Tucson arts organizations and artists can apply for emergency funds of up to $10,000 for organizations and $2,000 for individual artists under a new city grant program.
But applicants have to act fast: the deadline is Oct. 5 to tap into $712,500 the city has set aside for its Tucson Cares for Artists and Tucson Cares for Arts and Culture Organizations grant programs. Both are funded through the $96 million the city received last spring from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Applications are being processed by the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona and applications are available in English and Spanish.
The program is targeted at nonprofit arts organizations and individual visual and performing artists who have lost income during the pandemic. With venues closed and city and state restrictions limiting the number of people who can gather at one time, Tucson’s arts community has largely come to a crashing halt with the exception of some virtual events. But those events have done little to restore lost income for artists and organizations.
“In some instances artists are in danger of facing homelessness, of facing eviction from their studios and a dire loss of income because there have been so many cancellations” of festivals, markets and exhibits, said Adriana Gallego, the Arts Foundation’s executive director. “There has been a tremendous need that continues to exist and in some cases continues to grow.”
Tucson and South Tucson artists 18 and older whose primary source of income comes from their work in the arts can apply for grants of $1,000 to $2,000.
Arts organizations from museums and art galleries to the orchestras and Tucson Symphony Orchestra can apply for grants of $5,000 to $10,000.
“We really, really put a lot of thought into how we distributed the CARES funds in the city of Tucson,” Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said. “And the arts and culture piece was part of that deliberation. We wanted to make sure we put funds for gig works and sole proprietors. We were thinking of the artists out there who make their living (in the arts).”
Gallego said Tucson is home to 6,500 people employed in the so-called creative workforce that includes musicians, artists and actors. It’s a population that contributes to Tucson’s economy and “soul,” Romero said.
“I seriously do believe that, that they are the soul of our city, the identity of our city,” said Romero, who said that was why arts and culture was prioritized in the city’s CARES funds distribution plans from the start. “It is an important piece of our economy and we felt responsible to provide assistance to those impacted by COVID-19.”
Romero next week will propose additional funding for the arts, this time targeted to Tucson stages that have been dark since March.
Venues including the Rialto Theatre, Fox Tucson Theatre and the Tucson Convention Center campus that is home to the Tucson Arena, Tucson Music Hall and Leo Rich Theatre which not hosted live events since early this year.
Romero said she is going to ask the City Council to support using at least $250,000 of the city’s CARES money for entertainment venues and stages.
Romero last week sent a letter to Arizona’s congressional delegation supporting the federal Save Our Stages Act that would provide funding to venues affected by COVID-19. That bill is stalled in Congress along with other COVID relief funding proposals.
The Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona, meanwhile, is finalizing plans to distribute the $250,000 it received in July from the National Endowment for the Arts CARES grant program. The foundation was one of only nine community arts organizations nationwide to receive the maximum grant from the NEA.
The money will be distributed to arts and cultural organizations throughout Southern Arizona.
