Baltimore City awarded $324,000 worth of grants to 81 local artists affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ARPA Artist Grant Fund, funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, gave each eligible artist a $4,000 unrestricted grant.
“Local artists and creatives help to shape and define Baltimore’s identity,” Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement. “We know that these folks were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, which is why we’ve made the arts an especially high priority in the last few years.”
Baltimore Civic Fund, which promotes economic development across the city, selected 81 grantees from over 165 applicants. Awarded artists represented a range of disciplines, including performing arts, fashion and textile, culinary, recording and sound, visual and design and more.
“This grant is about creative resilience,” said Tonya Miller Hall, the senior advisor of arts & culture for the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Culture & Entertainment. “It reflects our belief that artists are not only cultural visionaries but small business owners and community anchors who deserve investment and infrastructure.”
The initial application for the Artist Grant Fund, released in Dec. 2024, said the Civic Fund and Baltimore City would grant $500,000 worth of federal ARPA funding “to provide direct financial assistance to local artists affected between March 14, 2020, and June 30, 2021.”
As the City’s fiscal sponsor, the Civic Fund provided over $5 million in pandemic relief grants to 124 nonprofits in 2020 and 2021.
“Through investing in individual artists and grassroots organizations, the City’s ARPA funding has played a crucial role in sustaining Baltimore’s entire creative ecosystem,” Acting Chief Recovery Officer for the Mayor’s Office of Recovery Programs Elizabeth Tatum said. “We are proud to support the people and projects that make Baltimore a more vibrant, connected, and inspiring place to live.”
Earlier this year, the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts announced its Creative Baltimore Fund grantees. BOPA gave $3,000 to local artists and additional grants to 27 non-profit organizations.
