A new arts initiative aims to help artists receive grants to create free arts performances throughout the five boroughs.
City Parks Foundation, with the newly-formed Culture in Parks and Plazas Coalition, recently announced the GREEN / ARTS LIVE NYC fund. With support from the New York Community Trust and Con Edison’s Arts Al Fresco Series, the fund will provide microgrants and subsidized production support to give the city’s under-resourced communities the opportunity to benefit from free arts and culture performances in their neighborhood parks, plazas and community gardens this summer and fall.
“This past year has highlighted for all of us just how essential parks are to our city’s health and welfare. More than ever before, parks provided — and will continue to provide respite, as well as serve as hosts for free cultural expression,” said Heather Lubov, Executive Director of City Parks Foundation. “This summer, as New York comes back to life, we will activate these important neighborhood centers while at the same time, provide support to local artists, cultural organizations and production teams, all of whom have been financially devastated by the pandemic. Our city’s parks, plazas and gardens will serve as safe, accessible performance spaces for every community.”
GREEN / ARTS LIVE NYC aims to provide equitable financial, consulting and production support to artists, arts groups, cultural, and community-based organizations and volunteer stewardship groups throughout New York City. The fund was created by Culture in Parks and Plazas Coalition in order to activate and engage the green and public spaces of NYC with free live arts and cultural performances.
The fund, which will be administered by the City Parks Foundation, will give grants up to $3,000 to individual artists and ensembles, community groups, and arts and cultural nonprofit organizations of all types that will present free of charge family-friendly performing arts programs or arts workshops in parks, neighborhood plazas, and community gardens across the five boroughs.
The fund will be given priority to individual artists/ensembles and independent arts groups, volunteer-based community park and plaza groups, and small nonprofit arts organizations that are community-based. The fund will also give priority to organizations that are led by individuals that identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA, people with disabilities, and/or immigrant populations, as well as artists and programs in neighborhoods that were hit the hardest by COVID-19.
Applications will be available from May 10 through noon on May 28. Award notifications will begin the week of June 21, and all grant awarded projects must be completed no later than Oct. 31, 2021.
“After a difficult and isolating chapter in the city’s history, this program will enable New Yorkers to come together safely as local artists and arts groups bring our green spaces and plazas to new life,” said Salem Tsegaye, Program Officer, Arts & Culture, The New York Community Trust. “We are proud to support this dynamic coalition of groups and look forward to a spring and summer full of shared performances, discovery, and applause.”
For more information and grant guidelines, visit cityparksfoundation.org/green-arts or email greenartslivenyc@cityparksfoundation.org.
