The St. Johns Cultural Council will open its applications for the 2022 State of the Arts Grants on Thursday, September 1. The annual State of the Arts (SOTA) grant program will award up to five $1,000 grants and one $5,000 grant award.
Applications must be submitted on or before 5 PM on Friday, September 30th through the online grant portal. For more information, click here or email [email protected].
According to Christina Parrish Stone, the Cultural Council’s Executive Director, the grant process is competitive and not every application will receive funding. There is no matching requirement and the application and reporting requirements are designed to minimize time of completion.
“The St. Johns Cultural Council is pleased to announce this year’s SOTA grants available through funds raised by the sale of State of the Arts specialty license plates in Florida which have provided more than $130,000 of support to arts organizations and individual artists in St. Johns County,” Parrish Stone said. “The Cultural Council congratulates all past grantees and is thankful for the diligent SOTA grant panel, and for every individual who purchases a State of the Arts license plate to support this important initiative,” she said.
The formal awards presentations in November will include an event to acknowledge the final grants along with honored guests and recipient presentations.
Nonprofit organizations, individual artists, and public schools may apply for funds to support diverse, new or expanded programs in disciplines including arts in education, music, dance, folk arts, humanities, literature, film, theatre and musical theatre, visual arts, historic preservation, or the collection or exhibition of cultural or artistic works.
Individual artists may also apply for grants to fund professional development. Proposals are evaluated for quality, impact and originality.
Applicants must be St. Johns County residents or organizations based in St. Johns County. All grant activities, other than artist professional development, must take place within St. Johns County, Florida. Proposals for activities that reach underserved audiences, provide arts education, and create art in public places will receive priority.
Last year’s grant recipients included A Classic Theatre for its 2021-2022 productions of plays with The Dining Room, The Sisters O’Toole, No Exit, and The Immigrant. Also receiving grant funding was the St. Augustine Boys and Girls Club to provide art supplies for young people, along with Flagler College and the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum which funded costs of the exhibition Magic, Mirth and Mortality: Musings on Black Motherhood, a collaborative project of the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum, the St. Augustine Historical Society, and the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center.
Grants were also bestowed to Resilience: Black Heritage in St. Augustine to support a collaborative event designed to celebrate the cultural and historical heritage of St. Augustine’s Black community. Funding also went to Saint Augustine Concert Band to help present its 2021 through 2022 season of public performances, and to Sebastian Middle School for a printmaking project for 400 middle school students led by local artist Heather Hagy.
