Bristol, VA: Our Anchor Community in Appalachian Virginia

Mid Atlantic Arts' Central Appalachia Living Traditions program is thrilled to partner with the Virginia Folklife Program to increase the sharing of knowledge and resources for folk arts and culture across the Appalachian region.

As part of our Folk Arts and Culture Anchor Communities Initiative, we'll be working together in the community of Bristol, VA, with the Birthplace of Country Music Museum as a key partner, to provide targeted resources and support with the goal of dramatically impacting the sustainability of traditional practice and cultural knowledge in the area.

Learn more

Virginia Folklife Program Film Screening

Please join Mid Atlantic’s CALT program and the Virginia Folklife Program at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, VA today - June 15th from 5:30-8pm for a film screening and discussion honoring the artists and tradition bearers from the 2021-2022 Virginia Folklife Program apprenticeship class! The screening is free and open to all, but please note that registration is required. Visit the Virginia Folklife Program for more information and to register.

Folk and Traditional Arts Community Projects Grants

Deadline Today - June 15th!

The Folk and Traditional Arts Community Projects grant program deadline is today, Wednesday, June 15, 2022.  Folk and Traditional Arts Community Projects Grants fund projects that support the vitality of traditional arts and cultural communities in the mid-Atlantic region.

Non-profit organizations in DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, USVI, or WV are eligible for funding in amounts from $1,000 to $7,000 to engage folk and traditional artists, practitioners, or culture bearers in community-based projects

Review program guidelines here and apply at midatlanticarts.smartsimple.com.

Guidelines are posted and applications are now being accepted for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Delaware Division of the Arts Fellowships programs.

New Jersey State Council on the Arts 2023 Individual Artist Fellowships

Deadline: Thursday, July 14, 2022 at 5PM ET

Categories Offered for the 2023 Fellowships

• Choreography
• Crafts
• Music Composition
• Photography
• Poetry
• Playwriting/Screenwriting
• Sculpture

For more info and to apply, click here. 

Delaware Division of the Arts 2023 Individual Artist Fellowships

Deadline: Monday, August 1, 2022 at 11:59PM ET

• Applications are accepted in twenty artistic disciplines in the fields of choreography, folk art, jazz, literature, media arts, music, and visual arts.
• Applicants select between Emerging or Established categories.
• The Masters Fellowship is available in select disciplines on a three-year rotating basis to artists who meet specific criteria. In Fiscal Year 2023, Masters Fellowship applications will be accepted in the disciplines of Visual Arts and Folk Arts.

For more info and to apply, click here.

Board Elections and Nominations

At the June 2022 Annual Board Meeting, Mid Atlantic Arts welcomed three new board members: Jessica Ball, DE; Nick Hawkins, MD; and John Rainero, VA. We look

forward to learning from them and working with them in the coming months and years.

We also said farewell to four long-time board members: Barbara Bershon, MD; Susie Farr, MD; Hal Real, DE; and Mack Wathen, DE. They were instrumental in our long range planning process and creating a solid foundation for the growth Mid Atlantic Arts is now experiencing. 

Board elections were also held with Romona Riscoe Benson continuing as Board Chair; Donna Walker-Kuhne stepping into the Vice Chair role; James Lemons as Treasurer; and Margi Vanderhye continuing as Secretary. Current board members Vernon Araujo, James Lemons, Mara Manus,Kevin O’Brien, and Donna Walker-Kuhne were re-elected for additional terms.

Board Congratulations!

Congratulations are in order for board members Romona Riscoe Benson, Susie Farr, Juanita Hardy, Donna Walker-Kuhne! Romona was recently honored honored as a 2022 Philadelphia Mural Arts Wall Ball Honoree; Susie was named the Halsey and Alice North Board Alumni Award at the 2022 APAP Honors; Juanita and her husband, Mel, where honored at the Centennial Phillips Collection Gala for their work in Building Connections Through Arts and Culture; and Donna Walker-Kuhne is the recipient of the 2022 Margot Adams Signature Award from Signature Theatre!

Congratulations to Mia Ronn of Los Angeles, CA - the 2022 Poetry Out Loud National Champion! Mia recited poems by Kara Jackson, Victor Hernández Cruz, and Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib to secure the $20,000 grand prize. Second-place went to Aidyn Lorin Jai Reid of Colorado Springs, CO and third-place to Oscar Manuel Landa Samano of Flagstaff, AZ.

You can learn more about the Poetry Out Loud program and watch videos of the recitations at https://www.arts.gov/initiatives/poetry-out-loud.

Mid Atlantic Arts produces the Poetry Out Loud National Finals events in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation.

Opportunity Quick Links

• Check out the USDA and the University of Kentucky’s Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky free digital toolkit to help rural leaders build placemaking plans in small towns and communities across America. Through this interactive toolkit, rural leaders can conduct assessments to determine their community’s readiness for placemaking activities. 

• The Leeway Foundation invites applications for the Media Artist + Activist Residency, which provides grants of $25,000 to women, trans, and gender-nonconforming media artists working in close collaboration with social justice/cultural organizations to document, reframe, and/or amplify the issues and campaigns addressed by the organization. The residency aims to reveal and extend how artists and artistic processes can work within cultural and social justice organizations to achieve social change. Deadline: June 22, 2022.

• The Center for Craft invites applications for its Craft Archive Fellowship program, fostering archival research on underrepresented and non-dominant craft histories in the U.S., such as feminist, intersectional, queer, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American, and Pacific Islander, and other communities and approaches. Proposals are invited from a range of emerging to established scholars, including artists, and researchers. Deadline: June 27, 2022.

• The Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation is inviting applications for the Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Awards. The program awards three-year matching grants of $30,000 per year (for a total grant award of $90,000) to U.S.-based nonprofits serving small to midsize towns and cities to present the Levitt AMP Music Series: 10 free concerts that inject new life into public spaces and create vibrant community destinations. Applicants must be a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Deadline: June 30, 2022.

• Wave Farm, in partnership with NYSCA, invites applications to the Media Arts Assistance Fund (MAAF), which supports individual artists residing in New York State for the completion and/or public presentation of new works in all genres of sound and moving image art, including emergent technology. Grants of up to $7,500 will be awarded to assist artists in completing new work, reaching public audiences, and advancing artistic exploration and public engagement in the media arts. Deadline: July 1, 2022.

• The Detwiler Family Foundation invites applications from organizations within certain service areas serving children dealing with difficult life challenges by facilitating access to education and the arts. Applicants must be tax-exempt as defined by section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and be located within the counties of Chester and Montgomery in Pennsylvania; Flathead County in Montana; Atlanta, Georgia; the Upper Valley Region in Vermont/New Hampshire; and Portland, Oregon. Deadline: July 1, 2022.

Image: April 2022 Acrobuffos performance of "Air Play" at Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD funded with support of the ArtsCONNECT program. Credit: Koda Murphy.