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(Denver, CO) The US Regional Arts Organizations (USRAOs) have announced a new program, Walking Together: Investing in Folklife in Communities of Color.
The program provides funding of $15,000 each to traditional artists, practitioners, and keepers of traditional knowledge, as well as $50,000 each to community organizations and collectives that support folklife in communities of color. Organizations may include nonprofits, local and tribal governments, businesses, and more — nonprofit status or fiscal sponsorship is welcome, but not required. The RAOs will select 36 artists/practitioners and 56 organization grantees from the 56 states and jurisdictions that we serve.
Folk and traditional arts encompass aesthetics of everyday life. They include forms of expression and knowledge deeply rooted in local histories that are often undervalued or ignored by larger institutions. These art forms and modes of knowledge are directly connected to bolstering the overall health and wellness of communities. For marginalized communities of color in particular, folk and traditional arts can be an essential source of community, expression, and joy.
Walking Together is guided by Working Circles of traditional arts leaders of color representing each state and jurisdiction of the Regional Arts Organizations (RAOs). RAO staff work closely with the Working Circles to inform grant guidelines, outreach, and nomination processes. Grants include $50,000 organizational awards and $15,000 individual artist awards to bolster new generations of folk artists, support existing grassroots arts and cultural organizations accountable to communities of color, and facilitate networking between traditional culture bearers and RAOs to work toward systemic change in the arts funding landscape.
The Walking Together grantee interest form will open on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, and will close on Tuesday, March 19, 2025.
To learn more about the program and application process, please visit the Walking Together program page.
About Creative West (formerly WESTAF)
Creative West is a nonprofit U.S. Regional Arts Organization that builds equitable technology, funding, advocacy, and policy systems to generate creative capacity in the West and beyond. By building systems that change systems, the organization advances equity, justice, and regenerative action — seeing these values as essential as creativity itself. Creative West offers direct, practical support to arts agencies, artists, culture bearers, and creative organizations, aiming to work distributively in support of community-defined goals. Its direct-service work includes funding, programming, leadership development, research, advocacy, technology, and convening to move arts and cultural policy forward.
About the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations
The United States Regional Arts Organizations (USRAOs) strengthen and support arts, culture, and creativity in their individual regions as well as across the nation. They serve the nation’s artists, arts and culture organizations, and creative communities with programs that reflect and celebrate the diversity of the field in which they work. They partner with the National Endowment for the Arts, state arts agencies, individuals, and other public and private funders to develop and deliver programs, services, and products that advance arts and creativity. Learn more at www.usregionalarts.org.
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