Artist Resources
This is a list of relief resources for artists, freelancers, and creatives who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Feel free to apply for grants or donate to these funds to help those who have been financially impacted!
Stay up to date on tools, resources, and supports made necessary during this time. #WhileAtHome is a clearinghouse for credible information and action steps.
Established by the Arts Administrators of Color Network, folks can donate here in direct support of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) artists and administrators, which the fund defines as “consultants, facilitators, box office staff, seasonal/temporary employees, etc,” impacted by COVID-19. On this same page is an application form to apply for available funds generated by the open call for donations.
Volunteers are currently collecting information to organize a relief fund in support of disabled creators and activists who’ve lost sales due to COVID-19. Fill out the form at the link above if you’re interested in staying up-to-date or receiving funding (it seems initial funds will come from telecommuted events featuring the applicants and organized by the volunteers).
It’s right in the name: this donation-based fund for small stipends by The Soze Agency is specifically for artists and activists—especially those with children, debt, and medical bills. Round one just passed; $37,500 was given to 143 artists and activists nationwide. Apply for—or donate to!—round two at the link above and also sign up here to receive The Soze Assist, a newsletter of helpful articles and resources.
Created in 1993 to further FCA’s mission to encourage, sponsor, and promote work of a contemporary, experimental nature, Emergency Grants provide urgent funding for visual and performing artists who:
Have sudden, unanticipated opportunities to present their work to the public when there is insufficient time to seek other sources of fundingIncur unexpected or unbudgeted expenses for projects close to completion with committed exhibition or performance dates
Emergency Grants is the only active, multi-disciplinary program that offers immediate assistance of this kind to artists living and working anywhere in the United States, for projects occurring in the U.S. and abroad.
Dedicated to mitigating the impact of COVID-19, Dance/NYC invites freelance dance workers and organizations in the NYC area to apply for funding, with special priority given to communities most affected by the virus—including African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, Native American, disabled, immigrant, and women-identifying artists, and, they note, “those at high risk, including elderly and immunosuppressed artists.”
The donation-based Equal Sound Corona Relief Fund will assist musicians whose gigs and events were cancelled due to COVID-19. If you’re a musician who can be paid legally in the US, you’re eligible to apply (the fund will not cooperate with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
There will be delay in the distribution of funds, given the overwhelming requests for assistance.
The Foundation will be distributing $1,000 grants to experimental artists who can demonstrate that their exhibitions or performances were cancelled due to the pandemic. Applicants must be individual artists (even if they are representing a larger collective); curators, producers, presenters and organizations are not eligible.
Additionally, if you have ever received a non-emergency grant from the Foundation in the past three years, their usual three-year waiting period has been suspended, and you may apply again for a grant.
This fund is intended to help those pursuing careers as artists (of any type). If you fit this description and your income has been directly impacted by the COVID-19 health crisis – and you are in need of short-term, immediate financial assistance – Artist Relief Tree would like to help. They will disburse funds in the amount of $250 per person, on a first-come-first-served basis. They will also be accepting donations indefinitely.
This fund is to help at least 100 queer writers of color who have been financially impacted by the current COVID-19. Priority will be given to queer trans women of color and queer disabled writers of color, but I hope this relief fund will help many queer writers of color it can.
Music industry professionals may apply for basic living assistance (rent or mortgage). Initial grant requests can be made up to $1000 to compensate for cancelled work that was scheduled and lost.
The Emergency Assistance Program provides interim financial assistance to qualified artists whose needs are the result of an unforeseen, catastrophic incident, and who lack the resources to meet that situation. An applicant must be able to demonstrate a minimum involvement of ten years in a mature phase of his or her work in the disciplines of painting, sculpture or printmaking. The maximum amount of this grant is $15,000; an award of $5,000 is typical.
Freelancers Relief Fund will offer financial assistance of up to $1,000 per freelance household to cover lost income and essential expenses not covered by government relief programs, including food/food supplies; utility payments; cash assistance to cover income loss.
Provides support for low-income, BIPOC, trans/GNC/NB/Queer artists and freelancers whose livelihoods are being effected by this pandemic in NYC. Click here also if you'd like to donate to the fund.
This fund is designed for freelancers affected by COVID-19 and its impact (school closures, client cancellations, medical expenses, inability to pay basic living expenses). They stress that applicants ask for what they need right now—not in the long-term—and to try and pay it forward by eventually contributing back to the fund or another charity supporting freelancers. Applications are on a rolling basis; donations needed.