Project Support for Individual Artists and Culture Bearers

The Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council offers Project Support for Individual Artists and Culture Bearers to individual artists and culture bearers who live in the 11-county SEMAC region. The program is intended to help individuals take the next step in their creative pursuits by providing financial support to experiment, take on a challenge, or deepen their creative practice. Applicants creating new work in all artistic disciplines are encouraged to apply. Examples identified by SEMAC include painting, photography, printmaking, textiles, music, dance, theater, performance, storytelling, literary arts, intermedia arts, and traditional arts. SEMAC activities are made possible by Minnesota voters through grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board using a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. The program has two project grant categories, Emerging and Advancing. Emerging awards range from $2,000 to $4,000, while Advancing awards range from $3,000 to $6,000. To qualify for the Advancing category, an applicant must have a body of work demonstrating a sustained level of accomplishment, commitment, and artistic excellence over several years. The source does not state a matching or cost-share requirement. Applicants may not request funding for expenses that are not arts-related or expenses already incurred, including grant-writing expenses. Applications containing math errors in the budget or requests for disallowed expenses, including out-of-state travel, will be disqualified. Proposed projects must support the creation of new work and include an opportunity for meaningful public engagement with that work. The public component may consist of an exhibition, performance, reading, another in-person activity, or a series of events. Applicants may select the format that best supports their projects as long as the component is accessible to and meaningfully engages the general public. The application requires the applicant to identify a specific date for the public component so SEMAC can promote it and send a representative to monitor it. Applicants proposing to present, adapt, or translate existing work, such as a piece of music or a play, must explain why that specific work was selected, how the choice advances their own creative pursuits, and how the project fulfills the program's focus on supporting creation of new work. Eligibility is limited to individual artists and culture bearers living within SEMAC's 11-county region. Grant recipients must sit out one full fiscal year before applying again for the same grant. Applicants should follow SEMAC's General Application Instructions as well as the requirements presented in the grant application and linked guidance. File uploads, including PDFs and work samples, may be required. Only one PDF can be uploaded in an individual upload field, so applicants must combine everything requested for that question into a single PDF. With limited exceptions, application fields are required, and the grant interface will prevent submission when a required field has been left unanswered. Applications and required forms must be submitted no later than 11:59 pm on the applicable deadline date. The provided schedule identifies application openings of June 28, 2026 and December 15, 2026, with corresponding deadlines of July 28, 2026 and January 25, 2027. The earliest project start date is November 1 for the July deadline and April 18 for the January deadline. As of August 26, 2026, the July deadline has passed and the next stated application period opens December 15, 2026 and closes January 25, 2027. SEMAC does not accept late applications and makes no exceptions. Successful submission generates an automatic confirmation email; applicants who do not receive confirmation should contact the SEMAC office rather than assume their submission was successful. Applicants are encouraged to allow sufficient preparation time, provide clearly stated timelines, objectives, and outcomes, verify all URLs, obtain outside feedback, proofread the application, and check budget calculations. The complete grant activity, including publicity and payments, must occur between the start and end dates supplied in the application. Up to one week before the final submission deadline, applicants may request a staff review of their proposal during regular business hours by emailing staff@semac.org, although staff assistance does not guarantee funding. Questions and requests for assistance may be directed to SEMAC at staff@semac.org or 507.281.4848. Accessibility needs may be directed to sharon@semac.org or 711 TTY. Applicants experiencing grant-interface access or troubleshooting problems must resolve them with the SEMAC office during regular business hours because post-deadline appeals will not be considered.

Plan the activity carefully and state timelines objectives and outcomes clearly; verify every submitted URL; obtain outside feedback; proofread and check budget calculations; avoid disallowed expenses and out-of-state travel; request SEMAC staff review up to one week before the deadline if desired