EL PASO AND TELLER COUNTY - — Applications are open for the Peak Arts Prize, a grant program offered to local artists in El Paso and Teller Counties for community-oriented projects.
Artists will be competing for thousands of dollars worth of grants.
These are the different categories and dollar amounts:
Large Organizations Category: $10,000 Grant
Small Organizations Category: $7,500 Grant
Individual Artists: : $4,000 Grant
Jodie Bliss, the artist who owns Bliss Studio and Gallery, is a previous grant recipient.
She creates custom steel work, and won the large organization grant last year (worth $7,500 at the time).
She says the grant helped her build a large public sculpture, which she named "Embracing Empathy," and also engage more than 150 local residents by helping them create iron tiles during welding workshops that will be attached to the finished piece.
"The reason that we make art is to connect with people," Bliss explained.
"And so I think that being able to bring [the] community together, and show them that they do have the ability to create art, to allow them to interact with us and with each other through the arts is a very, very cool - very fulfilling thing to be able to do."
Here are the eligibility requirements to apply:
1. Applicants must be based in El Paso or Teller counties of Colorado, proposing grant activities that will serve audiences in those counties.
2. Applicants must be arts-focused nonprofits or for-profits (i.e. galleries or dance studios), or individual artists age 21 and over. The applicant but be a legal entity, and arts & culture must be its primary focus – restaurants, general education schools, community centers, etc. that have other goals but include some arts programming are not eligible. Eligibility in terms of arts & cultural focus will ultimately be at the discretion of the Cultural Office. To verify or ask questions about your eligibility, please contact Angela Seals.
3. We are looking for proposed project ideas that are artistically strong and reach new audiences. They will take a variety forms, but we expect most to be artistic programs or promotional initiatives. Keep in mind that artistic excellence is important even if your project is a promotional initiative.
4. Project activities must occur in the 2020 calendar year.
5. Winners of Peak Arts Prize must take the following year off before applying again.
Answer: well they can go to peak-arts-prize-dot-org. We have all the eligibility details on there. And basically folks fill out a paper application and submit a video application where artists have three minutes to explain how their new project will reach a new audience.
The deadline to apply is February 6 at noon.
For more information, you can check out the Peak Arts Prize website here.
