The artist community experienced a major beating from the pandemic, according to an Americans for the Arts report. Some creatives are getting relief with the help of a national organization.
Todd Hansen, the executive director of Artist Rescue Trust (A.R.T.), said a bunch of his friends came up with a plan to create a nonprofit that would help artists and musicians.
“And say ‘hey, we want to give people $500 a month for three months and no questions asked. Just use the money,’” he said. “Like directly fund people that qualify and make those eligibility requirements pretty black-and-white.”
He said the organization wanted to target a large territory of artists.
“We always had a national look for it. It's always been open to anybody in the United States,” Hansen explained. “So, we just casted a wide net and helped as many people as possible as fast as possible. It's kind of been our mantra.”
Hansen shared that they raised about $80,000, which helped fund last year’s grants.
This year, the organization received $300,000 from Grant For The Web and this money will be used in the same capacity.
Artists across the country can apply for the $1500 award. The deadline hasn’t been determined yet, but Hansen said it will close within the next month or so. The application is available at artistrescue.org.
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
