The West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History (WVDACH) and the West Virginia Commission on the Arts are fostering creative youth development, civic engagement and rural placemaking through their new Rural Youth Engagement through Public Art Grant. The grant provides up to $5,000 for projects that directly involve youth in planning and implementing accessible…
In an exciting new opportunity for small creative businesses across Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) has organized the Creative Business Loan Fund. This Creative Business Loan is the direct result of a unique public-private partnership between the state, Bridgeway Capital and Community First Fund. It makes $2.2 million available to support the…
“Creative Placemaking: Joining the State’s Eight Regions” is a new initiative of the North Dakota Council on the Arts (NDCA). This multiyear effort will use public art as a vehicle for rural community development. North Dakota is comprised of eight geographic regions. While each contains an anchor city or town, the regions are predominantly rural.…
In Iowa, where three-quarters of the state’s 544 public libraries serve communities with fewer than 2,500 residents, there is a new initiative to support creative aging in rural areas. Iowa Arts Learning in Libraries is a collaborative effort of the State Library of Iowa and the Iowa Arts Council (IAC) to offer free arts classes…
ARTShops is a collaborative effort of the Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA) and The CIRI Foundation—with support from the Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation—to catalyze Alaska Native artists’ creative leadership and community development throughout rural Alaska. Every year since the pilot program launched in 2016, a jury-selected cohort of four artists participates in…
In January and February, the Maine Arts Commission braves the elements on its 2018 Arts Iditarod, a two-month technical assistance tour that targets the state’s most rural regions. Events in Kennebunk, Houlton, Lewiston and Ellsworth convene the creative community, offer training sessions and spark dialogue among residents and policymakers interested in rural arts development. The…
With three consecutive years of funding from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, AZ ArtWorker, an initiative of the Arizona Commission on the Arts (ACA) and Arizona State University (ASU), has created dozens of opportunities for artists in remote and historically underserved communities to connect with and learn from their local, national and international peers. Based…
Mastering the Arts (MTA) is a new four-year initiative to provide arts focused professional development to teachers from seven low-achieving rural elementary schools serving Native American and Latino students. Underwritten by a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the program will help up to 30 K-12 classroom and specialist teachers work toward…
Recognizing that space, time and community are key ingredients for developing a creative career, the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission (KCAIC) has launched the Tallgrass Artist Residency. A partnership between KCAIC, the Center for Living Education at Matfield Green and the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University, the residency enables artists…
A perennial goal of state arts agencies is to improve their engagement with and support of underserved communities. Geographic isolation, economic distress and other factors can be roadblocks for some constituents, especially those in rural areas. Recognizing the long-term impacts of such impediments, some state arts agencies have developed programs that focus especially on reaching…
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