The city of Rochester is making up to $170,000 in grants available to city artists.
The money will be awarded through the ArtsBloom program, which launched in 2023. Project manager Heather Anderson said the goal is to build a diverse pool of art projects throughout the city.
“We want opportunities for artists that live in the city,” Anderson said. “And we want opportunities for a wide variety of projects, not just murals and sculptures. Although, of course, we want to fund murals and sculptures as well, but we want to recognize kind of the full breadth of artists and the art types that get made in the city.”
ArtsBloom is part of the city’s Percent for the Arts funding initiative, through which the city sets aside 1% of the cost of any municipal projects it undertakes to assist in funding public arts. The city has so far awarded grants for everything from an after-school circus arts educational program at Eugenio Maria de Hostos Middle School to community art workshops around the South Wedge.
Last year, eight organizations received funding through the program. This year’s request for proposals is open until March 15. Artists can apply for grants of $5,000, $10,000, or $20,000. The total amount awarded could range from $100,000 to $170,000, which is in line with program funding from previous years.
Anderson said the program is one of the most popular requests for proposals processes the city offers, with upwards of 50 artists applying for grant funding each year.
“We knew there's a demand for this, that there's a need for this, and it really affirmed what we were doing and encouraged us to continue and continue to grow what we're doing,” Anderson said.
Alessia Primus, a dance instructor and physical therapist, was one recipient in last year’s funding pool for her project, “Movement and Community.” That program offers contemporary dance instruction and injury prevention education for Rochester’s dance community.
She said putting grant funding behind the arts opens up the community to people that are often excluded from following their creative spark.
“We limit the talent that's getting out there,” Primus said. “We limit what we all get to experience in terms of people's art when we cut people out of the world just because of finances. Because, yes, being an artist is generally expensive and generally not lucrative.”
