Virginia: Leveraging Local Investment

Daniel Stover, cofounder of Staufferstadt Arts, showcases the results of the Staufferstadt Mural Project.

County and municipal support for the arts are critical ingredients in public-sector support for the arts. To incentivize local investment, the Virginia Commission for the Arts (VCA) offers Creative Communities Partnership Grants. This program challenges Virginia’s county, city and township governments to allocate local tax dollars to arts and cultural projects. VCA will match up to $4,500 in funding that local governments regrant to independent arts organizations, to support activities that engage community members in cultural programming.

In fiscal year 2019-2020, localities received 125 awards totaling $522,250 through this VCA program. The regrants supported a wide array of creative activities, including festivals, performances, exhibitions and unrestricted program/operating support for community arts groups. Localities can focus the support on one organization or split the funds among multiple recipients.

As a condition of this funding, localities must describe a commitment to ongoing support for the arts, and each government recipient must confirm to VCA that its governing board has appropriated its own matching funds as well as the partnership grant funds from VCA. To ensure that other local systems of arts support continue to thrive, Creative Communities Partnership Grants cannot be used to supplant school arts budgets or arts programming by parks and recreation departments. For more information, contact VCA Deputy Director Lucas Hall.