Arts in Rural Places

Program Description

South Arts believes that rural, isolated, and small communities deserve access to the arts, and this requires specialized support to make that vision viable. Distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis, Arts in Rural Places Grants support rural and isolated communities (communities that are geographically isolated or isolated due to socioeconomic factors, outmigration, education gaps, and/or lack of infrastructure) as well as small cities with populations of 50,000 people or less with expedited grants of up to $3,000. To be eligible for funding, applicants must program arts experiences featuring a Southern artist. The project must include at least two in-person or live, virtual public activities with a minimum of two hours of artist engagement in the community.  

Arts in Rural Places Grants are an opportunity for organizations in South Arts' nine-state region to receive artist fee support to engage Southern guest film directors, traditional, visual, and performing artists, or writers from inside or outside of the presenter's state. Artist fee support is awarded for:

• film (documentary, fiction, experimental, and animation),
• traditional arts (music, dance, storytelling, and visual arts/crafts),
• visual arts (crafts, drawing, experimental, painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed media),
• performing arts (theater, music, opera, musical theater, and dance), and
• literary arts (fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry).

Projects require at least two public-facing activities that offer access to arts programming by Southern artists (this can include public performances, screenings, readings, exhibitions, workshops, demonstrations, lectures, facilitated discussions, and/or master classes). Based on the artist fee, the maximum request is $3,000. The grant requires a dollar-for-dollar cash match (for example, an applicant that requests $3,000 must provide a $3,000 cash match for a project with a $6,000 artist fee).

In an effort to expand our reach and create space and opportunity for new applicants, organizations that received a South Arts’ Presentation, Traditional Arts Touring, or Express Grant in FY24 or FY25 are not eligible for this grant cycle. New applicants are encouraged to contact program director Nikki Estes at 404-874-7244 x816 to discuss eligibility before applying.

All program funding is contingent on the availability of funds for the program. In the event that a program is terminated, grant awards will not be made, and applicants could have to return unspent funds.

Important Dates & Deadlines

• Applications open on July 16, 2025 and are accepted on a rolling basis.
• Applications must be submitted at least 60 days prior to the project start date.
• Applicants will be notified by email within four weeks of submission. Please note that Arts in Rural Places Grants are subject to funding availability.
• Projects must take place between October 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026.

Eligibility Requirements

The following is a top-level list of the main eligibility requirements necessary to be considered for an Arts in Rural Places Grant. Please refer to the full list of eligibility requirements in the Guidelines section below.

• Be a tax-exempt  nonprofit or an official unit of local, county, or state government based within South Arts' nine-state service area (AL, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, or TN)
  • Ineligible applicants include:
    • Organizations based outside of AL, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, or TN
    • Fiscally sponsored organizations
    • For-profit businesses or organizations
    • Individual artists
• Be in a rural, isolated, or small community (these are communities that are geographically isolated, communities isolated due to socioeconomic factors, outmigration, education gaps, and/or lack of infrastructure, or cities with populations of 50,000 people or less)
• Engage a professional artist or ensemble who resides within South Arts' nine-state service area (AL, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, or TN)
• Have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)
• Provide a dollar-for-dollar cash match

A full list of eligibility criteria and other project requirements is provided in the guidelines below.

Guidelines

While preparing your Arts in Rural Places Grant application, please refer to the following guidelines:

Eligibility

• Only organizations in rural and isolated communities (communities that are geographically isolated or isolated due to socioeconomic factors, outmigration, education gaps, and/or lack of infrastructure), or in small cities with populations of 50,000 people or less are eligible for this grant program.
• Only 501(c)(3) nonprofits and governmental organizations in South Arts’ nine-state region are eligible to apply. South Arts’ nine-state region includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Applicants can include but are not limited to community cultural organizations, community centers, churches, schools/colleges/universities, libraries, artist ensembles, producing and presenting organizations, museums, film festivals, and visual and performing arts centers.
• Applicants must have 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, tax-exempt status; be an official unit of local, county, or state government; or be a federally recognized tribal community. Applications are accepted from any tribal community with not-for-profit, tax-exempt status. For nonprofit applicants, tax-exempt status will be verified by a third-party entity. Governmental applicants must provide proof of government status. South Arts does not accept applications from fiscal agents for this grant program.
• Applicants must have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI). Applications will not be accepted from organizations that do not have a UEI. Obtaining your UEI could take a minimum of 30 days. Read more about how to obtain a UEI.
• Eligible projects must take place in South Arts' nine-state region. Unless there are special circumstances, projects should occur in the applicant's state (please contact South Arts to discuss special conditions).
• Eligible projects must include the engagement of a guest artist or company (i.e., a film director, traditional artist, visual artist, performing artist/ensemble, or writer) that resides in South Arts' region. The engagement must include a guest artist that resides inside or outside of the applicant's state. A guest artist/company is defined as an artist/company that (a) is contracted by the applicant to deliver services or activities ) and (b) does not have a professional or personal affiliation with the applicant or conflict of interest. An applicant will be considered to have a conflict of interest when the contracted artist and/or applicant:
  • includes the applicant or the applicant’s spouse, minor, child, partner, or family member;
  • serves as an officer, director, trustee, agent, partner, or employee of the applicant/nonprofit organization; and/or
  • has a relationship that might compromise the integrity of the project and its use of funds.
• Supported disciplines include film (documentary, fiction, experimental, and animation); traditional arts (music, dance, storytelling, and visual arts/crafts); visual arts (crafts, drawing, experimental, painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed media); performing arts (theater, music, opera, musical theater, and dance); and literary arts (fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry).
  • Need help finding a Southern artist? View artists who have been supported by South Arts in the past or look through our State Arts Agency partners' rosters.
• Organizations that received a South Arts’ Presentation, Traditional Arts Touring, or Express Grant in FY24 or FY25 are not eligible for this grant cycle.
• FY26 Arts in Rural Places Grant recipients are not eligible for the FY26 Arts in Community grant program.
• Screening partners currently receiving funding through South Arts' Southern Circuit program are not eligible to receive additional funding for Southern Circuit film screenings.
• Applicants are limited to one Arts in Rural Places Grant application per South Arts fiscal year or grant cycle.
• Applicants who have failed to comply with the grant terms and conditions by the application deadline for this program will not be considered for funding from this grant program until they have completed a conversation with program director Nikki Estes. This includes applicants who did not properly acknowledge South Arts' AND the National Endowment for the Arts' support in programs/press materials for any previous South Arts grant or applicants who did not submit the final report for any previous South Arts grant.
   

Guidelines

• Arts in Rural Places Grant applications must be submitted online at least 60 days prior to the project start date.
• The project must take place between October 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026.
• At least two public-facing activities with a minimum of two hours of artist engagement are required. The project can include a variety of public activities such as artist performances, screenings, readings, exhibitions, workshops, demonstrations, lectures, facilitated discussions, and/or master classes.
• Project activities and events must be open and marketed to the public and dedicated to serving a broad audience. While projects are not required to serve the entire geographic community, they should have targeted local participants.
• Activities at conferences and school-focused events, which primarily engage students (whether happening at the school or another venue), will not be considered open and accessible to the general public. Only one of the two required activities can include an event that serves the community but is not open or accessible to the general public.
• The grant application can only support one artist/company. The artist/company is required to fully participate in the project activities.
• Project activities may be live, in-person experiences, virtual events, or a combination of in-person and virtual events. Virtual events are acceptable as a strategy to improve access for project participants.
• For faith-based institutions, projects must be without religious proselytizing.
• All grant recipients are required to provide accessibility for constituents with disabilities at grant-funded events. For these guidelines, accessibility relates to your project location/venue and overall project being accessible to all. In addition to physical access (ramps, accessible parking/box office/restrooms/seating, etc.), communications and programmatic accessibility are required and can help your organization build audiences and strengthen engagement. Grant applications should show evidence of thoughtful planning and implementation efforts. The National Endowment for the Arts has resources to assist organizations in making accommodations.  Please visit the Endowment's website for more information.
• Applicants must commit to the Endowment's Assurance of Compliance.

Policies

• The community engagement activities are integral to the project and should be carefully planned. A meaningful community engagement project should involve concentrated preparation by the artist/company and applicant. The artist/company must provide/conduct the community engagement activities.
• South Arts does not fund benefits or fundraisers.
• Grants are not transferable to other events. All changes in an event must be submitted in writing to South Arts before the event. Awards may be revised or revoked in light of such changes.
• Grant awards support artist fees and require a dollar-for-dollar cash match. Applicants can request a grant up to 50% of the artist fee as listed in the artist contract or letter of agreement, up to $3,000 (subject to funding availability). For example, a project with an artist fee of $6,000 means the applicant can request $3,000 and must provide a cash match of $3,000. This grant does not support indirect costs or additional project costs.
• The minimum artist fee for this grant program is $1,000. The minimum grant request is $500. The maximum grant request is $3,000.

Appeals Process

You can request a review of the method for South Arts' decisions concerning grant applications through the Appeals Process. If you did not receive funding or if your grant award was rescinded or reduced, you may submit an appeal based on the criteria listed below. Incomplete applications are not eligible for the appeals process. Dissatisfaction with the denial or amount of an award is not a sufficient reason for an appeal. An applicant not funded may appeal South Arts' decision if the applicant can demonstrate that the application was rejected for any of the following reasons:

• Application was reviewed using criteria other than those published;
• Funding decision was influenced by panelist/staff/committee member who failed to disclose conflict of interest; and/or
• Application materials (submitted by the deadline) were not provided to panel members.

If an applicant's funds were rescinded or reduced, the applicant may appeal South Arts' decision if the applicant can demonstrate that (a) the project activities outlined in the application were performed, and (b) the contract terms and conditions were followed and fulfilled. To appeal a funding decision, first contact program director Nikki Estes to request a review of the considerations affecting South Arts' decision. Subsequently, if you believe there are grounds for an appeal, you must submit your appeal, in writing, to South Arts' President & CEO no later than 15 calendar days following the receipt of the written notice from South Arts. The submission should contain evidence to support one or more of the allowable grounds for appeal. The President & CEO will make and render a final decision within 30 days of the appeal.

Mail your appeal to:

South Arts 
ATTN: President & CEO 
1800 Peachtree Street, NW 
Suite 808 
Atlanta, GA 30309

Narrative Instructions

Applications are reviewed and funding adjudications are made using the following criteria to evaluate each application:

• Artistic Excellence of the Artist (25%)
• Artistic Merit of the Project (30%)
• Project Impact (35%)
• Capacity (10%)

Helpful Resources

• A sample application (sample application 1, sample application 2) from a past grantee demonstrates a clear, succinct, and well-organized application that was evaluated very highly in the review process.
• South Arts has a series of professional development webinar recordings that may be a useful resource as you are preparing Arts in Community application. These include previous webinars about accessibility and budgeting.

In addition to organizational and project information, you will need to provide a narrative addressing the following:

Project Synopsis

(Maximum 200 characters including spaces)
Provide a brief synopsis of your proposed project. For example: "XYZ Company will provide a three-day residency that includes two master classes, one workshop, a Q&A with the artistic director, and a performance at the ABC Theatre."

Artistic Excellence (25%)

Evaluation of this criterion is based on the submitted:

• artist work samples (i.e., audio, video, film footage, images, and written work),
• artist support material (i.e., ensemble/company history, artist biography, or writer's resume/biography), and
• artist statement.

Work samples should represent the quality or type of work the artist/company will offer during the community engagement and preferably no more than three years old. For audio/video samples, include instructions identifying the particular selection to be played. For video samples, we encourage applicants to submit a continuous work sample for the artist that is at least 3-5 minutes in length, but not to exceed 10 minutes. If the sample is part of a larger publication/book, please mark the passage/section to review.

Project's Artistic Merit (30%)

Project Description (Maximum 2,500 characters including spaces)

Describe project activities that will take place during the grant period. Include information on the curatorial/selection process, artists, creative process, works of art, productions, venues, public or community engagement activities, etc. Explain why this artform/genre is important to the project and/or describe its relevance to the community for which the project is designed.

Project Schedule (Maximum 1,500 characters including spaces)

Provide a timeline of when activities described in the Project Description will occur. Please only include activities that occur within the project period.

Project Impact (35%)

Engagement with Intended Community, Participants, and Audience (Maximum 2,000 characters including spaces)

Describe the intended communities, participants, or audiences involved in the project activities, and how they will benefit. Clearly explain how you will engage these groups. For example, include marketing and community engagement strategies. Where applicable, describe how this project will engage with underserved communities whose opportunities to experience or participate in the arts are limited by factors such as geography, ethnicity, economic status, and/or disability. Where applicable, include admission/ticket prices. Where applicable, include how you will involve and accommodate people with disabilities (as artists, performers, teaching artists, students, participants, staff, and/or audiences) in the planning, creation, and/or implementation of your project activities. 

As a reminder, in the federal-funding context, a focus on a particular group or demographic may be permissible, but exclusion is not. This extends to hiring practices, artist selection processes, and audience engagement. Your application should make it clear that project activities are not exclusionary. Please review the Assurance of Compliance.  

Project Goals and Evaluation (Maximum 1,000 characters including spaces)

What are your goals for this project? What do you hope you and/or those involved will learn or experience? Describe how you will monitor progress toward your project goals. Examples of monitoring activities include surveys of program participants, measuring attendance, and third-party program evaluations, among others. If applicable, include plans to share learnings and outcomes.  

Note: If your project involves directly collecting sensitive data from program participants, such as personally identifiable information or data from vulnerable populations, review Resources on Program Evaluation and Performance Measurement.

Capacity (10%)

Evaluation of this criterion is based on the submitted:  

• applicant budget;
• project budget; and
• list of project partners and key individuals (i.e., include at least one and up to ten key individuals (such as staff, artists, teaching artists, collaborators, consultants, mentors) and/or partners involved in the project. Entities or individuals that only provide money are not considered partners. Funders are not excluded from being partners, but they must also provide staffing or other professional support, or actively participate in another way to be considered partners).

Readiness Planning

As part of your application submission, you will be asked whether your organization has a readiness plan. South Arts is committed to making business continuity planning a priority in the arts and encourages all arts organizations to develop and maintain readiness plans to ensure their sustainability. South Arts and our partners at the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) have launched dPlan|ArtsReady to guide arts and cultural organizations through the process of developing a readiness plan.

A readiness plan is a combination of documents, processes, and training that formulates what your organization will do should the unexpected occur. It follows an “all-hazards” approach, because anything can and may happen to your organization. Creating a readiness plan means making decisions about how you will respond, and collecting all of the information and documents that you will need, before a crisis hits, so you can respond and get your organization back up and running smoothly. A readiness plan is critical to preserve precious time and energy when seconds matter. ArtsReady takes an "all hazards" approach to planning: focusing on your essential business needs so you will be prepared for any crisis. The tool walks you through a series of modules—Risk Assessment, Action Items, Critical Stuff, Reports, and Guides and Resources—that explore the critical business functions most arts and cultural organizations rely on every day. By working through the tool with your staff and leadership, dPlan|ArtsReady is your one-stop shop to creating a plan and repository of vital information that you can turn to at any time before, during, or after a crisis.

A limited number of free one-year subscriptions are available to arts organizations. Please complete our online form to request your free year and to receive more information. Whether you use dPlan|ArtsReady to develop and maintain your plan, put one together on your own, or use another service, it is important to have a plan. If ArtsReady is not the right fit for you, the additional resources on our website can help you develop the right plan for your organization, so you are ready for anything.

Updates for 2025-2026 Applicants

Please be aware of the following updates to the 2025-2026 Arts in Rural Places Grants cycle:

• In an effort to expand our reach and create space and opportunity for new applicants, organizations that received a South Arts’ Presentation, Traditional Arts Touring, or Express Grant in FY24 or FY25 are not eligible for this grant cycle.
• This grant program is now open to non-arts organizations.
• Applicants must be 501(c)(3) or governmental organizations, including but not limited to community cultural organizations, community centers, churches, schools/colleges/universities, libraries, artist ensembles, producing and presenting organizations, museums, film festivals, and visual and performing arts centers.
• In addition to applicants located in small cities with populations of 50,000 people or less, this grant program is now open to organizations located in rural and isolated communities (i.e., communities that are geographically isolated or isolated due to socioeconomic factors, outmigration, education gaps, and/or lack of infrastructure).

Application Requirements

Please plan plenty of time to organize your application in our Salesforce system.

South Arts encourages applicants to contact us with questions more than 48 hours before the application deadline.

• Application
• Proof of government status (if applicable)
• Letter of intent or contract between the artist and the applicant stating the activities, date(s), and fee (signed by both parties)
• Artist support material: Company history, artist biography, or writer's resume/biography with a list of published works
• Work sample: A representative work sample for the artist/company
  • Performing – Submit up to 10 minutes of audio or video
  • Literary – Submit up to 10 pages of written work or up to 10 minutes of audio or video
  • Visual – Submit up to 10 high-resolution images
  • Film – Submit up to 10 minutes of film footage
• Supplemental document (optional)
  • Other support material (e.g., reviews, letters of support, or brochure) directly related to the application may be submitted. Do not include audio, video, or other electronic samples. The supplemental document should not exceed five (5) pages unless the document is a publication.

All grant applications must be submitted online using our grants management system (Salesforce). We recommend that you visit the site early to create your account and become familiar with the system. Complete your application and upload the required materials as detailed above. Applicants will be notified of funding decisions by email within 12 weeks of the deadline. When you begin using our grants portal, please check your “Spam” or “Junk” folders and filters to be sure you can receive emails from grants@southarts.org. For assistance, contact Nikki Estes at 404-874-7244 x816.

South Arts strictly adheres to deadlines and will NOT accept late or incomplete applications. Deadlines are not extended due to inclement weather. Grantees will be required to adhere to grant requirements based on the grant program and program source of funds as set forth in the grantee's award letter and/or contract. These can include, but are not limited to, Grant Acceptance Terms and Conditions, Assurance of Compliance, and Federal Suspension and Debarment Requirements.