Arts and culture in the Coachella Valley are taking a hard hit from the COVID-19 crisis. Music and theater performances, museum and gallery exhibitions, film screenings, and other events have been canceled or postponed, arts institutions shuttered, and jobs lost. Like everyone else, California Desert Arts Council (CDAC) is grappling with how best to serve our mission and the community during these fluid and harrowing times. While continuing to provide timely information and vital resources, we want to do more to Keep Art Alive.

In this spirit, CDAC and affiliate La Quinta Arts Foundation (LQAF) have established a $50,000 fund to award grants to artists of all disciplines and nonprofit arts organizations to create thoughtful, inspiring, and relevant works responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Click for application

“We are calling on Coachella Valley artists working in all media — visual, performing, and written and spoken word — to create new works that we will share with the community in unity and hope,” says Christi Salamone, president and CEO of the organizations. “We want to support creative individuals as well as organizations with a financial and promotional boost when they need it most.”

The Keep Art Alive program will award $500 grants to selected artists and $1,500 grants to selected nonprofit organizations with budgets up to $1 million. CDAC will publish and promote selected works and tell the stories of the artists and organizations through our outreach platforms.

CDAC welcomes submissions in the following disciplines: Visual Art and Craft, Music and Sound Art, Dance, Written Word (poetry, short story), and Spoken Word. All works must be original and created for this initiative. Previously published or exhibited works are ineligible.

 

TERMS AND INSTRUCTIONS:

    1. Submissions will be accepted for consideration through June 1, 2020.
    2. Submissions in Visual Art and Craft, Music and Sound Art, Dance, and Written and Spoken Word are welcome.
    3. This grant is open to Coachella Valley–based individual working artists and nonprofit arts organizations (“Applicant”). Individual working artists must be primarily engaged in exhibiting, performing, presenting, or publishing their art to support their livelihood; this grant is not open to hobbyists.
    4. Grant awards for selected works are: Nonprofit organization, $1,500; individual artist, $500.
    5. Applicant will create a new work of art specifically for the Keep Art Alive initiative; not previously exhibited or published.
    6. Applicant will submit the application from the CDAC website accompanied by the artwork in digital format (300 dpi JPG files) via e-mail — info@cadesertarts.org — or a file sharing platform (WeTransfer and Dropbox) with the subject Keep Art Alive. Text files may be either Microsoft Word or simple text.  Incomplete applications will not be considered.
    7. Applicant certifies that the work is created for the Keep Art Alive initiative, free of any legal encumbrance, and not subject to copyright infringement.
    8. Multiple submissions are welcome and may or may not be published; however, only select submissions will be awarded grants.
    9. Applicant agrees to complete an IRS Form W-9 prior to receipt of grant payment.
    10. Applicant grants CDAC, LQAF, and all affiliates rights to reproduce and publish art submission(s) and information provided in this application for the purposes of promoting the Keep Art Alive initiative and the Applicant.

Coachella Valley artists and nonprofit arts organizations are invited to apply here.