impact and the vital role the arts can play in rebuilding your community.  
• On behalf of Americans for the Arts and Arts Action Fund members, Nina Ozlu Tunceli participates in Daily Briefings with the SBA’s Shuttered Venue team to ask your questions, provide problem case examples, and learn the latest. Get Nina’s up-to-the-minute takeaways with her SBA Daily Updates posted at https://www.artsactionfund.org/news and social media. You can also follow Nina on Twitter @Nina4arts for daily tweets.
• OFFICE HOURS! Extended through 2021 on Fridays (excluding holidays) from 11:00a to 12:00p EDT. Join Nina Ozlu Tunceli with the Americans for the Arts Action Fund to get answers to your most pressing questions about navigating the CARES Act, Economic Aid Act, and American Rescue Plan. Check the link for any additional dates or occasional blackout dates.    
• For our latest breaking news, legislative updates, and technical assistance on COVID 19 Federal Resources, please visit www.ArtsActionFund.org/COVID19Resources
• 2021 COVID-19 Arts Resources Table – The table provides information on all of the new and expanded federal resources for artists and arts organizations as a result of the economic aid package enacted on December 27, 2020. 
• Book Nina for your next local, state, or national webinar related to federal economic opportunities for the arts such as the CARES Act, Economic Aid Act, and American Rescue Plan. Free for members.   

FIELD PROGRAMMING

(We will feature new offerings here – free to low-cost opportunities. Previous listings have been moved down to below the signature)

FIELD NEWS

• Post-Gazette: ‘It’s like I’m starting over’: Arts fest vendors happy to be back on the road
• Barron’s: Cultural Institutions Get Creative to Make up for Pandemic Losses
• Star News Online: Wilmington arts re-emerge from COVID-19 pandemic, gradually, and then all at once
• WBFO NPR: Pandemic or not, arts, education and recreation remain focus of Kenan Center

MUSEUMS & GALLERIES

• ABC6: New Please Touch Museum exhibit grants families comfort amid COVID-19

THEATRE, DANCE & MUSIC

• Open Call: Delaware Shakespeare Company welcomes seismic change inspired by pandemic
• Las Vegas Sun: This summer, kids’ classes are a little bit school, a little bit camp

MENTAL HEALTH

• Education Week: To Get Billions in COVID-19 Aid, States Pledge Focus on Mental Health, Learning Recovery

RELIEF FUNDS & GRANTS 

• The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation Arts Grant Program: Eligible organizations must be tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and be located in Chatham, Durham, Orange, or Wake counties, North Carolina. Preference is given to organizations with operating budgets under $300,000. Proposal application opens June 1 with proposals due June 15. 
• City Artist Corps Grants: City Artist Corps Grants is part of City Artist Corps, a new $25 million recovery initiative designed to help artists who were both hard hit by the pandemic and who may have been left out of other local and federal funding opportunities. City Artist Corps Grants are intended to support NYC-based working artists who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. The program will distribute one-time $5,000 grants to over 3000 artists to help sustain their practice and engage the public across New York City’s five boroughs this summer beginning July. Artists working in any discipline are eligible to apply. Application Cycle 1 closes Tuesday, June 22 at 10:00AM.
• Nonprofit Recovery (NCR) Grants: Grants range from $2,500 to $25,000. These pandemic recovery grants will be administered by ArtsFund to Washington nonprofits meeting the eligibility requirements. Awards must be used to cover expenses incurred between March 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021, due to financial hardship incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic.  
• RJE Sprout Fund Invites Proposals From Artists Working With Underserved Communities: A total of $50,000 will be awarded in June 2021, but awards will continue to be administered throughout the calendar year on an ongoing basis. All artists – whether formally trained, self-taught, or whose creative work falls outside traditional art forms – are encouraged to apply. Artists are also encouraged to apply for funds for projects that involve their communities (e.g., art classes, art therapy, outreach, and non-traditional projects). Deadline: Rolling.

Thanks for reading. We hope you find this news digest to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at services@artsusa.org. If you were forwarded this and want to sign up for the Local Arts Network listserv to receive it directly, click here.

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Equity and Local Arts Engagement Team

Americans for the Arts