GRANTS AND PROGRAMS
GRANTS
Al Smith Fellowship and Emerging Artist Programs
The Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowships are unrestricted $7,500 awards given to Kentucky artists who have achieved a high level of excellence and creativity in their work.
The Kentucky Arts Council's Emerging Artist Award is a $1,000 unrestricted award to early-career, professional Kentucky artists who demonstrate excellence and creativity in their work.
FOLK AND TRADITIONAL ARTS APPRENTICESHIP
The Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant provides up to $3,000 to a Kentucky master traditional artist to teach skills, practices and culture to a less experienced artist from the same community during the course of a year.
KENTUCKY ARTS PARTNERSHIP
The Kentucky Arts Partnership grant provides unrestricted operating support to arts organizations to ensure that year-round participation in the arts is available to the people of Kentucky. The amount funded is derived from a formula based on the organization’s operating revenues, the panelists' assessment of the application and the funds available for the program.
PERFORMING ARTISTS DIRECTORY TOURING GRANT
The Performing Artists Directory Touring (PAD-T) Grant is a matching grant that helps make quality public performances available to the people of the commonwealth. This program provides presenters with fee support for booking artists from the Kentucky Arts Council Performing Artists Directory.
POETRY OUT LOUD
Poetry Out Loud is a national poetry recitation competition created by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation and administered in partnership with the state arts agencies. Each participating school receives an artist residency and the opportunity for the school champion to attend the state competition with a chaperone. The state champion goes on to the national competition in Washington, D.C.
TEACHING ART TOGETHER
The Teaching Art Together Grant lets teachers collaborate with practicing, professional artists on the design and implementation of innovative one- to four-week residencies. Residencies provide teachers with the tools to continue to incorporate the arts into the curriculum after the residency is completed.
TRANSPARTATION
The TranspARTation Grant enables Kentucky teachers and schools to offer students high quality arts experiences by providing transportation funding. Grants will be based on the mileage from the school building to the arts organization or performance venue and the number of buses necessary.
PROGRAMS
COMMUNITY SCHOLARS PROGRAM
The Community Scholars Program trains members of a community in documentation, interpretation and dissemination of their unique local cultural resources and traditional art forms. Training consists of several sessions and occurs twice a year in different communities across the state. Certification as a Community Scholar opens up many opportunities for future research projects.
GOVERNOR'S AWARDS IN THE ARTS NOMINATION
The Commonwealth’s highest honor in the arts, the Governor’s Awards recognize individuals and organizations who have made extraordinary and significant contributions to the arts in Kentucky. The Kentucky Arts Council coordinates the nomination process for these awards.
KENTUCKY CRAFTED
Kentucky Crafted is an adjudicated program that provides assistance to Kentucky visual and craft artists through marketing and promotional opportunities and arts business training.
KENTUCKY PEER ADVISORY NETWORK
The Kentucky Peer Advisory Network consists of arts professionals on the Kentucky Peer Advisory directory available to provide three- to six-hour consultancies to assist eligible organizations and individual artists with board development, grant writing, marketing and promotions, strategic planning, festival planning and other activities. Consultancy fees are paid by the Kentucky Arts Council.
KENTUCKY POET LAUREATE NOMINATION
The Kentucky Poet Laureate, a position established by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1991, is appointed by the Governor for a two-year term (based on nominations collected by the Kentucky Arts Council) and is expected to travel the state promoting the literary arts at meetings, seminars and conferences.
PERFORMING ARTISTS DIRECTORY
The Performing Artists Directory is an adjudicated roster of Kentucky performing artists used by in-state and out-of-state presenters and others as a resource for identifying artists for performance bookings and projects.
TEACHING ARTISTS DIRECTORY
The Teaching Artists Directory is an online directory of Kentucky artists who produce high quality artistic work and have the skills and competencies needed to work with teachers and students in designing and implementing arts education programs.