NEWS FROM TCA:
SEPTEMBER 2021
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It's a new fiscal year, with almost a thousand new grants and three newly approved cultural districts to celebrate! Here, folklorico dancers perform in the Fair Park Cultural District in Dallas. We'll use subsequent newsletters to recognize each new cultural district. Photo: Julian Bowman |
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Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) Program
Arts practitioners and artists who have been experiencing housing instability, or are having trouble making rent or mortgage payments as a result of the coronavirus pandemic should know that they are not alone. Federal, state, and local governments are offering help with housing expenses and avoiding eviction. Information is available at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau’s mortgage and housing assistance site.
Engaging the Arts to Build Vaccine Confidence
The CDC Foundation seeks applications from arts and culture organizations interested in improving vaccine confidence and acceptance through their chosen art form(s) in communities with low COVID vaccination rates. The CDC Foundation will provide grants up to $75,000 each to an estimated 30 organizations that have a proven track record of successfully creating impactful, educational work. The RFP is posted on the CDC Foundation website. Due Date: Thursday, October 14, 2021 by 12 PM Eastern.
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New Grants and Cultural Districts Approved |
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On September 9, TCA Commissioners approved funding of 976 grants in the first funding round for fiscal year 2022. The grants total over $11.6 million and will go to nonprofits and units of government in 121 Texas cities. These grants include the Arts Create program, which provides operational support to established arts organizations; the Cultural District Project program; the first of two funding rounds for the Arts Respond Project program; the quarterly Arts Respond Performance Support program; and the quarterly Commission Initiatives and Designated Funding program. TCA's full list of fiscal year 2022 grants is here.
TCA Commissioners also approved the designation of three new cultural districts. Cultural districts are special zones that harness the power of cultural resources to stimulate economic development and community vitality. These districts can be focal points for generating business, attracting tourists, stimulating cultural development and fostering civic pride. The new cultural districts are the Fair Park Cultural District in Dallas, the Laredo Cultural District in Laredo, and the Westside Cultural District in San Antonio. This designation brings the total number of cultural districts in Texas to 51.
Arts Create grants provide year-round operational support to Texas arts organizations with budgets over $50,000. For fiscal year 2022, 477 Arts Create grants totaling over $3.6 million are allocated to 477 organizations in 84 Texas cities.
Arts Respond Cultural District Project grants provide support to projects that use the arts to diversify local economies, generate revenue, and attract visitors and investment. These grants are available to arts organizations and government entities verified as based in TCA-designated cultural districts. For fiscal year 2022, 80 applicants from 29 different cultural districts in 24 Texas cities will receive funding totaling over $4.9 million.
Arts Respond Project grants fund arts-based projects that address one of the priority areas of economic development, education, health and human services, natural resources and agriculture, or public safety and criminal justice. For the first round of these grants in fiscal year 2022, applications from 303 arts organizations in 66 cities will receive funding, for a total of $602,761.
Arts Respond Performance Support grants provide partial support to help applicants host an artist from the Texas Touring Roster in their community—in person, or via interactive live-stream during social distancing. The grants for this quarter total $175,321 and will go to 78 organizations and units of government in 53 Texas cities.
The Commission Initiatives and Designated Funding program for this quarter distributed $52,500 received from the National Endowment for the Arts via one $20,000 grant to conduct the Poetry Out Loud high school competition in Texas and another $32,500 grant to conduct folk arts apprenticeships and related programs and documentation. Lastly, the Commission approved $2.1 million in funding designated for a new performing arts center in Flower Mound, as allocated by the 2019 Texas Legislature.
Photo: “La Veladora of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” by Jesse Treviño, is the world’s largest mosaic statue of the Virgin Mary. The iconic art piece can be found at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio's Westside Cultural District.
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Grant Reports and Revised Budgets Due
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If your organization was approved to receive an Arts Create grant, a Cultural District Project grant, or an Arts Respond Project grant for fiscal year 2022 (September 1, 2021-August 31, 2022), you will have some paperwork to do before your new grant(s) can be paid.
Note that all forms and supporting materials should be completed and provided in TCA’s online grants system. This excludes direct deposit authorization forms, which must be faxed or mailed to protect sensitive information.
Revised Budgets
Each funded FY21 Cultural District Project, Arts Respond Project, or new (Year 1) Arts Create grant will have a revised budget form that should be filled out and submitted online.
Grant Reports: Due September 30, 2021
Reports are due for grant activities that ended as TCA's prior fiscal year (September 1, 2020-August 31, 2021) concluded. We highly recommend that you watch the videos before getting started on your report:
· Grant reports must be submitted, and successfully closed out by TCA staff, before new grants will be paid.
· To help ensure timely payment of your FY 2022 grants, you are encouraged to submit your reports and supporting materials well before the deadline.
· Please note that the data collected from these reports is provided to the State of Texas and the National Endowment for the Arts as TCA's main funders. Receiving your complete report on time with appropriate supporting documentation helps TCA make a case for the amount of dollars it receives for its grant budget.
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Apply Now for 2022 Young Masters |
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The Texas Commission on the Arts and the Texas Cultural Trust are accepting applications for the 2022 class of Young Masters, a joint initiative that provides exemplary Texas-based arts students in grades 8-11 with the financial help they need to pursue advanced study in the areas of visual arts, literary arts, folk arts, music, theater, dance, musical theater, and media arts.
The state’s most talented young artists will receive the title of “Young Master” and will be awarded grants of $5,000 per year to further their studies in their chosen arts disciplines. Students are eligible to receive the grant for two years, but they must submit a report and update application. The students selected for this program will represent the eleventh class of Young Masters. To date, the Trust and TCA have named 169 Young Masters, awarding over $1,000,000 to these aspiring artists since the program’s inception in 2002.
Applications, information and guidelines are available online here. Not sure where to start? Check out our FAQ. Applications and required supporting materials must be submitted by November 15, 2021. In order to be considered for the grant, students must be legal US residents living in Texas and participating in a school-based program, a summer institute, private lessons from a qualified professional instructor, or a specialized course of study. They must also maintain passing grades in all academic areas. The Young Masters will be selected by a citizen panel of experts from across the state based on artistic excellence, level of commitment and quality of their proposed plan of study. Disbursement for this class of Young Masters will begin in the spring of 2022.
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High Schools and Organizations: Sign Up Now for Poetry Out Loud
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TCA is signing up high schools and organizations across the state to participate in the Poetry Out Loud program. Interested educators should contact TCA soon to sign up and to receive materials in the mail to help them conduct the program during the fall semester. The program materials are online at http://www.poetryoutloud.org.
The Poetry Out Loud recitation contest is a national project of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. This exciting program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about their literary heritage. High school students memorize poems and perform them in competition. Each participating high school/organization will hold its competition to determine its winner by December 15, 2021. The school/organization winner will go on to compete at the state competition in February 2022.
At the state level, the winner and runner up receive cash awards and their school/organization libraries receive money to help them buy poetry books. The state winner will represent Texas in the national competition, which has a pool of $50,000 in scholarships for students and cash awards for schools/organizations. More information on the state competition is here.
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Get the Plate that Supports the Arts |
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Get TCA’s State of the Arts license plate at http://tinyurl.com/TXartsplate. The plate looks great on all kinds of vehicles, shows Texas pride and support of the arts, and costs a mere $30 a year in addition to vehicle registration. $22 of the $30 fee goes to TCA and into our grants budget! TCA is grateful to the many Texas drivers who purchase the State of the Arts license plate, and to the wonderful arts organizations that help promote it to their patrons.
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Catching Up with 2020 Young Master Isobel Perez |
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Since its inception in 2002, the Young Masters grant program has provided 372 grants to Texas high school students for their advanced studies in the arts. As TCA and our program partners at the Texas Cultural Trust get ready for a new set of applicants to the program, we want to share some details about the impact the program has made for one of the 2020 Young Masters, Isobel Perez, a senior at Houston’s Kinder High School for the Performing & Visual Arts. Isobel was named a Young Master in literary arts/poetry.
Describe the program you attended or training you received through the Young Masters program.
“This summer, through the Young Masters program, I was able to attend the Iowa Young Writers Workshop where I took the course “It’s Always About Love” with Matthew Kelley. This was a two-week virtual writing class. For the week, Professor Kelley provided us with lecture videos, reading, class discussion board, and writing prompts. For the second week, the entire class came together for the Zoom calls to workshop one another’s writing. In the afternoon, the program provided little activities for people in the course: book talks, small workshops, and the opportunity to talk to published authors. I was also able to go to New York in person to attend the Young Writers’ Workshop with the Unterberg Poetry Center for a three-week course that covered poetry, fiction, and nonfiction writing.”
Tell us what opportunities were created for you as a result of being in the Young Masters program. Are there any exciting stories you want to share?
“Yes! While I was attending the Young Writers’ Workshop with the Unterberg Poetry Center I was able to join the workshop in person, meaning I was able to live by myself in New York for three weeks. It was such an amazing experience and something I would’ve never been able to do if I weren’t in the Young Masters program! Also, while I was taking the course my poetry teacher approached me and offered me her email and said that when I’m ready to begin publishing to contact her and she’ll help connect me to people. I was so happy that an actual published poet was willing to help me!”
How has your artistic work or vision changed as a result of your artistic training through the Young Masters program?
“I think that one thing that’s changed about my artistic work as a result of the workshops I’ve taken this summer is that I’m finally feeling comfortable writing about myself and writing using my own voice. I feel less pressured to write behind a façade and now my writing feels more personal. As for my artistic vision, I feel very drawn towards writing about my family’s story, specifically my mother’s side. I also feel really drawn towards writing more magic realism, horror, and experimenting with writing scripts for video games and animations.”
TCA and the Trust are proud to be a part of Isobel's development as an artist before she even starts college. Inspired by Isobel? Know a talented young Texas artist who’s a good candidate for the next class of Young Masters? Tell them it's time to apply—complete information on the Young Masters program is here.
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Nobody celebrates Washington's birthday like Laredo, which now has an official cultural district! Photo courtesy of Washington Birthday Celebration Association Bridge Ceremony. |
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Texas Commission on the Arts
920 Colorado Street
Austin, TX 78701
512/463-5535
800/252-9415
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