South Arts Announces 2026 Cross-Sector Impact Grant Recipients Centering Community Health & Wellness

Atlanta, GA — December 17, 2025 — South Arts is pleased to announce the 2026 recipients of the Cross-Sector Impact Grants — an annual initiative focused on the power of collaboration through supporting projects across the region developed in partnership with local artists, arts organizations, and health/wellness institutions. This year’s cohort comprises 26 nonprofit organizations, each awarded up to $15,000, totaling $366,562 in grants awarded in this grant cycle.

Introduced as a multi-year initiative, the Cross-Sector Impact program provides sustained, capacity-strengthening support for collaboratively developed projects that center on artists, communities, and shared wellbeing across the Southeastern region. Reflecting this expanded commitment, the 2026 cohort features 26 projects harnessing the arts to address community health and wellness across South Arts’ nine-state region: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

“While the landscape for the arts continues to shift, the role that artists and arts organizations hold among our communities proves to be more vital than ever,” said Gretchen Wollert McLennon, South Arts Board Chair and Interim President and CEO. “Through our Cross-Sector Impact grants, South Arts aims to recognize not only the value of the arts, but also the ways in which, through thoughtful partnership and collaboration, our communities can be shaped and strengthened by the influence and efforts of artists and arts workers.”

Grounded in the collective strength and knowledge of artists, organizations, and communities, the grant program also includes a peer-learning component that supports grantees in exchanging ideas, resources, and strategies. Through this investment, South Arts aims to foster healthier communities, support arts & health and wellness-focused projects, provide sustained support to strengthen project stability and partner capacity, cultivate meaningful relationships, and expand shared knowledge across the field.

Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, Cross-Sector Impact Grants are offered each year as part of South Arts’ annual programming to support artists, arts organizations, and communities across the region. For more information on Cross-Sector Impact Grants, the 2026 recipients and upcoming opportunities, please visit South Arts' website.

About South Arts
South Arts advances Southern vitality through the arts. The nonprofit regional arts organization was founded in 1975 to build on the South’s unique heritage and enhance the public value of the arts. South Arts’ work responds to the arts environment and cultural trends with a regional perspective. South Arts offers an annual portfolio of activities designed to support the success of artists and arts providers in the South, address the needs of Southern communities through impactful arts-based programs, and celebrate the excellence, innovation, value and power of the arts of the South. For more information, visit www.southarts.org.

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