Indiana Arts Commission distributes $585,000 in CARES relief funds to community-based arts providers

The Indiana Arts Commission (IAC) announces the distribution of $585,000 in relief funds to community-based arts providers.

The Indiana Arts Emergency Relief Fund program is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Indiana Arts Commission (IAC), Arts United of Fort Wayne, and Arts Midwest with funding provided by the CARES Act. 

Funds were awarded to 195 arts organizations currently receiving Arts Organization Support grants from the IAC. Collectively, these organizations support 2,696 creative sector jobs and 8,534 working artists.

“As stipulated by our federal partner, support funds were to be used for personnel costs, contracted artistic personnel, and operational costs,” said Lewis Ricci, IAC Executive Director. "The directive was to distribute the funds as expeditiously with as broad a reach as possible. I'm pleased to say that in partnership with the NEA, Arts United, and Arts Midwest, we were able to accomplish those goals and provide much needed bridge funds during a very difficult time.”

Each organization received $3,000 from the fund.

According to a survey by Americans for the Arts, the estimated economic impact of the coronavirus will be $5.5 billion nationally. For Indiana, it estimated a negative impact of $6,076,864 and a median loss of $12,000 per organization. For additional details on this survey, click here.

Additional CARES Act funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities has been distributed to humanities organizations through Indiana Humanities. In total, more than $1 million in relief funding has been distributed to arts and humanities institutions in Indiana.