Forsyth County ARPA Funding
About the Program
In March 2022, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners earmarked $4.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to be managed by Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County. In January 2023, Arts Council received a contract from Forsyth County Government and began making allocations to provide aid to the local arts and cultural sector, including arts and cultural organizations and artist small businesses. The funding supports recovery, new revitalization and expansion of community-based arts programming, arts workforce development programs, and technical assistance. Between January and September 2023, Arts Council’s Public Support and Community Engagement Committee reviewed hundreds of requests totaling more than was available through these once-in-a-lifetime ARPA funds. The below summarizes projects approved by Arts Council’s Public Support and Community Engagement Committee thus far. At this time, we are not accepting new requests for ARPA funding.
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Committee members: Jake Wharton, Chair, Jim DeCristo, Kenneth Pettigrew, and Talitha Vickers. Arts Council staff oversight: Chase Law, Rebecca Bender, Shannon Stokes, and Cécile Boynton.
Forsyth County ARPA Awards/Allocations
Award Recipient | Project Description | Amount Awarded/Allocated | Populations Served |
|---|---|---|---|
1 LOVE FESTIVAL Winston-Salem | Support of the 1Love Festival, a two-day event that centers and celebrates African Diasporan history and culture through art, innovation and entrepreneurship. | $150,000 | 27101, 27107 |
A/perture Cinema | Downtown Winston-Salem Community Cinema for A/perture to show a variety of films throughout Winston-Salem that will be free to the public. | $50,000 | multiple Forsyth County zip codes |
Action4Equity | The Cost of Health in East Winston is spearheaded by artist Owens Daniels in collaboration with Action4Equity and aims to tackle food deserts in East Winston. | $75,000 | 27101, 27105 |
Activate Entertainment, LLC | Support the development, work and presentation of SOLSTICE combines circus, dance, theatre, and music into a captivating live performance. | $120,000 | 27101 (project location); multiple zipcodes served |
Adriana Granados | Support E-TourMe to capture virtual tours of the Main Gallery to expand community reach throughout Forsyth County and beyond. | $5,936 | 27101; mulitple |
Andrew H. Brown | Support to a local filmaker and his crew for Between the Rain, a feature collaboration with the Turkana-Ngaremara community in Northern Kenya. | $50,000 | 27101, 10011 |
Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County | Support of Celebrating 50 Years of Hip Hop, with a community dance program for local youth, and a free masterclass featuring artist, musician, producer 9th Wonder. | $25,000 | 27101, 27105 |
Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County | Amplify - an Arts Council program featuring local musicians and performance art talent. Supports a local curator and local up and coming artists. | $67,486 | 27101 |
Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County | Support a comprehensive Marketing Plan to help with awareness, recovery, and encourage attendance/participation across the arts and cultural sector. | $150,000 | 27101 |
Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County | Purchase of Submittable application database to assist with applications and ease of montly reporting, data collection, and uploading of materials from contractors. | $13,000 | 27101 |
Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County | Arts Council Administrative Oversight (If the full funds are not expected/projected to be used by Dec. 2024, they will be reallocated.) | $450,000 | 27101 |
Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County | The Lab - an Arts Council program centering interdisciplinary, experimental and inclusive art through monthly curated, artist centric events. | $62,754 | 27101 |
Timeline
Application Deadline: As of June 2023, we are not accepting any new applications.
Please Note: All applications and required supporting documents must be submitted via the Submittable Grants Portal.
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Review of Application: Applications will be reviewed by Arts Council Public Support and Community Engagement Committee on the 3rd Wednesday of every month. To be considered at the monthly review meeting, applications must be submitted by the 5th of the month.
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Award Notification: By the end of each month the application was submitted.
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Project Period: All projects must be completed by December 31, 2024
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Reporting: Monthly reporting will be required as outlined in the Eligibility Documents below.
Eligibility Criteria
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Must be an organization, business entity or individual artist that resides and/or produce most of their program and services in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County.
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ARPA contract recipients must acknowledge the receipt of eligibility documents for the ARPA Fund Application, and agree to comply to all guidelines, procedure and policies of this contract award process​
Evaluation
​Arts Council staff will review all applications to ensure their eligibility. All eligible applications are evaluated by Arts Council Public Support and Community Engagement Committee on the 3rd Wednesday of every month.
Applications will be reviewed and evaluated based on the following guidelines:
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BUDGET: Is the budget clear with detailed expenses? Does the project budget align with the project narrative?
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SUSTAINABILITY: Is the sustainability plan for this project clear and feasible?
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COMMUNITY IMPACT: Is it clear as to the constituency being served in this project? How does this align with Arts Council strategic visioning roadmap.
Note: At least 50% of the ARPA Funds must serve project initiatives in disproportionately impacted communities, and provide initiatives in areas that are at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty level. More information about the Federal Poverty level can be found in our resource drive below.
For ARPA Contract Recipients
Please note that part of ARPA compliance is that Contractors will give proper credit to Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County and Forsyth County Government with use of logos in all publicity, including on flyers or advertisements and will use the following tagline acknowledgement:
“The Project Name is a sponsored project of the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County and funded through ARPA supported by the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners.”
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You can share all project marketing and/or promotional information with our CMO and VP, Development, Katie Hall, khall@intothearts.org.
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Requirements
Contact
General Questions:
Shannon Stokes
Vice President of Strategy and Community Impact
(336) 747-1416
To Schedule a Call with Grants Team:
Cécile Boynton
Community Grants and Services Manager
(336) 747-1412