Relief Funds and Resources for Artists Amidst COVID-19

As filmmakers, artists, and media makers of color navigate the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, we’re compiling emergency funds and other resources which are seeking to provide urgent relief. [Updated 4/22]

This COVID-19 Artist Emergency Fund will provide rapid response grants up to $500 to assist artists with basic needs including food, immediate health needs and insurance premiums.

Emergency fund providing up to $200 for people of color that are either a working artist or in arts administration and are affected by COVID-19.

The purpose of the Art-House America Campaign is to provide urgent financial relief to art house cinemas. The campaign was established with a donation from the Criterion Collection and Janus Films and is managed by Art House Convergence.

Artist Relief will distribute $5,000 grants to artists facing dire financial emergencies due to COVID-19; serve as an ongoing informational resource; and co-launch the COVID-19 Impact Survey for Artists and Creative Workers, designed by Americans for the Arts, to better identify and address the needs of artists.

The City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE), the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (GPCA), and the Philadelphia Cultural Fund (PCF) have partnered to create COVID-19 Arts Aid PHL, a new emergency support fund focused on the arts and culture sector. COVID-19 Arts Aid PHL will support individual artists as well as small arts and culture organizations (annual budgets no greater than $250,000) and mid-sized organizations (annual budgets of $250,000 – $15M) whose operations, work and livelihood have been deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The $250,000 fund has been provided by both Field of Vision and Topic Studios in an effort to offer support and assistance to the incredible documentary freelancers in our field who have experienced financial hardship from loss of income or opportunity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fund to help at least 100 queer writers of color who have been financially impacted by the current COVID-19 crisis. Priority will be given to queer trans women of color and queer disabled writers of color.

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is partnering with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation to administer a new emergency grant program called Rauschenberg Emergency Grants. The program will provide one-time grants of up to $5,000 for unexpected medical emergencies. The grants are available to visual and media artists and choreographers who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents in the United States, District of Columbia, or U.S. Territories.

The South Asian Arts Resiliency Fund is a direct response by the India Center Foundation to offer support to South Asian arts workers impacted by COVID-19. The South Asian Arts Resiliency Fund will distribute project grants of at least $1000 (up to $2000 depending on financial need and availability of funds) to assist United States based arts workers of South Asian descent (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) in performing arts, film, visual arts, and/or literature.

Over the coming months, The Velocity Fund will manage the distribution of individual $1,000 unrestricted, one-time grants to Philadelphia visual artists based on an open application process. Any practicing visual artist, who is currently a resident of Philadelphia and has experienced financial loss and/or hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic is encouraged to apply.

Artists and Black people in Philly are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 shutdown. In response, The Village has raised seed funding to make one-time grants of $500 available to Black working artists in Philadelphia who have lost critical income because of the shutdown.

For additional resources, please visit these sites:

• Artist Relief Tree
• Creative Capital’s List of Art Resources During COVID-19 Outbreak
• Fractured Atlas Coronavirus Resources for Artists of Color