Scholarships offered for Dance/USA summer conference
Head to the ATL in June with help from South Arts
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Friday, March 31
The Dance/USA Conference—June 13-16 in Atlanta—is said to be "an invigorating gathering of approximately 400 dance professionals united by their interests in advancing dance and celebrating the joy of movement."
Attendees get to honor leaders in the field, share and access new resources, and connect with peers through thought-provoking training and conversations. Together attendees discover innovative approaches to shared problems and strengthen relationships among fellow dance professionals.
Sounds worthwhile to The Hub! Our partners at South Arts recognize that participation costs may be a barrier and, along with the Georgia Council for the Arts, are offering scholarships to attend the Dance/USA Conference this year. Applicants are required to currently reside in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. These scholarships will support conference registration costs.
The deadline to apply for scholarship assistance is Friday, March 31, 2023.
Anyone interested and eligible for the scholarships is encouraged to apply. Be aware that South Arts is prioritizing support for dance leaders who may be:
- A Black Person, Indigenous Person, or a Person of Color (BIPOC)
- An individual with a disability
- An individual whose annual income is lower than $30,000
- An individual who is based in the state of Georgia
Bring indy filmmakers to your community with South Arts
Become a Southern Circuit 2023/2024 screening partner
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Tuesday, April 25, 2023
The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers works with a network of screening partner organizations to connect filmmakers with communities throughout the South for film screenings and conversations around important stories and the art of filmmaking.

Screening partners serve as hosts on the tour, thoughtfully connecting touring filmmakers with their communities and providing local recommendations for travel, lodging, and dining.
South Arts coordinates touring schedules, connects filmmakers with screening partners, and provides marketing materials for each film. Filmmakers receive honorarium with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Screening partners must be nonprofit, educational, or governmental organizations residing in the South Arts region (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee). Southern Circuit Screening Partners have included schools, churches, arts centers, municipalities, and other organizations serving audiences of all ages.
Screening Partner applications for the 2023/2024 Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers are due April 25, 2023.
South Arts extends deadline on key artist grant
South Arts announced today it is extending the Individual Artist Career Opportunity Grant application deadline to Friday, March 24, 2023.
The grant supports a milestone opportunity in an individual artist’s career that is likely to lead to substantial and significant career advancement. Grants of up to $2,000 are available to support opportunities taking place between July 1, 2023 and July 31, 2024. Learn more and apply at
https://www.southarts.org/artist-grants-fellowships/individual-artist-career-opportunity-grants.
[caption id="attachment_52787" align="aligncenter" width="699"]

Previous Individual Artist Career Opportunity Grant recipient Terry Galloway adapted her solo performance piece "Lardo Weeping" into a chamber opera.[/caption]
Executive sought for remote national arts role
The USRAO's are hiring
- APPLICATION DEADLINE: February 28, 2023
- COMPENSATION INFORMATION: $150,000 / FT / Benefits offered / fully remote!
The United States Regional Arts Organizations are a collective of the six regional nonprofit arts service organizations, of which SCAC partner South Arts is one.
Together, the USRAOs work to activate and operate national arts initiatives, encourage, and support collaboration across regions, states, and communities, and maximize the coordination of public and private resources invested in arts programs. In FY2021, they invested more than $28.3 million across the United States and its jurisdictions, through more than 3,000 grants that reached more than 1,600 communities.
The collective is now looking for its first leader.
Reporting directly to the collective’s two co-chairs while focusing on a set of priorities established in close collaboration with the whole RAO leadership, the full-time national director will play a critical role in developing and coordinating the shared national programmatic and fundraising vision of the USRAOs as a united national collective. Serving as the lead coordinator and fundraiser for the collective, the national director organizes and participates in the design and development of shared plans and programs; provides guidance to the executive leaders of each USRAO and supervises the day-to-day operations of the shared service hub including budgeting, internal and external communications and managing contracted support.
Collaborating with the collective executive leadership of the USRAOs, the national director will ground the foundational development of the USRAOs shared service hub in an action-focused, measurable, and reportable commitment to equity, inclusion, and access.
This position works remotely without restrictions on location within the United States and will require travel. The starting annual operational budget is $300,000; the starting salary for the national director is $150,000.
For more information and to apply, go here.
South Arts opens apps for Jazz Road Tours grants
PLUS: jazz creative residency grant opens soon
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Wednesday, March 8, 2023
South Arts is pleased to announce that the next application cycle of Jazz Road Tours is now open and Jazz Road Creative Residencies will open on February 8.

These artist-centric grant programs put funds directly in the hands of jazz artists across the US to connect with audiences and develop creative work.
Jazz Road Tours grants range from $5,000 to $15,000, funding the artists directly to cover a portion of eligible tour expenses including artist fees, travel, housing, meals, backline, road/sound/tour management, and costs related to tour coordination and promotion. The Jazz Road Tours program is designed to help artists earn a living wage while on the road. The next application cycle is now open with a deadline of March 8, and additional regular deadlines throughout the coming years.
Coming soon...
Jazz Road Creative Residencies grants range from $5,000 to $40,000, to remove financial barriers that keep artists from investing deeply in their creative practice, attending to their artistic and professional growth, and experimenting across a wide range of artistic and community engagement possibilities throughout the US. Through these grants, jazz artists can propose, build, and develop their own creative residency to further explore their work. The next application cycle will open on Feb. 8 with a deadline of April 8.
Informational Webinar
An information webinar will be held on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023, from 3-4:30 p.m. ET to share our vision for these programs and best practices on assembling a successful application.
Register today to join us! The webinar will be recorded and posted on our site soon afterward.
2022 Southern Prize exhibition now open in S.C.
Opening reception tonight in Florence gallery
Compelling visual art from the nine southeastern-state fellows in the running for the 2022 South Arts Southern Prize is now on display in Florence, and an opening reception is tonight from 5:30-6:30 p.m.
South Carolina Arts Commission Executive Director
David T. Platts will be on hand for a greeting and remarks to attendees.
Launched in 2017, the Southern Prize and State Fellowships acknowledge, support, and celebrate the highest quality art being created in the South. Approximately 600 artists applied for consideration in fall and winter 2021, and jurors reviewed each application to recommend the State Fellowship recipients. After review from a national panel of jurors,
Louisiana mixed media artist Hannah Chalew was named winner of the $25,000 Southern Prize.
[caption id="attachment_52309" align="alignright" width="300"]

Click image to enlarge. Courtesy of South Arts.[/caption]
The other 2022 State Fellowship recipients are:
- Jenny Fine. Multidisciplinary. New Brockton, Alabama.
- GeoVanna Gonzalez. Multidisciplinary. Miami, Florida.
- Antonio Darden. Sculpture. Atlanta, Georgia.
- Crystal Gregory. Sculpture. Lexington, Kentucky.
- Gloria Gipson Suggs. Painting. Holly Springs, Mississippi.
- Marcus Dunn. Painting. Fayetteville, North Carolina.
- Brittany M. Watkins. Mixed Media. Columbia, South Carolina.
- Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo. Sculpture. Memphis, Tennessee.
Visual artists living in South Arts’ nine-state region and producing crafts, drawing, experimental, painting, photography, sculpture, mixed media, and multidisciplinary work were eligible to apply. The nine fellows receive $5,000 cash awards and inclusion in this touring exhibition, which has made its way to South Carolina. The Stephen F. Gately Gallery at Francis Marion University is host of the exhibition.
The Southern Prize and State Fellowships program is made possible through the generous financial support of many donors.
[caption id="attachment_52307" align="aligncenter" width="950"]

An exhibition attendee snaps a picture of South Carolina State Fellow Brittany M. Watkins' "Maladaptation Sits," on exhibit at the launch of the tour. Provided photo/South Arts.[/caption]
South Arts offers tax basics class for creatives
Jan. 26 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (webinar)
Those of us who are working stiff types know, almost instinctively, that January ushers in tax season.
Checking the inbox (or mailbox still, perhaps) for the ol' W-2 form becomes
compulsive habitual come mid-month, and then there is gathering up your donation receipts, other receipts, the mortgage statement for many, and other such paperwork that you'll need in preparation for April 15 (well, apparently the 17th in 2023).
But many creative types do not dabble in the working stiff arts, and the rhythms of office life might escape you. Heck, you might not even know exactly what common forms and papers you'll need to prepare your taxes. (Which is totally fine, but you still need that info.)
Fortunately, our partners at South Arts have timely help for creative entrepreneurs.

As part of
Tax Basics for Creatives, registrants can expect to "master the basics of U.S. Federal income taxes so they can file 2022’s taxes with ease (or at least less stress) and plan for 2023’s." That means:
- Identify ordinary and necessary deductions common to creative businesses
- Review the overall U.S. Federal income tax landscape
- Identify records to retain for tax purposes and effective systems for tracking expenses and income
Per South Arts, this course "is best for folks who have a bit of experience running a creative business and who have filed taxes at least once or twice. A bit of experience will make the information in this course make more sense. Examples in the course will cover stories from visual, literary, and performing artists."
Sound like something that can benefit you?
Get more information and register here. It's free.
Tuesday was a big day for grant announcements
S.C. arts orgs, one artist benefit from NEA, South Arts funding
Within hours of each other yesterday, the National Endowment for the Arts and regional arts organization South Arts made their first 2023 grant announcements that will find an artist and several arts organizations in South Carolina.

The NEA went first, announcing more than $34 million in funding to support the arts nationwide. This is the first of the NEA’s two major grant announcements each fiscal year and includes grants to organizations through the NEA’s Grants for Arts Projects, Challenge America, and Research Awards categories. This announcement also includes grants to individuals for Literature Fellowships in creative writing (poetry) and translation.
Evelyn Berry, a writer from Aiken, was among those latter awards, getting a creative writing fellowship of $25,000. Additional grants awarded in South Carolina include:
- Coker University in Hartsville (Grants for Arts Projects - Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works; $10,000)
- Colour of Music, Inc. in Mount Pleasant (Grants for Arts Projects - Music; $10,000)
- Hub City Writers Project in Spartanburg (Grants for Arts Projects - Literary Arts; $35,000)
- Puppetry Arts Theatre in Charleston (aka Tuffy Tiger Productions) in Ravenel (Challenge America; $10,000)
- Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston (Grants for Arts Projects - Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works; $10,000)
- Trustus, Inc. in Columbia (Grants for Arts Projects - Theatre; $10,000)
- Warehouse Theatre (aka Greenville Community Warehouse Theatre) in Greenville (Challenge America; $10,000)
“Together, these grants show the NEA’s support nationwide for strengthening our arts and cultural ecosystems, providing equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, and contributing to the health of our communities and our economy,” said NEA Chair
Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “I encourage everyone to explore these projects and the ways they help provide inspiration, understanding, and opportunities for us to live more artful lives.”
The full list of recommended grants is available in a
state-by-state listing and organized by
grant category/discipline. Additional information about the projects can be found using the NEA’s
Grant Search.
By afternoon, it was South Arts' turn, making (rightful) hay over 16 new
Cross-Sector Impact Grant recipients for 2023. These organizations are each receiving up to $15,000 to support "arts and..." projects developed by partners—one arts organization or artist, and one non-arts organization—harnessing the power of collaboration.
Vaughn Newman Dance of Greenville is the lone South Carolina recipient.
Cross-Sector Impact Grants are offered each year as part of South Arts' portfolio of programming to support artists, arts organizations, and communities across the south. These projects support collaborative efforts that connect the arts with non-arts aspects of local communities.
Got arts news? Remember to submit it to The Hub! Got arts events? Listings are free on the only statewide arts calendar—Arts Daily!
Hub Quick Hits: Southern Prize deadline extended
Pow! Boom!
Today, South Arts announced a deadline extension for the prestigious Southern Prize (read our coverage here).
Because of "weather events" (ahem, Hurricane Ian) impacting nearly half of South Arts' nine-state region, the deadline to enter has been extended to Nov. 1, 2022 (from Oct. 10) at 11:59 p.m. ET.
$80,000 in cash prizes is up for grabs, #SCartists, and two residencies at the Hambidge Center. Let's go!
Read more about the prize and find your way to the registration at the link to our previous coverage above.
Time to dust off that readiness plan
dPlan | ArtsReady from South Arts can help
It took us a while this year, South Carolina, but there's potential for tropical weather later this week.
Are you #ArtsReady?
The Hub has promoted readiness in the past, so you might be familiar with
ArtsReady, which was an initiative of our regional partners at South Arts.
Rebuilt in partnership with the Northeast Document Conservation Center, the new
dPlan|ArtsReady tool combines the original ArtsReady tool with NEDCC's dPlan service—to guide arts and cultural organizations through the process of developing an emergency preparedness plan.
What is a readiness plan?
A readiness plan is a combination of documents, processes, and training that formulates what your organization will do should the unexpected occur. It follows an “all-hazards” approach because anything can and may happen to your organization. Creating a readiness plan means making decisions about how you will respond and collecting all the information and documents that you will need—before a crisis hits—so you can respond and get your organization back up and running smoothly. A readiness plan is critical to preserve precious time and energy when seconds matter.
dPlan|ArtsReady takes an "all hazards" approach to planning: focusing on your essential business needs so you will be prepared for any crisis. The tool walks you through a series of modules—Risk Assessment, Action Items, Critical Stuff, Reports, and Guides and Resources—that explore the critical business functions most arts and cultural organizations rely on every day. By working through the tool with your staff and leadership, dPlan|ArtsReady is your one-stop shop to creating a plan and repository of vital information that you can turn to at any time before, during, or after a crisis.
Want to learn more?
Performing arts organizations can request a free year of access to begin building readiness plans today!
Please monitor local weather outlets for the latest on potential effects from Ian, and check out SCEMD for additional preparedness tips on their website or social media: @SCEMD.