Calling all World Makers
Louisianans are not strangers to disaster. Louisianans are also not strangers to survival and have long created new worlds and realities in order to survive. Indigenous communities adapted to survive floods and lived with water pre-colonization. Marronage made freedom real amidst the terrors of chattel slavery, and social aid and pleasure clubs emerged in the absence of economic safety nets for Black communities. Robust practices of mutual aid surface in the wake of disaster. In our current times of upheaval, we believe it is essential to support Louisiana artists, tradition bearers, and cultural workers to stay, live, and do their work in their communities.
Foundation for Louisiana’s (FFL) inaugural round of arts and cultural grantmaking will pay homage to this legacy by providing grants to 30-40 Louisiana artists, cultural workers, and tradition bearers who envision new worlds for Louisiana. We are interested in supporting folks whose artistic and cultural work addresses climate impacts, mass incarceration, cultural memory and legacy, or displacement and erasure of Black and Indigenous communities. Grant awards will range from $5,000-10,000, and we will primarily focus on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) artists and those born, raised, and/or with generational ties to Louisiana. Specific funds will also be allocated for elder artists and culture bearers as well as BIPOC transgender artists.
Purpose
We believe that artists, cultural workers, and tradition bearers offer their communities new and expanded ways of seeing, being, and creating. We believe artists can help transform our sense of what is possible. In these times of great upheaval, we must support visionary creative work that helps point our communities toward justice and liberation.
We believe that being a culturally-rooted Louisiana artist can be a radical act. We believe that resourcing artists and culture bearers to do their work in Louisiana is absolutely essential to the wellbeing — cultural, social, political, communal, spiritual, and ecological — of Louisiana. When artists are supported to do their work as members of their communities, we believe that transformative change is possible. In order to create a more just Louisiana, we must ensure that artists and culture bearers, especially those who are born and raised in Louisiana, have the ability to stay and thrive in their communities.
Goals
- Sustain and illuminate the visionary work of artists and culture bearers, which makes other worlds possible and material
- Increase the flow of financial resources to Louisiana’s Black artists, Indigenous artists, artists of color, and transgender and gender-nonconforming artists
- Provide flexible and unrestricted projects at any stage of development, as well personal and living expenses
- Support visionary artistic and cultural work that addresses climate impacts, mass incarceration, cultural memory and legacy, and/or displacement and erasure of Black and Indigenous communities
- Uplift and honor cultural traditions of Louisiana
- Expand FFL’s understanding of artistic and cultural practice across the state
Timeline and Process
Drawing on FFL’s history of community-based participatory grantmaking, FFL is recruiting an initial panel cohort to serve as decision-makers. Comprised of Louisiana BIPOC artists and culture workers diverse in race and ethnicity, age, location, gender identity, and practice, the cohort will broadcast the grant opportunity, review applications, and convene for a review process to make decisions about applications. They will also nominate cohort members for the next grantmaking cycle.
Below is a timeline:
December 16, 2020: Call for proposals announced
January 14th, 6pm: Informational webinar. Register here or watch from the FFL facebook page here.
February 1, 2021: Proposal process closed
Early March, 2021: Panel meetings
March 31, 2021: Awarded applicants notified, all applicants notified of status
Early April, 2021: Grants made
Grant Assessment/Selection Criteria
- Depth and specificity of connection to Louisiana artistic and cultural traditions
- Clarity of vision, compelling vision
- Alignment of creative/artistic practice and use of funds with FFL values and justice themes
- Community connectedness and accountability
For more questions and Info
- To review our responses to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), click here.
- For questions about this grant opportunity, eligibility, or how to prepare your application materials, please email arts@foundationforlouisiana.org.
- To watch the recording of the Informational Webinar from January 14th, please view on the FFL facebook here.