Statewide Community Re-grants Program: Individual Artist Grant

The Statewide Community Re-grants Program, administered by the CREATE Council on the Arts, provides funds to empower individual artists in Columbia, Greene, and Schoharie Counties. Grants of $2,500 to $5,000 support artist-initiated projects that foster community engagement, creativity, and cultural diversity. The program emphasizes local involvement through a peer review panel, ensuring that community needs and aspirations are prioritized in the grant process, thus enriching the overall artistic landscape.

Overview
The Statewide Community Regrant (SCR) program, administered by the CREATE Council on the Arts, channels public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) to inspire and empower individual artists and cultural organizations in Columbia, Greene, and Schoharie Counties. Its fundamental goal is to ensure access to the arts, recognizing their pivotal role in community enrichment, economic vitality, and overall well-being. The SCR grants support a diverse range of artistic expressions, fostering creativity as a communal asset while promoting cultural diversity, inclusivity, and the dynamic evolution of artistic practices in the region.
An integral aspect of the SCR program is its focus on community involvement which includes a peer panel composed of local community members. Community stakeholders know from lived experience what a community's unique needs and aspirations are and they bring insight into the review process of grant applications.
Guidelines: Individual Artists
Individual Artists Grants may be offered in the amount of $2,500 and $5,000. This opportunity represents a “live & work” investment in local artists residing in Columbia, Greene, or Schoharie County. It is designed to increase support for local artist-initiated activity and to highlight the role of artists as important members of the community. Individual Artist projects must include a form of community engagement, to be determined by the artist. The purpose is to impact a segment of the community, and it could take the form of a public program or engagement with community members during the creation of the artist’s work.
Artists are not expected to do both a public program and engagement with a segment of the community during the creative process. Rather, they can select the type of engagement that is appropriate for their project. Engagement through a public program may take the form of an exhibition, performance, reading, screening, workshop, or artist talk that is open to the general public.
Alternatively, artists can include community involvement in the development and creative process of the artists’ project. This can be in the form of feedback, response, interaction and/or social practice by or with community members. Some examples of this type of interaction are interviews with a segment of the community, creation of parallel work by a community group, or stories and anecdotes collected from a community group that relate to the concept or content of the project.
Artists may apply directly in this category. There isn’t a Community Partner or Fiscal Sponsor requirement in the Individual Artist category.
Individual Artist Grants are available to:
Artists in all disciplines (includes visual, performing, and multimedia).Artists who have not been awarded an Individual Artist grant in the past 3 years.  Artists interested in creating new work that engages with the community in some way, either through the artist’s creative process or a public presentation of work.