Calling All Artists: Performance in Public Spaces grants aim to fund your next project

Are you an artist or arts organization looking to put on free performances for the public?

Clockwise: FDR Park, Marconi Plaza and Hawthorne Park
Clockwise: FDR Park, Marconi Plaza and Hawthorne Park

The Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE) has chosen 17 specific sites, including Hawthorne Park, Marconi Plaza and FDR Park in South Philly, for a new grant program called Performance in Public Spaces. Not only will it highlight Philly’s amazing public art scene and equally impressive public spaces, it could also see you land between $500 and $3,ooo per performance to make your dream a reality.

Thanks to funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mayors Fund for Philadelphia, the OACCE is accepting applications through Dec. 1. Artists will need to submit the following in order to apply for the program:

  • Application cover page
  • Written narrative describing the project (max. one page)
  • Written narrative of the organizational background and relevant performance history
  • Completed budget worksheet including all fees, production and promotion expenses
  • Work same (attach/link audio or video)
  • Letter of support from approved site location(s)

That last one is especially of note, all artists/groups must have the prior consent of the site as “Partner sites may exercise their own discretion in selecting which artists and organizations they choose to host.” The full list of the 17 partner sites can be found here.

In order for project to be eligible, all applications, whether for a single performance or series of performances, must take place between April 1 and November 1, 2015.  A full list of guidelines can be found here.

Head on over to Creative Philadelphia to get a little more background on the program and also to submit your work. The Deadline to apply is 5 p.m. on Dec. 1. – so get crackin’!