A call to visual artists: What would you create with $5,000

What would you create with $5,000? – Would you buy new equipment to take pictures of the beauties in the city? Would you paint a mural that touches the sky? Would you create your next masterpiece? Quad City Arts is offering a new grant to help local artists keep creating.
​

​Quad City Arts’ annual Arts Dollars Grant Program is back this year with several grants including a new Visual Artists Grant. This Visual Artists Grant, funded by an anonymous donor, offers $5,000 dollars to visual artists in support of their creative endeavors. The grant is open-ended and can be used however each recipient sees fit, up to 20% can go straight to the artist pocket as payment to them and the other 80% can be used for a number of things including buying supplies, studio rent, marketing, and ANYTHING that helps the artist continue to create. Each selected artist will also be required to attend two meetings in which are put in place to support the artist through the progression of the year.​

Quad City Arts strived to support artists and help them continue to cultivate art here in the QC. With an accessible and uncomplicated application, this Visual Artist Grant is open to any and all visual artists in the area. The application asks for a short artist’s narrative, the artist's resume, and work samples. If you see yourself as a visual artist, apply! With a diverse community panel of judges making the decision, any artist could receive this grant.
 ​

Gabi Torres in her Clinton, Iowa studio.

Previous Arts Dollars Grant recipient Gabi Torres shares what this opportunity meant for her, “I am really grateful for what the Quad City Arts has been doing in supporting local artist, it has been a game-changer for me personally…it felt wonderful and amazing [to be awarded]. This was the first grant I had received as an artist so it was very validating and so encouraging.” Through the grant, Torres is working to bring more modern art to the Clinton area. In doing that, she has begun working with the Sawmill Museum in Clinton where later this year she will have a free to the public, interactive exhibit displaying a collection of her abstract work.

Torres also shared her feelings towards the new Visual Artist Grant being offered this year, “It is a tremendous opportunity. In talking with lots of artists we’ve all agreed that the grants aimed to help support the buying of materials or a specific project are amazing and wonderful, but it is difficult for us because very few grants support the artist and their time and their actual labor this grant opportunity is different [since 20% can go straight to the artist pocket]. The Visual Artist Grant is a wonderful opportunity for artists in the whole Quad Cities greater area, it is trailblazing.” 
 
Applications are due January 31, 2022
Recipients will be notified no later than March 15, 2022

APPLy Before January 31