Emerging First Coast artists invited to apply for grants

Posted on April 11, 2014 By Editor Neighborhood News

The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida is inviting emerging individual artists from the First Coast area to apply for an Art Ventures Grant of up to $3,500. These grants are offered to help individual artists take the “next step” in their artistic development.

According to Amy Crane, Program Director, The Community Foundation, for Northeast Florida, “This is the 24th year that The Community Foundation has made Art Ventures Fund grants available to individual artists, and in that time we have made 139 grants of nearly $240,000. This year, we anticipate making 9 or 10 grants to individual artists, depending on the average amount requested.”

Applicants must be at least 18 years of age, legal residents of Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau or St. Johns Counties and have resided in one of these counties for at least 12 months at the time of application. Due to the high demand for grants, artists may not receive grants in consecutive years and are only eligible for three Individual Artist grant awards in a lifetime. Individual Artist Applications are due by June 5, 2014 for grants beginning November 1, 2014.

“The generous benefactors who have given to our Art Ventures fund invested with the belief that a thriving arts community was essential to the quality of life in Jacksonville,” Crane said. “As one of our funders (Mary Ann Bryan, herself an artist) put it, “We really want the First Coast to be a place that artists can call home.”