Newsletter Header. Four horizontal rows of purple circle across a rectangle. The Mid Atlantic Arts logo sits in the top left corner in white and bright yellow. The word NEWS stretches across the circles with a circle to the left calling out FEB 2023.

U.S. Regional Arts Organizations Seeking

a National Director

The U.S. Regional Arts Organizations (USRAOs) are committed to strengthening America’s infrastructure by increasing access to creativity for all Americans. We are currently looking for a National Director to help deepen our impact regionally & nationally.


The USRAOs serve the nation’s artists, arts and culture organizations, and creative communities with programs that reflect and celebrate the diversity of the field in which we work. We partner with the National Endowment for the Arts, state arts agencies, individuals, and other public and private funders to develop and deliver programs, services, and products that advance arts and creativity.


Together, the USRAOs work to activate and operate national arts initiatives, encourage, and support collaboration across regions, states, and communities, and maximize the coordination of public and private resources invested in arts programs. In Fiscal Year 2021, we invested over $28.3 Million across the U.S. and its jurisdictions, through more than 3,000 grants that reached more than 1,600 communities.


In 2021, a series of conversations was held to explore the adoption of a shared service model to strengthen and deepen impact regionally and nationally. The result, a collective Memo of Understanding, allows the USRAO's to begin functioning as a united national collective in key, strategic areas of mutual interest and benefit.


The National Director will play a critical role in developing and coordinating the shared national programmatic and fundraising vision of the USRAOs as a united national collective. Collaborating with the collective executive leadership of the USRAOs, the National Director will ground the foundational development of the USRAOs shared service hub in an action-focused, measurable, and reportable commitment to equity, inclusion, and access.


Applications are being accepted through Tuesday, February 28, 2023.


Find out more and apply here.

Upcoming Deadlines!

ArtsCONNECT - Projects in Development Deadline February, 16, 2023 | Program Deadline March 2, 2023


ArtsCONNECT supports touring projects collaboratively developed by presenters working together in the mid-Atlantic region. The tours include performances as well as complementary engagement activities designed to create greater understanding or connections between artists, audiences, and communities.

Jazz Road Tours - Deadlines March 8, 2023 and June 1, 2023


Focused on the artist, Jazz Road Tours supports small, three- to six-site tours at an

array of venue types, often in rural communities and other areas traditionally underserved by the genre. *Administered by South Arts.

Special Presenter Initiatives - Deadline March 14, 2023


The Special Presenter Initiatives provide additional opportunities for the support of small to mid-sized performing arts presenters in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and West Virginia. Fee support is available for engagements of performing artists based anywhere worldwide. Engagements include performances as well as community activities that enhance the performance experience and offer meaningful exchanges between touring artists and a presenter’s community.

Mid Atlantic Tours - Booking Deadline March 23, 2023


Mid Atlantic Tours brings the best of the performing arts to communities across the mid-Atlantic region. Presenters select from a curated roster of artists that changes annually but maintains a programmatic commitment to a diversity of performance genres, regional artist representation, and engaging with communities underserved by the arts. 

USArtists International - Deadline March 29, 2023


USArtists International supports in-person and virtual performances by American artists at engagements at international festivals and global presenting arts marketplaces outside of the United States. The program funds individuals and ensembles across all performing arts practices and disciplines with grants of up to $18,000 towards eligible travel expenses.

Iber Exchange - Offer Letters Due to Agents by April 25, 2023


Bring artists from Brazil, Mexico, and Spain to your community with the help of a grant from Iber Exchange. Grants support up to 50% of the negotiated artist fee to non-profit presenters in the mid-Atlantic that book a roster artist for a public performance and community engagement activity between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024.

Jazz Road Tours Accepting Applications

South Arts has re-opened Jazz Road Tours, part of the national, artist-centric Jazz Road program. Jazz artists can apply for grants of up to $15,000 supporting three- to six-site tours around the country. The next deadline to apply is Wednesday, March 8, 2023,with regular deadlines throughout the coming years. 


Want to learn more? Check out this webinar which provides additional guidance and shares best practices when assembling an application.
Go to the Jazz Road Tours Guidelines

Congrats Grammy Awardees!

Congratulations to all of the Grammy Awardees and nominees! We offer a round of applause to past and present Mid Atlantic Arts grantees* and roster artists* who were honored with 2023 Grammy Awards:


  • Arturo O'Farrill & The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra* Featuring The Congra Patria Son Jarocho Collective - Best Latin Jazz Album
  • Blanchard*: Fire Shut Up In My Bones - Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Angel Blue, Will Liverman, Latonia Moore & Walter Russell III; David Frost, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus) - Best Opera Recording
  • Donald Nally, conductor (Dominic German, Maren Montalbano, Rebecca Myers & James Reese; The Crossing*) - Best Choral Performance
  • Kevin Puts, composer (Xian Zhang, Time for Three* & The Philadelphia Orchestra*) - Best Contemporary Classical Composition
  • Ranky Tanky* - Best Regional Roots Music Album
  • Robert Glasper* - Best R&B Album
  • Snarky Puppy* - Contemporary Instrumental Musical
  • Terry Lynn Carrington*, Kris Davis, Linda May Han Oh*, Nicholas Payton & Matthew Stevens - Best Jazz Instrumental Album
  • Time For Three*; Xian Zhang, conductor (The Philadelphia Orchestra*) - Best Classical Instrumental Solo
  • Wayne Shorter* and Leo Genovese - Best Improvised Jazz Solo

Welcome New Folk and Traditional Arts Staff
Photo of Joel Chapman. Joel stands outside in front of green trees. He is a white man with medium length light brown hair. He wears a white long sleeve t-shirt and holds a white and grey cat.

Welcome to Joel Chapman, our new Program Associate for Folk and Traditional Arts! Joel will provide support for the Central Appalachia Living Traditions and Folk and Traditional Arts Community Project Grants program alongside Program Director Emily Hilliard.


From 2019-2023 he worked as Folklife Specialist for the Kentucky Folklife Program at Western Kentucky University. While managing the Kentucky Folklife Program, Joel worked with music-centered communities in Southcentral Kentucky and worked to produce an online exhibit that both contextualizes and demonstrates the importance of music on a hyper-local level. He also worked to produce a state-wide, online magazine, Kentucky Folklife, dedicated to publishing the work of Kentucky documentarians. He holds an M.A. in Folk Studies with a concentration in Public Folklore from Western Kentucky University and a B.A. in Folklore & Ethnomusicology and Telecommunications from Indiana University.


Joel is on the steering committee for the Rural Urban Exchange (RUX), an organization working to connect individuals in Kentucky who strive to make life better for all in the commonwealth. His folkloric research interests include belief, material culture, folklore as resistance, and occupational lore. Active in the American Folklore Society, he has served as co-convener of the Graduate Students and Young Professionals Section. 


Joel can be reached at jchapman@midatlanticarts.org. Welcome, Joel!

Now Hiring: Come Join Our Team!

Mid Atlantic Arts has a brand new position open with remote work available for an employee based in the Mid Atlantic region!


Are you a storyteller who also loves visual communication through social media? The Communications and Social Media Manager manages and implements our communications and social media outreach while showcasing the impact of Mid Atlantic's work and the work of our grantees and partners. This position plays a key role in telling the stories of the artists and projects we support while helping to raise the visibility of Mid Atlantic Arts.
See the Full Job Description and Apply
A group of acrobats all in white hold a long narrow pole above their heads at a slant. Another acrobat in white walks along the pole toward the top arms outraised. A big top can be seen all around the group with a large audience in the background.

Opportunity Quick Links
  • The Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts Internship is currently accepting applications for student interns and host sites in Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. Check each locale for info on applying and program deadlines.
  • The Ucross Foundation invites applications for fall 2023 residencies: General Studio Residencies and The Ford Family Foundation Visual Art Residencies. The foundation is providing each artist with living accommodations, meals, a workspace, and uninterrupted time so artists can focus on their creative process. Deadline: March 1, 2023.
  • The Bogliasco Foundation is inviting applications for its fellowship program, which awards individuals doing creative or scholarly work in archaeology, architecture, classics, dance, film/video, history, landscape architecture, literature, music, philosophy, theater, or visual arts. To be eligible for the award of a Fellowship, applicants should demonstrate significant achievement in their disciplines, commensurate with their age and experience. Please note that Bogliasco Fellowships are not awarded to students currently in a degree-granting program. Deadline: March 1, 2023.
  • The Samuel H. Kress Foundation invites proposals to its History of Art grant program for scholarly projects with the potential to enhance the appreciation and understanding of European art and architecture from antiquity to the early 19th century. Grants will be awarded to support projects that create and disseminate specialized knowledge, including archival projects, developing and disseminating scholarly databases, documentation projects, museum exhibitions and publications, photographic campaigns, academic catalogs and publications, and technical and scientific studies. Letter of Intent Deadline: March 1, 2023.
  • The Jim Henson Foundation invites applications for the creation of innovative works of contemporary puppet theater through three funding mechanisms. There are three Artist Grants available: Workshop Grants ($3,000), Production Grants ($7,000), and Family Grants ($4,000). All Artist Grants are to be used towards puppetry. This includes the building and performing of the puppets and the integration of the puppets in the piece. Letters of intent are due March 6, 2023, and selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal, due September 5, 2023.
  • Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grants Cycle 17 is open February 14 through March 17, 2023. These grants of up to $5,000 support direct treatment expenses for medical, dental or mental health emergencies that occurred July 1, 2022 or later. Choreographers are eligible, as well as those creating in the visual arts and film/video/electronic/digital arts. Guidelines, an informational video and the online application are here: https://www.nyfa.org/rmeg. Deadline: March 17, 2023.

Image: Aloft Circus Arts from Chicago, IL travelled to Edinburgh Fringe Festival, UK with support from USArtists International. Credit: Dylan Woodley.
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