1. The applicant must be
   • a practicing artist in dance, music, opera, musical theatre, theatre, visual arts, design arts, crafts, photography, media arts, literature, and/or folk & traditional arts;
   • a legal resident of the US and SC with a permanent residence in the state for at least one year prior to the application date and throughout the grant period; and
   • 18 years of age or older at the time of application.
2. The applicant must not be a degree-seeking, full-time student during the grant period.

A note for organizations

Due to limited available funds, SCAC is unable to post an open call for nonprofit organizations for FY21 Arts Emergency Relief Grants. Organizations that meet funding parameters and areas of priority will be directly emailed and provided an access code to apply. Organizations will be invited to apply in accordance with the following restrictions:

1. Must either have, or have applied for, an FY21 SCAC operating support grant
2. Must be currently registered with the S.C. Secretary of State’s Office
3. May not be a university or unit of government
4. Must not have received an SC CARES Non-Profit Relief Grant (PDF list of recipients). Because those grants far exceeded what SCAC is able to offer, and in order to maximize what we are able to give to each applicant, we are focusing funding on organizations that did not receive SC CARES awards.

1. Applicants may submit only one FY2021 SCAC Arts Emergency Relief Grant application per deadline.
2. Applicants may not duplicate emergency funds.
   • Example: If your studio rental is $500, you may not receive $500 for that month’s rent from an SCAC Arts Emergency Relief Grant and $500 for that same month’s rent from another source of emergency funds (such as the NEA or SouthArts). You could, however, receive $250 from SCAC and $250 from another source, for a total of $500 for that month’s rent.
3. The applicant must not have full-time employment beyond their work as an individual artist (a minimum of 50% of the applicant’s taxable income must come from their work as an artist).
4. Only individual artists may apply for this grant. Ensembles, groups, or artist collaboratives may not apply.

Eligible financial losses include, but are not limited to, those which – due to the COVID-19 pandemic – resulted from an inability to

• teach arts classes or workshops;
• participate in paid residencies;
• perform, curate, or otherwise participate in paid gigs;
• display work in art galleries or museum shows;
• sell work at craft fairs or artistic conventions;
• offer services as a teaching artist.

Note: Applicants will need to provide documentation of lost income.

Any activities carried out within this grant must align with state guidelines regarding COVID-19.

Priority will be given to applicants

• Who reside in the SCAC’s FY21 Opportunity Initiative Counties:
  
  • Allendale
  • Calhoun
  • Dillon
  • Edgefield
  • Laurens
  • Lee
  • Marion
  • Marlboro
  • Saluda
• Who reside in the federally-designated Promise Zone counties:
  • Allendale
  • Bamberg
  • Barnwell
  • Colleton
  • Hampton
  • Jasper
• Who did not receive an FY2020 SCAC Arts Emergency Relief grant.
• Who have not received any other FY2021 SCAC grants.
• Who have completed the S.C. Artists Pandemic Economic Impact Survey, conducted by SCAC and the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation.

Deadline

March 26, 2021

Applications may be submitted until 11:59 p.m. (Eastern Time) on the deadline date. However, please be aware that staff members will not be available to assist you with questions or technical difficulties after SCAC closes at 5 p.m. that day.

Grant Period

July 1-December 31, 2020

Funding

Up to $500

SCAC artist grant awards are considered taxable income.

Grant awards will be based on:

1. panel review of the applications
2. availability of funds, and
3. Board approval.

Matching Requirements

None

As part of your application, you will need to upload documentation of income lost during the grant period, with dollar amounts shown. All documents will need to be combined into one file (acceptable file types: xlsx, xls, doc, docx, pdf, jpg, jpeg, gif, bmp). We strongly encourage you to prepare your file for upload before you visit the grants portal and begin your application. If you need assistance in this process, please contact grants@arts.sc.gov.

Documentation can include, but is not limited to

• Canceled contracts
• Emails and/or screenshots confirming cancellations
• Receipts for art sales during the grant period, along with evidence of cancellations or closures preventing additional art sales during that time
• Receipts, tax documents (please crop out or obscure any confidential or sensitive information, such as your Social Security number), or other written proof of previous income from an event, on which to base your expected income from that event during the grant period; e.g.,
  • A tax document showing income from a 2019 event, along with emails or screenshots confirming cancellation of the 2020 event
  • Receipts for art sales from July 1-December 31, 2019, with evidence of cancellations or closures preventing art sales from July 1-December 31, 2020
  • A tax document showing income from a previously-taught class, along with emails or screenshots confirming cancellation of that class scheduled during the grant period
  • Other written proof comparing income from a consistent event with income lost due to cancelation of that event during the grant period
  • Other written proof comparing income from a similar time period with income lost during the grant period

Helpful Hint: To be eligible for the maximum award of $500, you will need to submit documentation that shows losses of at least $500. You do not need to submit documentation for all losses during the grant period.

The applicant must have an active account in our grants portal.

• If you have previously used Submittable to apply for other SCAC grants or programs, please note that the grants portal is a different system. Your Submittable credentials will not work; you will need a grants portal account to apply for this grant.
• If you have used the grants portal as both an artist and as a contact for a school or organization, be sure you log on with the correct account to apply for this grant.

1. Follow the “Apply” link below. The grants portal will open in a new browser tab or window.
2. Log on, then click the “Apply” link at the top of your Applicant Dashboard.
3. Find “Arts Emergency Relief” in the list of available grant applications, and click the “Apply” button to the far right.

The Grants Team will review submitted applications for completeness and compliance with guideline and application requirements. A review panel of arts professionals, including SCAC program staff and management, will evaluate the applications based on the published Review Criteria and Priority areas. An applicant’s numerical rating and panel comments are available to them upon request. Staff will then develop funding recommendations, based on these evaluations and the availability of funds. Recommendations will be presented to the Board of Commissioners, which makes final award decisions. Award notification is expected by the end of April 2021.

Review Criteria

Artistry

• Applicant indicates a commitment to craft and level of activity in their artistic field.
• Applicant is a member of the S.C. Arts Directory

Financial Health

• Applicant shows evidence of income lost during July 1-December 31, 2020 as a result of COVID-19.
• Number of dependents
• Access to other sources of emergency relief

Priority

• Applicant resides within an SCAC FY21 Opportunity County
  
  • Allendale
  • Calhoun
  • Dillon
  • Edgefield
  • Laurens
  • Lee
  • Marion
  • Marlboro
  • Saluda
• Applicant resides within a federally-designated Promise Zone county
  • Allendale
  • Bamberg
  • Barnwell
  • Colleton
  • Hampton
  • Jasper
• Applicant did not receive an FY2020 SCAC Arts Emergency Relief grant.
• Applicant has not received any other FY2021 SCAC grants.
• Applicant has completed the S.C. Artists Pandemic Economic Impact Survey.

If your application is funded, you (and your fiscal agent/receiver, if applicable) will enter into a contractual agreement with the South Carolina Arts Commission, and you must comply with all requirements stated in that contract. You will receive notification and instructions when your contract is available in our online grants management system. You must submit your completed Contract Packet, including signatures and other documentation as instructed, by the date indicated in the system. You must also complete all other assigned Follow Ups by the due date given.

Please note: Any significant revisions to grant-funded activities must be approved in writing, in advance, by SCAC.

Additional details about managing an SCAC grant are available on our agency website.

Grant Payments

Payment will be released upon receipt and approval of the grant contract.

Funding Credit

This grant program is funded by the South Carolina Arts Foundation. In addition to giving credit to the SCAC and the National Endowment for the Arts, grantees must also credit this source in all advertising, news releases, printed materials, and promotion and publicity.

Final Report

No Final Report is required for Arts Emergency Relief Grants.

The first round of SCAC Arts Emergency Relief Grants were awarded in June 2020, providing support to arts organizations and artists to offset losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Individual artists were eligible to receive up to $1,000; funding eligibility for organizations was determined by their budget size. The application period was April 29-May 15, 2020. The FY20 Relief Grant guidelines content is available as a PDF file.

FY20 Arts Emergency Relief grant awards totaled $506,736, funded in part by support from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the South Carolina Arts Foundation. A portion of CARES Act funding was granted to the NEA for distribution in part to state arts agencies like the SCAC. The subgranted funding was designated solely to provide relief to arts organizations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The SCAC awarded 177 grants totaling $381,636 to South Carolina arts organizations. The Foundation and the donors to its South Carolina Artist Relief Fund campaign contributed around $50,000 of the $125,100 the SCAC spread among 168 individual artists.

This list of the South Carolina Arts Commission’s FY20 Arts Emergency Relief Grant Awards is also available as a PDF file.

Panelists

• Ce Scott-Fitts
• Dr. Sarah Lynn Hayes
• Kathleen “Kathi” Bateson
• Rusty Sox
• Victoria Smalls
• DéLana Dameron