This grant program provides general operating support to Marion County-based nonprofit arts & culture organizations.

Applications for the 2024 Annual Grants Program closed February 16, 2024.

View the 2024 public panel review recording here.

Nearly 35 artists have used these $3,500 grants early in their careers to develop their knowledge and skills. They recorded new music, choreographed dances, bought supplies and rented studios, traveled and studied, and more. Many of these artists now have established careers and are well-known in Indianapolis and beyond. 

Since 2008, Indy Arts Council has awarded $3,500 grants to central Indiana-based emerging musicians, dancers, theater lighting designers, painters, poets, sculptors and other artists. This program ends in 2024 with a final round of Beckmann fellows, who will be announced in December 2023. 

The Beckmann Emerging Artist Fellowships honored the legacy of Robert D. Beckmann, Jr., a visual and performing artist and founding member of Indy Arts Council. And after 15 years, the fellowship program will end with the final round of Beckmann artists announced in December 2023. 

The Arts Council launched #IndyKeepsCreating in March 2020 as a hashtag to rally artists, arts organizations, and stakeholders facing the isolation and other challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also became the umbrella name for a series of grant programs supporting independent artists and nonprofit organizations that suffered major financial losses.

In 2020, the Arts Council was entrusted to administer nearly $14 million to help ensure #IndyKeepsCreating through relief and recovery funding for independent artists and nonprofit arts organizations.

In 2021, the initiative evolved to include:

• Artist Restart Grants: Covering the tools, studio rentals, rehearsal spaces, submission fees, and other work-related costs. More than 175 $1,000 grants were distributed in the summer to help artists restart their careers.
• Wug Laku Mental Health & Wellness Grants: Created to provide access to mental health care and wellness programs for artists and arts administrators. The $250 and $750 grants honored the legacy of Wug Laku, a local artist and mentor who died in 2017 due to untreated mental illness.
• The Indy Keeps Creating Series: Featured artist- and community-led cultural activities from August 2021 to March 2022 including the Sidewalk Galleries, Cultural Connection Series, and Music Series. The program was supported by $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding made available through the City of Indianapolis.

Indy Arts Council offered Mental Health & Wellness Grants to support artists and creative workers in navigating and preventing addiction and substance abuse.

These grants aimed to help artists experiencing social and emotional challenges without sufficient means to obtain treatment. These grants were intended to address, reduce, treat, and prevent substance abuse and addiction, and covered costs for one-on-one therapy, support groups, art therapy, and wellness & mindfulness practices. Grant awards ranged from $250 to $750.

Funding for these grants was made possible through the City of Indianapolis and the Opioid Settlement Funds. As of July 1, 2024, all available funds for this program have been allocated.

In 2024, Indy Arts Council awarded a total of $135,000 for Art for Awareness Grants. The funds support programs that use arts-based activities to prevent or create awareness of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) or addiction in Marion County. These projects are based on collaboration between artists and SUD experts and employ evidence-based techniques. Read more about the awardees and their projects here.