Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A grant is available for local artists, thanks to the North Carolina Arts Council and the North Carolina legislature. The Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) and regional partners including the Asheville Area Arts Council, Transylvania Community Arts Council, the Tryon Fine Arts Center, the Arts Council of Henderson County, and the Rutherford County Arts Council call upon artists served by their organizations to apply to the Artist Support Grant, which closes on October 30, 2022. Counties served by this regional consortium are Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Polk, Rutherford, and Transylvania, also called region 17. 

The Artist Support Grant was created in 2020 to support individual artists during the pandemic and is quickly becoming a staple for local artists. Region 17 reviewed 67 applications in 2021 and awarded over $44,000 in grant funds to 25 individuals. Artist mediums spanned the gamut and each project was different. Some grants funded the purchase of materials and tools, and others funded project creation such as paying for the initial book writing process by local Haywood County reporter Garret Woodward for his project on bluegrass legend Raymond Fairchild. Fairchild was “known as the ‘fastest banjo player in the world’ and was born and raised in Haywood County,” says Woodward. “That is a project that gets to the true meaning of local artist support” notes Morgan Beryl, HCAC Executive Director. 

Region 17 will continue to use N.C. Arts Council’s GoSmart! system which is an online application portal. “We learned a lot last year using this system and expect this year to be even easier for applicants and jurors,” says Beryl. This year, the biggest change is the funding range is increased to $3000. Region 17 decided to increase the funding amount available to $3000 rather than 2021’s $2000 cap. There is no artist match required per this year’s grant guidelines, so region 17 partners hope that with this increased range they can really help artists bring a project to fruition without burdening them with needing to match a higher amount. 

HCAC and region 17 partners are excited to see the applications for the 2022 season. More information can be found at https://www.haywoodarts.org/grants-funding/ or https://ncarts.gosmart.org/. 

 

Submitted by Debra Torrence