Applications for 2023 Arts and Culture Projects Open Now, With Over $1 Million in Grants To Be Distributed This Year

In 2023, $169,000 will be distributed to the community as part of the Boulder Arts Commission 2023 cycle of cultural grants. Applications are open for community projects, arts education projects, professional development scholarships, grant writing support, and more. Grants are available for organizations, individuals, and classrooms. Applications are available in English or Spanish.

The cornerstone of the Arts Commission’s grantmaking is the General Operating Support (GOS) grants: $756,000 awarded to 37 organizations in 2022 for a three-year term. This funding will continue in 2023, ensuring that those arts nonprofits continue to fulfill their missions in support of the community.

In addition, Boulder City Council identified $250,000 in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to support the recovery of individual artists and cultural venues; two aspects of the arts economy that continue to feel the impacts of the pandemic. More information about these additional grants will be available early in 2023. Also funded by ARPA, three-year grants to support the rehiring of administrative staff at arts organizations will continue to bolster the arts workforce through next year.

Altogether in 2023, the Boulder Arts Commission is providing $1,475,000 in community funding
for the arts.

An information session about the 2023 Boulder Arts Commission cultural grants will be held over Zoom at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 14. This session includes a conversation with an arts commissioner about the decision-making process. Learn more about the grants program by visiting the website. RSVP to Lauren Click at clickl@bouldercolorado.gov for meeting access information. This program will be live interpreted into Spanish. For a live interpretation of this event in another language, please alert Lauren Click no later than 48 hours in advance at the same email address.

Each year, the Boulder Arts Commission awards grants to support the well-being, prosperity, and joy of the community through creativity. By supporting local arts organizations, classrooms, and artists, the Arts Commission funding enhances Boulder’s vibrancy, contributes to social cohesion, and supports the ongoing recovery of the arts and culture industry; a sector of the local economy that was among those most impacted by the pandemic. For the 2022 cultural grants cycle, the Arts Commission granted 93 awards. Two of the awardees were Boulder Opera and East Window.

Boulder Opera received a 2022 Arts Education Grant to tour schools with shows of Gato con Botas (Puss in Boots). Students were introduced to opera in their classrooms by members of the company and curriculum. The program was offered in either English or Spanish, depending on the needs of the students, and then a final, bilingual performance was presented to students in an assembly. The program reached nearly 1,400 students in several local schools.

East Window is a 2022 general operating support grant recipient. East Window supports and promotes diverse artistic practices and the ideas that surround them. They have two exhibitions currently on view.

• Yvens Alex Saintil, a multidisciplinary artist born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and raised in Queens, New York. He is known for his diverse works that are meant to spark meaningful conversations centered around police reform and accountability, veteran mental healthcare, gun violence, and activism.
• Photographs by Harry James Hanson and Devin Antheus. Hanson and Antheus’s work celebrate queer elders who have long been cultural and spiritual leaders within their communities.

Operating grants cover day-to-day activities or ongoing expenses such as administrative salaries, utilities, office supplies, and technology maintenance. Operating grants will be open again for application in 2024. As a first-time applicant, East Window was able to utilize the City of Boulder Office of Arts and Culture grant writing assistance fund to engage a grant writer to work on their application.

Visit the Arts and Culture cultural grants webpage for more information about the program and the application.

There are more funding opportunities for the arts community of Boulder. Next week, the Office of Arts and Culture is hosting a Cultural Organizations Summit: 2023 Funding Info Session from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 15 at the Main Boulder Public Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., in the Boulder Creek Room. Attendees will enjoy presentations about 2023 funding opportunities from arts supporters across the region, including the Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau, Boulder County Arts Alliance (BCAA), Colorado Creative Industries (CCI), Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), Create Boulder, the City of Boulder Human Relations Commission, Boulder Arts Commission, and the Office of Arts and Culture Public Art Program. Directors, staff, and board members of cultural organizations are welcome to attend, as are individual artists. All cultural organizations are encouraged to send two representatives to this free summit. Please RSVP to rsvp@bouldercolorado.gov.

The City of Boulder’s Office of Arts and Culture is currently implementing Boulder’s Community Cultural Plan. Through a set of programs including cultural grants, public art, initiatives that support artists and the creative economy, and research, the office supports the community-created Vision for Culture: Together, we will craft Boulder’s social, physical and cultural environment to include creativity as an essential ingredient for the wellbeing, prosperity and joy of everyone in the community.