After recent turmoil surrounding Metro’s ability to send grants to arts organizations and individual artists, recent figures show higher demand than ever for the funding.
The current Metro Arts grant cycle attracted dozens more applicants than a year ago — up 23% — according to the agency.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the amount of available funding: $3.2 million. That means a more competitive selection period, which should wrap up by the end of September.
The dollars are spread across two types of grants. One sends money to arts and culture organizations, including prominent institutions, to help pay for their day to day operations.
The second, called “Thrive,” offers funding for individual artists, small teams or one-off projects. This program initially ran into some legal questions, but now that those are sorted out, Thrive saw an even bigger jump in applicants than Metro Arts’ more organization-focused grant program.
Last year, Metro Arts went through a period of extreme volatility. The agency lost its executive director, fell behind on distributing grants and was required to come up with a new approach to these two funding buckets.
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