The Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University are starting a fund to help St. Louis-area visual artists whose livelihoods were disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
A Sustaining Arts Practice Fund was announced Monday by the two organizations. It will distribute $100,000 in grants to visual artists.
The organizations will grant $2,000 to 50 artists, designers and architects who have lost income because their events, contracts and teaching engagements were canceled. The money comes from an endowment Emily Rauh Pulitzer established at Wash U to support the arts through a collaboration between the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the Sam Fox School.
Pulitzer Arts Foundation director Cara Starke said the area’s artists are especially facing hardships during this time.
“They’re so vital to our community, and many are facing significant financial hardship at this time,” Starke said. “So the ASAP fund is really dedicated in helping to sustain the creative practice within our community.”
Artists will be able to use the awarded grant money for whatever they need. The grants will especially help artists and designers who lost income because of the pandemic.
“It’s layoffs and furloughs and also as organizations realize that they themselves can’t take on as much,” Starke said. “People are also losing commissions and projects and other things that they anticipated in the future.”
Applicants must live in St. Louis or St. Louis, Jefferson or St. Charles counties in Missouri and Madison or St. Clair counties in Illinois to qualify for the grant. Those applying need to submit a biography and submit a statement describing their financial needs.
Both organizations said they’re also working with community leaders to encourage artists of color, immigrants, indigenous artists, LGBTQ artists, people with disabilities and members of other underrepresented groups to apply.
“We tried to reach a population that we really want to feel supported by St. Louis, by us,” said Carmon Colangelo, the Ralph J. Nagel dean of the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts.
Applications are due May 29. Awards will be distributed in July.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the entity that supports the fund to support visual artists. The money comes from an endowment Emily Rauh Pulitzer established at Wash U to support the arts through a collaboration between the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the Sam Fox School.
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