Resource Library

Artists Sunday is the nationwide movement dedicated to supporting artists and recognizing the impact they have in enriching our lives, communities, and the economy.

The powerful new effort is designed to make the Sunday after Thanksgiving the most profitable day of the year for artists. Consumers are encouraged to shop with artists and purchase creative, handcrafted gifts for the holidays. Artists Sunday follows Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, prior to Cyber Monday.

Supporters include individual artists, economic development agencies and non-profit organizations across the country. To learn more about Artists Sunday artists, partners, sponsors, or involvement in promoting commerce with artists, please visit http://ArtistsSunday.com/

The Dance New Jersey Regrant Program 2023 is designed to support the recovery and renewal of the New Jersey dance community due to the ongoing effects of COVID-19 and non-pandemic challenges. Grant requests up to $2,000 are available with no additional requirements for the artists other than a final report and recognition of the award on their website and social media outlets as applicable.

DNJ funds will support a diverse range of dance artists from across the state. In efforts to create a more equitable dance community, DNJ will award a minimum of 50% of grant funds to BIPOC-identifying dance artists. Alongside grant awards, DNJ will facilitate a virtual meet and greet for artists to network and share their artistic practices. DNJ will also highlight each artist through social media outlets, newsletters, and the DNJ website to acknowledge and spread awareness of each dance artist and the vibrant NJ dance community in action.

Poetry Out Loud (POL) is a national poetry recitation program for students in grades 9-12, or the age/grade equivalent. Traditionally designed for public, charter, parochial school and home school teachers, POL recently announced opportunities for parents, community leaders, organizations, and other interested facilitators to engage with the program. In addition to high school participants, other grades are welcome to register and run the program at the school level, but do not qualify for the contest.

Poetry Out Loud, a free national program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, encourages high school students across the country to learn about great works of classic and contemporary poetry through memorization and recitation. Not only do they share their interpretation and delivery of poetry; they also vie for awards and scholarships totaling $50,000.

Are you an independent artist or small-scale, grassroots company fighting for a slice of publicity? Are you wondering how to get some traction promoting your show? Some large arts organizations have whole teams of PR professionals, but indie artists shouldn’t be left out in the cold just because they never learned how to effectively approach the press. Anyone is welcome to join us with a $25 donation to BSR.

At 6:30pm on Wednesday, December 13, we’re gathering for a Zoom class with BSR editors Alaina Johns and Kyle V. Hiller. We’ll begin with about an hour of interactive instruction, with real-life examples from the editors’ inbox. We’ll cover the role of arts journalists, the five things we need from you when you pitch us (i.e., ask for coverage), what to do when you need a correction, how to build an effective long-term relationship with members of the press, and more. Then we’ll open the floor for a Q&A with the editors and BSR writer Jill Ivey, a communications strategist.

The Folk & Traditional Arts Project (FTAP) grant program provides emerging to mid-career folk and traditional artists access to opportunities that significantly advance skills in their art form. For this grant opportunity, emerging to mid-career artists are individuals with more than five years of experience in their art forms.

Applicants may request up to $10,000 to cover the costs of a structured learning opportunity in their art form. Proposed projects must demonstrate measurable outcomes that the applicant intends to achieve, which furthers their work in their folk and traditional art form.

All applicants must meet or exceed the following eligibility requirements. If an individual does not meet them, their Notice of Intent to Apply (NOI) form will not move forward to the Application form stage.

North to Shore Community Arts Grants of up to $5,000 will be awarded to artists, producers, small businesses and nonprofit organizations based in Asbury Park, Atlantic City and Newark to self-produce events during their festival week.

And for the first time, grants will also be offered to artists interested in performing on the North to Shore Festival Community Showcase Stages in the heart of each city.

Grantees will be chosen by a committee of local arts and culture leaders from each city—your neighbors and peers! Between 15 and 20 grants will be awarded in each city.

The New Jersey State Council on the Arts is hosting quarterly teaching artist community of practice meetings. These virtual sessions serve as a platform for teaching artists to share their experiences, discuss new opportunities, and connect with each other and the State Arts Council. Through loosely moderated discussions, the sessions provide an opportunity to network with other New Jersey teaching artists, share challenges and successes of working in the state, and discuss what teaching artistry could look like as we move into the future.

The Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections program helps cultural heritage institutions with humanities collections (libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations) meet the complex challenge of preserving diverse holdings of humanities materials (books and manuscripts, photographs, sound records and moving images, archaeological and ethnographic objects, art, and historical objects) for future generations. The program supports environmentally sustainable preventive care strategies to reduce energy consumption and costs and strengthen institutional resiliency in the face of a changing climate.

KidsGardening.org, a national nonprofit supporting the educators and caregivers bringing the life-changing benefits of gardening to kids, awards Youth Garden Grants to support school and youth educational garden projects that enhance the quality of life for students and their communities. Any nonprofit organization, school, or youth program in the U.S. or U.S. territories planning a new or improving an existing garden program that serves at least 15 youth between the ages of zero and 18 is eligible to apply. Fifty programs will be awarded $500 and a shipment of gardening supplies. Among the 50 winners, ten programs will also receive a specialty award package of in-kind donations from either Crescent Garden or Garden Tower.

Jazz Road Tours, a program of South Arts with funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation, provides grants of up to $15,000 to jazz artists to develop tours into communities across the country. Support is provided for small, three-to-six site tours at an array of venue types anywhere in the U.S and its territories. Applications that include engagements in rural areas or that reach typically underserved communities, especially those that lack opportunities to present live jazz, will be prioritized. Individual professional jazz artists (as an individual, an artist-led nonprofit organization, or an artist-led corporation), working solo or working with a composer-led or collective jazz ensemble, are eligible to apply.