2025 ARPA ARTISTS GRANT

The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the City of Tucson, will accept proposals for funding from Artists and Culture Bearers living and working in Tucson and Southern Arizona. The funding comes from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). ARPA is designed to fuel the nation’s recovery from the devastating economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These funds are intended to help support jobs in the arts sector, keep the doors open to arts organizations nationwide and assist the field in its response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only individual Artists or Culture Bearers can apply directly through this program. The awarded funds will be made directly to the Artist, in exchange for services provided to the Client identified in the proposal. Approximately 40-160 grants will be awarded to individual Artists and Culture Bearers to provide arts services like: arts programming, workshops, facilitation, mentorship, provide artistic services, artwork or consultations. Clients may include but not be limited to: government, community groups, schools, non-profit 501(c)3 organizations, community/civic partners, artist peers, businesses, LLC’s, and other entities outside the arts sector. Individuals applying through this grant program may define their creative practice in any artistic discipline and provide a service informed by any artistic practice.

Upon completion, the artist’s profile will be promoted as a vetted business service provider in our online Arts Directory for Southern Arizona. This workforce investment advocates for an environment of mutual respect between artists, community, public and private institutions.

The program is open to Artists and Culture Bearers located within the Arts Foundation’s service area, which includes counties and Tribal Nations that reside between the southern edges of the Gila River to the US-Mexico international border. The 2025 ARPA Artists Grant intends to make awards that will impact a broad constituency. This includes a wide geographic range and services that support underserved populations such as those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability.

The Arts Foundation will steward ARPA funds to complement a 3-year initiative to equitably rebuild arts economies in the borderlands and strengthen civic participation. The Artists Grant program will invest in Southern Arizona’s arts economy to 1) Restore/create jobs and 2) Incentivize arts & civic engagement.

The 2025 ARPA Artists Grant is a pilot program of the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona that was developed in response to articulated community needs with the working Artist in mind. The program is open to individual Artists and Culture Bearers who have identified a Client they want to work with or to whom unpaid artistic services were provided during the published funding period. This is considered a fee to the Artists, for services rendered within the eligible funding period, that has not yet been paid in full.

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