Ohio Arts Council Approves 480 Grants Totaling $7,876,540
by Jaclyn Reynolds
At a public meeting on June 30 the Council Board approved the first round of grants for fiscal year 2009. The Ohio Arts Council will award 480 grants totaling $7,876,540 to support arts organizations and arts programs across Ohio. The Board reviewed 549 grant requests totaling $16,730,852. Recommendations to the Board were made by advisory panels that reviewed applications throughout the spring.
Organizations that receive OAC funds are required to match state tax dollars with additional public and private funds. In general, for every state tax dollar invested, $45 is raised in matching funds by recipient organizations.
For more information specific to this round of grant announcements download this by-city list of grants awarded this round.
Sustainability Program The Sustainability Program provides two-year grants to organizations for annual arts programming or a recurring single project or activity. The program supports organizations that offer broad-based arts programming in any discipline (multiarts, performing arts, literature, traditional arts, visual arts) that is produced and presented by nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, other nonprofit or government entities, and colleges or universities that offer arts programming.
A total of $4,498,740 was awarded to 39 of Ohio’s major arts institutions with budgets of more than $1.5 million.
The Council Board approved 229 Sustainability grants for a total of $2,509,380 for organizations with budgets of less than $1.5 million.
Arts Access Eighty-eight (88) Arts Access grants were approved totaling $160,984. The Arts Access program provides funds for first-time applicants to the OAC, startup organizations, community-driven one-time projects and organizations with budgets under $25,000.
Arts Innovation The Arts Innovation Program awarded sixteen (16) grants funding totaling $159,725. The program supports proposals from organizations that include special, one-time projects, development of new projects for new constituencies, experimental program designs and pioneering initiatives being offered for the first time.
Arts Learning—Arts Partnerships Fifty (50) Arts Partnership grants were awarded totaling $407,391. The program provides one- or two-year grants to support activities that enhance the quality of and access to learning in the arts for learners of all ages, backgrounds, experience levels and abilities.
Arts Learning—Artist in Residence
The Artist in Residence Program (AIR) awarded forty-seven (47) grants for a total of $114,400. AIR places accomplished, professional artists in a variety of educational and community settings.
Individual Creativity—Artists in Communities
One (1) application was approved in the Artists and Communities Program for a total of $10,920. The program supports artist-initiated projects that are collaborative art-making experiences with a specific community and that result in the creation of new work.
Individual Creativity—Traditional Arts Apprenticeships
Ten (10) Traditional Arts Apprenticeships were approved totaling $15,000. The program provides support for a master artist and one or more apprentices to work together in an intensive individual study program that preserves traditional art forms of Ohio residents. Examples of traditional arts include, but are not limited to: Polish paper cutting, blues music, stone carving, Appalachian fiddling, embroidery, Laotian khene playing, icon painting, Irish step dancing, woodcarving, Chicano corridor singing, quilting, tamburitza music and polka.
2008 Grant Award Ratifications
Ratifications are the Board’s final approval of funds allocated in various program areas since its February 28, 2008 meeting. The Board ratified 18 grants from 2008 totaling $92,801. These awards have not been announced previously.
The 2008 ratifications included:
• Two (2) Artists with Disabilities Access grants totaling $1,000
• Four (4) Capacity Building grants for $10,996
• Twelve (12) Special Project (for Organizations) grants for $80,805
2009 grant information will be searchable on the Ohio Arts Council Web site at www.oac.state.oh.us/search/grants/SearchGrants.asp on July 21, 2008.
Grant applications were reviewed last winter and spring by panels of arts experts and Ohio Arts Council staff. The Council Board, consisting of 15 gubernatorial appointees and four nonvoting members from the Ohio legislature, makes final decisions based on panel recommendations.
The Ohio Arts Council is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.
Click here for a by-city report of 2008 ratifications.
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