The 2024 City of Indianapolis Annual Grants Program invested nearly $1.5 million into Indianapolis’ local creative community.
The Indy Arts Council and the City of Indianapolis announced May 8 that 91 nonprofit arts and culture organizations —, such as Arte Mexicano en Indiana, Arts for Lawrence, Freetown Village, Iibada Dance Company and Naptown African American Theatre Collective —, are recipients of the grand funding. By investing directly into the arts economy, the City of Indianapolis Annual Grants Program supports development of arts performances, programs, exhibitions and activities in Indianapolis and Marion County.
“The City of Indianapolis is committed to advancing racial and socioeconomic equity and the Indy Arts Council’s work is an important part of our strategy,” Deputy Mayor Judith Thomas, said in a statement. “Since adopting its equity priorities in 2016, the Annual Grants Program has increased access to funding from 45 arts and cultural organizations to 91. We’re proud to continue supporting these organizations to expand their impact to even more artists and residents.”
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Since 1987, the Annual Grants Program has played a vital role in the City of Indianapolis’ support for the arts community. However, in 2021, new scoring criteria werewas introduced to place an emphasis on racial and socioeconomic equity in areas of community impact, artistic alignment and organizational capacity.
Grant amounts ranged from $5,000-$72,000 and were distributed to arts and culture organizations based on a competitive scoring process across four operating budget categories. The Indy Arts Council selected a juried panel to evaluate applications April 9-12 via Zoom. The review process was open to the public.
“We are grateful for the City’s investment in our arts and cultural community for the past 37 years,” Julie Goodman, Indy Arts Council president and CEO, said in a statement. “We appreciate their recognition of our fast-growing arts & culture sector through the record 91 organizations funded this year, including the nine BIPOC-led organizations that got increased funding.”
For more information, visit indyarts.org.
