Village of Arts & Humanities

We're giving Philly's Black working artists unrestricted grants of $500 to fill gaps in earned income created by the COVID-19 crisis.

Join The Village of Arts and Humanities to make sure these artists do not have to choose between housing, food, phone access, or medication this month.

We've started this fund with $40k. That's grants to 80 artists!
With your help, we can help even more artists weather this storm.

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Why did The Village create this emergency fund?
Put simply, inequities that existed before this crisis persist or have deepened during the crisis. 

The COVID-19 shutdowns disproportionately impact artists — especially lower-income, freelance professionals whose work is event- or client-based — and Black artists, who have fewer generational resources and savings to cushion blows to employment. 

Emergency funds for artists often replicate the same inequities in access because people with more resources are often better positioned to hear about and apply for grants. This fund is intended to counteract this trend.

What's "Gap" Funding? 

Artists rely on income from pre-booked performances, events, photo sessions, recording sessions, and teaching artist contracts in order to get by from month-to-month. Due to their narrow margins and the fact that many of them are coming off of a lean winter event season and into the time of year when they begin to make the bulk of their annual income, many artists are in need of emergency cash assistance immediately. 

Federal subsidies may provide some relief for creative professionals in the upcoming months. However, artist-entrepreneurs have already suffered losses of income that put them in jeopardy of immediate home eviction, phone disconnection, food insecurity, locked studios, default on credit and loan payments, and other irrevocable losses. New government mandates meant to mitigate these losses (such as moratoriums on home evictions) are not yet being enforced for low-income and extremely low-income citizens.