Greater Columbus Arts Council Releases 2024 Grants Program Details and New Website

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC) has released the guidelines for its 2024 funding programs.

In the coming year, GCAC is renewing most grant, fellowship, residency, award and exchange programs, with some adjustments, while adding new offerings. The changes are in response to feedback collected through a public community artist-needs survey, a series of three facilitated roundtable events, one BIPOC focus group and seven discipline-specific focus groups organized over the summer of 2023. Amongst the resulting changes is a new artist grant with a larger award, review and selection conducted by an open community process, and an easier process for applying. Based on input from over 500 respondents, the eligibility-based Funds for Artist grant award maximums will be reduced to allow the budget for more meaningful artist project awards, while also maintaining the accessible, eligibility-based Funds for Artists program.

“The results of these community conversations reinforced much of what we already knew, but it also empowered us to retool some of our 2024 efforts and beyond,” said Alison Barret, vice president of grants and community engagement for GCAC. “We want to provide more meaningful support with a heightened focus on the people behind the art – the art administrators and artists. We can’t have a healthy arts community, a key economic driver for our city, if we aren’t bolstering the work and the wellness of the art-makers and presenters. Overall, we will continue to refine our grants, workshops and networking events with this human-centered approach. Also, GCAC will level up its advocacy work to address artists’ concerns like lack of arts spaces, fair compensation, business opportunities and access to equipment, as well as putting artists’ stories at the center of all human needs discussions. We still have many steps to go, but with some of 2024’s changes we’re hoping to further pave the way for Columbus artists and organizations to thrive.”

Highlights of GCAC’s 2024 funding programs, with noted adjustments, include the following:

For Organizations:

• Operating Support: Unrestricted support for organizations with revenues over $500,000. Beginning in 2024, Operating Support will begin a biennial application process, with organizations submitting full applications in even years.
• General Support: Unrestricted support for organizations with budgets under $500,000. Beginning in 2024, General Support will begin a biennial application process, with organizations submitting full applications in even years.
• Project Support: Events, Festivals, Series: Project-based funding for organizations producing events, festivals and small series.
• Cultural Festivals: Formerly part of Project Support, this grant offers assistance for local cultural festivals that present cultural heritage traditions and primarily reach immigrant, refugee and New American audiences.
• Capital Expense: Launched in 2023 and supported in part by the Facility Stabilization Fund, the Capital Expense program is open to Operating and General Support grantees, who may apply for funding for renovation or expansion of cultural venues and large equipment purchases.

For Artists:

• Artist Projects: New for 2024, Artist Projects provides awards up to $10,000* to support projects that involve art creation and have an end result that the public can experience. These significantly larger grants will support at least 50 artists and no longer require artists to have a fiscal sponsor at the time of application. (*Up to eight filmmaker applications will receive up to $25,000.)
• Funds for Artists: An annual eligibility-based grant designated for what artists need to create their art, promote their art and professional development to take their artistry to the next level. For 2024, deadlines will be rolling, and the maximum grant amount will $500 per artist per year.
• Mural Assistance: Offering partial funding up to $5,000 to artists for creation of exterior murals. Open only to artists (in prior years Mural Assistance was open to nonprofit organizations, too) with building owners providing small matching funds.
• Artists Elevated: Invitation-only award of $25,000 unrestricted for artists selected by a national jury. In 2024, GCAC will increase the program from five to seven awards.
• Visual Arts Fellowship: Offered every other year in partnership with the Columbus Museum of Art, the award gives $10,000 to four artists. The application is open in odd years.
• Aminah Robinson programs: Offered in partnership with the Columbus Museum of Art, the programs include the Aminah Robinson Artist Residency (open to a national African American visual artist), the Aminah Robinson Artist Fellowship (open to Franklin County African American visual artists) and the Aminah Robinson Writer Scholar Researcher Residency (open to a local or national African American writer, scholar, researcher and underwritten by the Columbus Museum of Art).
• Lincoln Theatre Expand Your Horizon Arts Incubation program: Sponsored by GCAC and delivered by the Lincoln Theatre, this features an annual cohort of African American artists participating in a 12-month program to learn the business side of the arts. GCAC also provides a $1,500 stipend to each artist upon graduation.
• Dresden Artists Exchange: An invitation-only program for artists who have received previous GCAC fellowships or awards in any discipline. GCAC sends two Columbus artists to Dresden and hosts two German artists in Columbus, each for up to 90 days.

Complete guidelines, including program descriptions, requirements and application links, can be found here:

• Funding for artists: org/for-artists/artists-grants
• Funding for organizations: org/for-organizations/organization-grants

The grant application processes will be streamlined in the coming year with the launch of the redesigned GCAC.org. First introduced in the fall of 2023, the new site was upgraded to fit GCAC’s new branding, and to more easily serve artists and organizations looking for funding opportunities and other resources.

Mission of the Greater Columbus Arts Council: To support and advance the arts and cultural fabric of Columbus. www.gcac.org

The Greater Columbus Arts Council receives major financial support from the City of Columbus, Franklin County Commissioners, the Ohio Arts Council and The Ohio State University.

For translations of this release and other pages, please see the dropdown menu at the top right corner of gcac.org.

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