Jazz Road Tours Grants

Jazz Road Tours Grants provide financial support for emerging and mid-career jazz artists to develop tours across communities in the U.S. Grants up to $15,000 facilitate three-to-six site tours, focusing on underserved areas. This program, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Mellon Foundation, aims to enhance artists' income opportunities while promoting jazz in diverse venues. Applications are encouraged from individual artists, with deadlines throughout 2024 and 2025 for various tour periods.

Jazz artists, take your music to places it's never been. Jazz Road Tours offer grants of up to $15,000 to develop tours into communities across the country.
Detailed Program Description
Jazz Road is a national initiative from South Arts supporting jazz artists through touring and residency grants that bring jazz into new places, strengthen artist careers, and build deeper connections with communities. Rooted in the African-American tradition, jazz thrives on connection—and this cycle is all about just that.
This February, South Arts is pleased to introduce a unique Jazz Road Tours cycle dedicated to rural communities nationwide. South Arts will take an active curatorial role, collaborating directly with artists to develop and shape tours that serve rural regions.
Program Priorities
Providing jazz artists financial assistance for performances/tours that increases their ability to earn income by connecting with a variety of communities in traditional and non-traditional venuesGiving artists business development tools to advance their careers beyond subsidies and grants. The goals are rooted in equitable pay and artist-centric programming as core values. South Arts believes that artists should receive fair pay for their time, work, and expertise, and that allowing artists (as opposed to venues/agents) to control engagements offers a unique level of creative autonomy and ownership; these goals are discussed below as well as in the Supplemental Questions document uploaded with this application. Key Components Of Jazz Road Tours

Eligibility

We’re inviting Letters of Interest (LOIs) from:Jazz artists based in rural areas or nearby urban centers;Artists with personal ties to underserved communities—through family, history, or shared cultural connection.
Eligible ArtistsOnly individual artists (as an individual, an artist-led nonprofit organization, or an artist-led corporation) may apply to this program. An eligible artist is:A professional jazz artist, working solo or working with a composer-led or collective jazz ensemble which consists of 2-10 musicians;Age 18 or over and not currently a full-time student;Based in the U.S. or its territories, and is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident (non-residents may participate in a tour, but not be paid with Jazz Road Tours funds)Eligible ToursEligible tour routing will span three to six sites on contiguous dates.
Funds are for artists to stay on the road and not return home. Funds are not for one-offs. Flexibility is possible around three-day spreads in between dates, or to avoid shows on Monday/Tuesday (slow evenings), if the band remains on the road.
The tour must reach three to six sites, and either cover a total distance of at least 250 miles or more or reach at least one site which is 250 miles from the applicant’s home base.
Tours must occur within the designated dates for each grant cycle.
Eligible tour dates must take place in the U.S. or its territories.
Tours can be within one state, cross state-lines, and/or travel to multiple regions.
The tour request can be for a portion of a larger tour, so long as all dates are in the U.S. or its territories.
Engagements must be for public performances.
Shows can require admissions, suggested door amounts, or be free.
Engagements can be for multiple nights so long as at least three separate venues are included in the application.
Each venue listed on the tour must demonstrate their commitment to the engagement by providing a signed Offer Letter that you will be asked to upload for each engagement.
All presenters—regardless of size or financial contribution to the tour—are expected to make significant efforts in promotion and/or create other opportunities to attract new audiences and fill rooms. Eligible ExpensesPerformance fees: the equitable amount the artist/ensemble will normally charge for a touring engagement fee such as the one planned. Fees for a road/sound/tour manager can be included.
Meals
Backline equipment for artists which the presenter is not providing.
Artist Support Eligible venues include but are not limited to:Nonprofit and commercial established jazz presenters and clubsPerforming arts centers, theaters, and concert hallsUniversities, colleges, and institutions of higher educationJazz festivalsLocal arts agencies/councilsRadio station live segmentsArtist spacesCommunity centersChurches, synagogues, mosques and other places of worshipEmbassiesGalleriesMuseumsListening rooms and librariesHouse concertsOpen-air marketsRetail and civic/municipal eventsSocial scene hotspots