CALT Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellows Announced

We are excited to announce the 2024 Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellows!

This program is part of our Central Appalachian Living Traditions (CALT) initiative, in partnership with Grow Appalachia and the Appalachian Studies Association. The program honors and celebrates community-based home cooks, bakers, seed savers, farmers, keepers of recipes and traditional knowledge, hunters, foragers, and other foodways practitioners. Fellows represent Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC)-designated counties.

Each Fellow receives $5,000 in unrestricted funding and a unique physical award created by an Appalachian traditional artist. The Fellows are also honored each year at the Appalachian Studies Association Annual Conference. 

This year's fellows are:

• The New Opportunity School for Women - Sam Cole, Madison County, KY
• Chris Smith, Leicester, NC
• Ronnie Marie Tartt, Berwind, WV
• Marcus West, Franklin, NC

Save the Date: Poetry Out Loud 20th Anniversary

Save the Date!

Poetry Out Loud is celebrating 20 years! Join us for the celebration!

The 2025 Poetry Out Loud National Finals will take place on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University, in Washington, DC. Come cheer on your state's student champion or stop by for an amazing night of FREE poetry recitation!

Fifty-five state and jurisdictional champions will complete in the semifinal round on May 6, and nine finalists will continue to the National Finals on May 7, 2025. Admission to the semifinals and National Finals is free and open to the public - tickets are not required. Both events take place at Lisner Auditorium and will be streamed live.

The national champion will receive a $20,000 cash prize. Second-and third-place finalists will receive $10,000 and $5,000 awards. 

Poetry Out Loud is a recitational poetry competition and program of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Poetry Foundation, in partnership with state and jurisdictional arts agencies. The Poetry Out Loud National Finals have been administered by Mid Atlantic Arts for all 20 years!

See you in DC for Poetry Out Loud 2025!

Congratulations, Delaware Arts Individual Artist Fellows!

Congratulations to all 21 Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) Individual Artist Fellows! This year, over 190 Delaware-based folk artists, writers, musicians, media, and visual artists applied for an Individual Artist Fellowship. The awards were given in the following categories:

Masters Award ($12,000)

Established Professional Award ($8,000)

Emerging Professional Award ($5,000)

The 2025 Fellows reside throughout Delaware including Bear, Clayton, Dagsboro, Lewes, Milton, Newark, New Castle, Rehoboth Beach, Smyrna, and Wilmington counties.

Mid Atlantic Arts works with DDOA to administer the panel process for the Individual Artist Fellows. The 2026 Individual Artist Fellowships guidelines will be available later this Spring with a Friday, August 1, 2025 deadline.

Mid Atlantic Arts Staff Gathering and Retreat

At the beginning of the month, our team convened at our office in Baltimore for our annual staff gathering! We discussed our vision for the future, met with staff from the Maryland State Arts Council, and enjoyed an evening of glass blowing at McFadden Art Glass!



During our lunch breaks, we even had staff jam sessions pop up in the conference room. We're grateful for the opportunity to come together to brainstorm how to best serve the arts in our region!

Top left: Glass blowing at McFadden Art Glass; Bottom left: Program staff; bottom right: staff jam session.

ArtsCONNECT Deadline Extended

The ArtsCONNECT deadline has been extended to Monday, March 3, 2025.

ArtsCONNECT supports performing arts touring projects collaboratively developed by presenters working together in the mid-Atlantic region. Three or more located in the mid-Atlantic region who partner to present the same artist/company during the project period can each receive up to 50% subsidy for that artist/company’s compensation, plus support for other eligible project expenses. Learn more here.

Open Program Applications

Other program applications are still open. Apply today for the following:

• USArtists International supports in-person performances by artists from any state or territory in the U.S. at engagements at international festivals, global presenting arts markets, and other eligible engagements outside of the United States. Deadline: Wednesday, February 26, 2025.

• Central Appalachia Living Traditions (CALT) Experiences grants fund public-facing projects and events in Appalachian counties of Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia that bring community members together around traditional arts and cultural knowledge. Deadline: Monday, March 10, 2025.

• Folk & Traditional Arts Community Projects Grants fund projects that support the vitality of traditional arts and cultures in the mid-Atlantic region. Non-profit organizations in DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, USVI, PR, or WV may apply for $1,000 to $7,000 grants. A 1:1 match is required. Deadline: Monday, March 10, 2025.

• 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, West Virginia, and Native nations that share this geography. Deadline: Thursday, March 13, 2025.

• Walking Together: Investing in Folklife in Communities of Color supports folklife and traditional arts rooted in communities of color by investing in artists/practitioners and the community organizations that care for them. Initial Self-Nomination Deadline: Wednesday, March 19, 2025.

• Mid Atlantic Tours supports presenters located in the mid-Atlantic region who engage a Mid Atlantic Tours Roster Artist during the project period. Presenters receive up to 50% subsidy for the Roster Artist’s compensation as well as presenter capacity support. Deadline: Thursday, March 27, 2025.

• Performing Arts Global Exchange provides fee support directly to nonprofit presenters programming artists from an annually curated roster. Presenters host both public performances and community engagements in achieving the program’s goals of cultural exchange and understanding. PAGE will support tours of performing artists from Morocco and South Africa in the 2025-26 performance season. Deadline: Thursday, March 27, 2025.

Image: A demo on how to utilize fermentation for food storage led by Fawnshead Grove for a CALT Experiences engagement. Attendees had the opportunity to create their own fermented recipes using items provided by the educators. Credit: Monica Wilson.

Opportunity Quick Links

• The Mount Rainier Arts Commission is accepting applications from artists to create a building wrap mural in Mount Rainier, MD. The mural will be located at 3510 Rhode Island Avenue, which hosts the Station 3510 Studio, Gallery, and Marketplace. Artists or artist-led teams of residents in Maryland, the District of Columbia, or Northern Virginia are eligible to apply. Deadline: Monday, February 24, 2025. Learn more here.

• The Brooklyn Botanic Garden invites applications for its 2025 Performing Artist-in-Residence program. The 2025 residency theme is Natural Connection. Applicants are invited to explore the relationship between humans and nature, challenging audiences to consider their roles in human-nature relationships. Choreographers, dancers, musicians, playwrights, theater makers, and other performing artists living in New York City are eligible to apply. Deadline: Friday, February 28, 2025. Learn more here.

• The Kennedy Center Office of Accessibility and VSA is seeking contractors to provide Access/VSA Creative Career Internship Program career development opportunities in the arts and culture field for people with disabilities, ages 18-30. Eligible and qualified U.S. organizations are required to submit program proposals online. Deadline: Friday, February 28. Learn more here.

• The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America invites applications to the Ronald Barnes Memorial Fund, established to support artists pursuing studies in North American carillon performance, composition, history, or instrument design. Deadline: Friday, March 1, 2025. Learn more here.

• The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation invites application for grants programs in the Washington, DC area. Grants are awarded in: arts and humanities, community services, education, environment, and health and wellness. Organizations serving residents in the District of Columbia, Prince George's, or Montgomery counties, or Arlington and Fairfax counties, or the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church. Deadline: Friday, March 1, 2025. Learn more here.

• The Jim Henson Foundation is accepting letters of intent for the creation of new puppet theatre works. The Foundation will provide production grants of $7,000, workshop grants of $3,000, and family grants of $4,000. Grants are available only for the development of new works. Deadline: Monday, March 3, 2025. Learn more here.

• South Arts is accepting application for its Jazz Road Tours program. Jazz Road provides support to small, three-to six-site tours at venue types in rural areas and other areas underserved in jazz programming. Individual artists (as an individual, an artist-led nonprofit organization, or artist-led corporation) are eligible to apply. Deadline: Wednesday, March 5, 2025. Learn more here.

• The Democracy Cycle is accepting proposals for its 2025 Open Call. This new commissioning program will support new works that illuminate the promise, practice, imperfection, and opportunity of democracy. The Democracy Cycle will provide $60,000 in support to each awarded project, consisting of a $30,000 commission as well as an additional $30,000 towards each commissioned project’s development process (research, readings, workshops etc.) Deadline: Tuesday, April 1, 2025. Learn more here.

Image: Members of Rancho Aparte performing on the CarMax Stage at the Richmond Folk Festival at an Iber Exchange engagement, Friday, September 27, 2024. Credit: Remsberg, Inc.