Community Foundation announces $1 million in grants for Atlanta arts groups

The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta has awarded just over $1 million in grants to 35 arts organizations. The grants are earmarked to support small and midsized arts organizations with annual budgets under $2 million.

The grants come from two funds. One is the Foundation’s Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund program. The fund faced a storm of criticism in 2020 from Black-led arts groups, who said their organizations had received just 10 percent of the Arts Fund grant monies since the program was established in 1993.

The 2023 funding earmarks more than 60 percent of the grants to Black-led nonprofits. 

In addition, other grants are made through the Foundation’s “A Place to Perform” program, which are intended to help smaller organizations rebuild from the impact of the pandemic.

“Our focus on arts, culture and creative industries seeks to address historic inequities and allow our region’s smaller arts organizations, artists and creative businesses to thrive,” Ayana Gabriel, vice president of community impact for the Foundation, said in a press release.

Gabriel said the organization is taking a long-term perspective to ensure that Atlanta’s arts ecosystem amplifies and activates community voices. “Our progress has been slower than we would like,” she said. “But in 2023, we will fill a staff vacancy for an arts program officer who will be charged with leading our 2023 arts grantmaking and driving our vision of equity in the arts forward.”

The organizations that received funding are:

African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta, $25,000

Artportunity Knocks, $102,646

Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, $125,000

Atlanta Jewish Film Society, $50,000

Atlanta School for the Arts Foundation, $20,000 to support a feasibility study for its potential new school space.

Atlanta Workshop Players, $63,297

Conyers Rockdale Council for the Arts, $15,000

Cultural Arts Council Douglasville/ Douglas County, $12,500

DanceATL, $6,840

Dashboard Co-op, $90,000

Elm Street Cultural Arts Village, $35,000

Essential Theatre, $11,091

Fly on a Wall, $13,500

Girls Rock Camp ATL, $7,609

ImmerseATL, $5,500

Johns Creek Community Arts Center, $96,000

Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra of Atlanta, $15,000

Moving in the Spirit, $125,000

Out on Film, $14,000

Radio Free Georgia Broadcasting Organization, $54,000

Roswell Arts Fund, $50,000

Showability, $24,300

South Fulton Institute for Art, Culture and the Environment, $50,000

The Trey Clegg Singers, $25,000

ViZion Dance, $7,714

A Place to Perform Grants were awarded to:

CityDance, $5,000

Dance Canvas , $5,000

Djoli Kelen, $5,000

Onward Theatre, $2,500

Southeast Community Cultural Center, $5,000

staibdance, $5,000

TADA Foundation, $5,000

The Atlanta Music Project, $5,000

Urban Poets, $1,000

ViZion Dance, $2,500