General Grant Information
In the late 1990s, the Lilly Endowment approached the Arts Council of Indianapolis to discuss the idea of creating an arts community version of its long standing Renewal Program, which includes fellowships for pastors, teachers, and social service and youth workers in a sabbatical type program. The collaboration created a new program that ultimately became the Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship, a two-year, $10,000 grant for artists and administrators. Since its launch in 1999, more than 450 grants have been awarded, infusing more than $4.1 million into our community.
The Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship Program awards forty $10,000 fellowships every other-year to qualified professional artists, or an arts administrator employed by a nonprofit organization. Qualified applicants must also meet the following criteria: (1) At least three years of consecutive residence and/or work in one of the following Indiana counties: Marion, Morgan, Boone, Hamilton, Hendricks, Hancock, Johnson or Shelby; (2) Primary source of income is derived from work in dance, theatre, media arts, music, literature, visual art or multidisciplinary art forms; (3) At least 10 years of experience in the arts and at least three years in which the applicant's primary source of income was employment in the arts; and (4) recipients must agree to share, by way of a public presentation called the “Retrospective," the results of their fellowship with the community.
