Heads-up Summit County arts and culture culture organizations! Thanks to your voice, and voices from across the state of Ohio, our Legislature approved $50 million in arts economic relief- and we’re so close to the application opening!

Here’s what you need to know:

The State of Ohio has committed $50 million in Arts Economic Relief dollars for eligible organizations who fall into one of the following categories:

Performing Arts Organizations

• Principal place of business is in Ohio
• Primary purpose is to produce or present performances in music, comedy, the performing arts, or related fields

Operator of Cultural Arts Museum

• Located in Ohio
• Primary purpose is to exhibit or present property for artistic or aesthetic purposes, including property related to painting, drawing, design, sculpture-making, ceramic-making, printmaking, photography, video and filmmaking, graphic design, architecture, textiles, performing arts, or preserving and interpreting the history, art, and culture of popular music and multidisciplinary art forms

Check-out this video to learn more! (https://youtu.be/I7_P5fCsB7M)

Overview: https://development.ohio.gov/business/state-incentives/artsgrant

The Ohio Arts Economic Relief Grant Program was created to provide grants to Performing Arts Organizations or operators of Cultural Arts Museums in the state of Ohio. The grants can be used to defray the organization’s or operator’s operating expenses.

Grants will be awarded to eligible applicants on a first-come, first-served basis, with priority given to applicants that did not previously receive funding from the Ohio Arts Council pursuant to the CARES Act (OAC Reopening and Economic Relief).

Grant awards will be equal to 10% of the applicant’s calendar year 2022 operating expenses, not to exceed the applicant’s cumulative decrease in gross revenue in 2020 and 2021, when compared to 2019. No grant award may exceed $1,500,000.

Attached: Application Guidelines

Timeline

Feb. 24 – Application available for review

March 3 – Program overview webinar

Webinar will be posted to the website when released. As of 3/7/23 @ 6PM it is not yet available.

10 a.m. Thursday, March 16 – Application submission period opens

4 p.m. Friday, March 31 – Application submission period closes

Photo: Ohio Department of Development Website