Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation To Receive
$1.7 Million Through the United States
Regional Arts Resilience Fund
New Mellon Foundation Fund Supports Small and Mid-Sized Arts Organizations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Media Contact: Karen Newell
karen@midatlanticarts.org | 410.539.6656 x104
Baltimore, MD – June 16, 2020 – Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (MAAF), in partnership with our sister Regional Arts Organizations (RAOs), is pleased to announce the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund to support arts organizations across the country with a generous investment of $10 million from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Fund will be jointly administered by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Arts Midwest, Mid-America Arts Alliance, New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), South Arts, and the Western States Arts Federation.
“Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation is thrilled to be joining our fellow Regional Arts Organizations to provide financial support to arts organizations through the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund. We are grateful to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for recognizing the importance of securing the future of arts organizations in rebuilding our community,” said Hal Real, chair of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. “We look forward to working with organizations throughout our region to ensure their work can continue during this extraordinary time and beyond.”
The $10 million investment from The Mellon Foundation will provide initial funding for the project and is part of Mellon’s COVID-19 response. Recognizing the impact of the pandemic on the arts and culture sector in the U.S. and the potential for unprecedented change across the sector, Mellon worked with the RAOs to create the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund. The Fund will support small and mid-sized arts organizations working in all artistic disciplines and will focus on those organizations that are regarded by their peers as having statewide, regional, or national impact. Priority will be given to those organizations that are most at risk during this crisis, including historically under-resourced organizations, as well as those who serve under-resourced populations, communities, and/or art forms.
Each RAO will receive a funding pool allocation according to a formula based on population size and number of states served. Grants will be made in mid-summer 2020. The Mid Atlantic Arts Regional Resilience Fund, a part the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund, will provide non-matching grants, generally in the range of $30,000 to $75,000, with potential for a small number of grants up to $100,000. RAO’s are responsible for designing their own Fund program to best fit the needs of their region. Programs will launch at different times and be announced by each RAO separately.
To date, Americans for the Arts estimates that U.S. arts organizations have lost over $5.9 billion due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Arts organizations, by their very nature, tend to be high contact both for their audiences and their workers. As one of the last businesses to open on phased-in reopening plans, we can only expect this number to rise. In the mid-Atlantic region alone, an estimated $273 million has been lost by arts organizations over the last three months. Approximately 36,000 people have been laid off with another 1.2 million furlough
The United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund program seeks to alleviate some of those losses while ensuring that organizations of impact are able to continue their work. The RAO’s are continuing to work collaboratively to find additional support for the Fund to widen the recovery effort for organizations across the United States.
About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Founded in 1969, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the largest national supporter of the arts and humanities, endeavors to strengthen, promote, and, where necessary, defend the contributions of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse and democratic societies by supporting exemplary institutions of higher education and culture as they renew and provide access to an invaluable heritage of ambitious, path-breaking work. Additional information is available at mellon.org.
About Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation develops partnerships and programs that reinforce artists’ capacity to create and present work and advance access to and participation in the arts. The Foundation was created in 1979 and is a private non-profit organization that is closely allied with the region’s state arts councils and the National Endowment for the Arts. It combines funding from state and federal resources with private support from corporations, foundations, and individuals to address needs in the arts from a regional, national, and international perspective. To learn more about MAAF, its programs and services, visit our website at www.midatlanticarts.org.