The Flourish Fund’s emergency relief program is meant to provide support to music, theater, dance, film, and literary artists who need funds for basic living expenses (bills) due to the impact of COVID-19. CultureSource anticipates making 40 emergency relief grants from the Flourish Fund in the amount of $1,000 each. 

CultureSource is part of the Upper Midwest Emergency Relief Fund Coalition, in partnership with Arts South Dakota, Crosshatch Center for Art & Ecology, ImagineMKE, Racing Magpie, Springboard for the Arts, and The Arts Partnership

ELIGIBILITY AND REQUIREMENTS

This program is open to applicants who meet the following eligibility requirements:

• Applicants’ creative work must be in music, theater, dance, film, or literary arts.
• Applicants must live and work in one of the seven counties of Southeast Michigan: Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair, Washtenaw, or Wayne.
• Applicants must not be students, that is, enrolled in a credit-earning arts program (full- or part-time). 
• Applicants must be individuals, not 501c3 or other nonprofit organizations nor for-profit businesses including galleries, studios, or collectives.
• Applicants do not need to be US citizens but must have a Social Security number or tax identification number to receive the grant.
• Neither CultureSource staff and board nor families of staff or board are eligible for this program.
• Applicants must be experiencing financial hardship for basic needs such as rent, food, healthcare, and dependent care due to income losses connected to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Applicants may apply for funding to offset loss of income can be from any source (sales of work, speaking engagements, teaching income, other non-arts income, such as work in the service industry or any other where furloughs took place.)
  • Applicants may apply for funding to offset loss of transportation expenses related to creative work such as teaching, conferences, residencies, etc., that were pre-paid and not reimbursed.

PROCESS

• Applications are now open and will remain open until Monday, November 23, 2020, at 5:00 pm.
• Because this program is for emergency relief and not merit, CultureSource will screen applications for eligibility, and immediately following the deadline, will hold a lottery of eligible applications to determine awardees.
• Awardees will be notified on or about November 25, and will be sent Terms of Grant documents and W9 forms for signatures.
• Awardees will be paid by direct deposit to their bank accounts using Bill.com following receipt of these signed documents, with the target of distributing all funds by December 31, 2020.
• Grantee reporting will involve communicating with CultureSource staff (by email) about how the emergency relief funds helped grantees deal with the impact of COVID-19.

APPLYING

The application information includes:

• Artist’s name and contact information
• Demographic representation
• Check-Box questions regarding—
  • the type of artistic work the applicant does;
  • certification that applicants are not students; and
  • certification that if an award is made, the applicant would be able to provide tax identification on a W9 form.
• Artist Statement, including more description of their work, using a limited number of words.
• Statement of financial need, describing the loss of income they experienced and the circumstances.
• Samples of work (through links to applicant’s website and social media, if they have them).