Small Grant

The Small Grants program provides grants of up to $750 on a rolling basis in four different categories:

  • The Small Grants—Educational Opportunity Program provides grants of up to $750 for artists to attend an extraordinary educational opportunity within Minnesota.

  • The Small Grants — Professional Development Program (Out of Funding for FY24) provides grants of up to $750 for artists to attend a rare professional development opportunity. 

  • The Small Grants—Emergency Program (Individuals) provides grants of up to $750 for artists to help recover from failure of, damage to, or theft of equipment or other things related to their artistic discipline. Computers at the end of their natural life that fail are not considered emergencies.

  • The Small Grants—Emergency Program (Organizations) provides grants of up to $750 for artists and organizations to help recover from failure of, damage to, or theft of equipment or other things related to their artistic discipline. For organizations, this may also include major equipment failures.

Important Deadlines:

Application deadlines are on the first of each month. This allows for review and board approval. 

Artists may only receive one Small Grant per year.

Our staff is available to help you sort through your ideas, give feedback on your application, as well as encourage you.

Feel free to contact our staff to receive feedback. Our grants manager can serve as a sounding board for all parts of the process. We’re also happy to help you navigate through the application and any technical questions that come up.

If you are unfamiliar with us, the staff serves as advocates for all artists.  Decisions about the grants are made by panels of artists and ARAC Board members.

We are here to help and assist you with the application process.

Criteria:

Small Grants—Educational
Opportunity Program

  • Uniqueness of the opportunity

  • The impact on the artist’s development

  • Ability to carry out the project

 

Small Grants—Emergency Program (Individuals)

  • Need related to art

  • The serious nature of the emergency

Small Grants — Professional Development Program

  • Uniqueness of the opportunity

  • The impact on the artist’s development

  • Ability to carry out the project

 

Small Grants—Emergency Program (Organizations)

  • Need related to art

  • The serious nature of the emergency

Eligibility:

To be eligible to apply for this program, you must be at least eighteen years old, a U.S. citizen or have permanent resident status, and be a resident of Aitkin, Carlton, Cook, Itasca, Koochiching, Lake, or St. Louis County or of the four Tribal Nations within our region including Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, or Leech Lake (within Itasca County) for at least six months, and remain a Minnesota resident for the duration of the project. Individuals enrolled in arts-related degree programs are INELIGIBLE to apply.

Arts organizations in the following Arrowhead counties: Aitkin, Cook, Carlton, Itasca, Koochiching, Lake, or St. Louis or of the four Tribal Nations within our region including Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, or Leech Lake (within Itasca County). Organizations currently receiving Operating Support from the Minnesota State Arts Board (MSAB) are not eligible to apply to this or any other ARAC program, though they may serve as an eligible group’s fiscal sponsor or partner. Past ARAC grant recipients with an overdue, unaccepted, or falsified final report are ineligible to apply.

How to Apply:

Please read the following guidelines completely before beginning your application, and feel free to contact the Grants Manager with questions.

Small Grant Guidelines

Applications must be completed and submitted using the ARAC Grant Portal. Submissions in any other format, including email, will not be accepted. Instructions for navigating the online system can be found by clicking on the ‘Apply Now’ button below.

  • The online application process will walk you through submitting your application.

  • To be eligible, your application must include all materials listed as required in the online application.

  • Applications must be received into the online system by 4:30 p.m. on the deadline date. Applications received after this time are ineligible and will not be reviewed. There are no exceptions to this policy.