Rural artists & creatives, do you miss connecting with one another in person, sometimes by design and sometimes by happy circumstance? Apply to the Rural Connection Fund!
The Rural Connection Fund will provide rural artists in the Upper Midwest with $2,000 to support informal gatherings of rural artists and creatives to witness one another’s work, exchange ideas and learning, and build a foundation for long lasting peer support.
Who is Eligible?
Culture bearers, makers, artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians, performers and other creatives in rural and tribal communities of 30,000 people or less in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Illinois and the Native Nations that share those geographies are invited to apply for support from the Rural Connection Fund, up to $2000 per gathering. Gatherings must connect at least two rural artists who live at least 75 miles apart.
Types of gatherings may include but are not limited to:
- Informal exchanges to visit one another’s community and witness one another’s work in person
- Mini-retreats of 2 or more rural artists/creatives to explore a specific topic and share learning and ideas
- Gatherings of artists from multiple locations to connect.
Note: we encourage simplicity! It is rare to get a chance to visit another artist without an obligation to fulfill, so consider how this can nurture other aspects of your artistic life without adding new commitments.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and grants awarded via lottery selection. Please read our eligibility guidelines and FAQs below before you apply!
The Upper Midwest’s rural resiliency is a direct result of the strength of our relationships and understanding across geographies. Connection and exchange across geographies help us build a collective voice, respond to new opportunities, combat isolation and burnout, and come up with more strategic solutions to the unique challenges we face. Over the years, Springboard for the Arts has supported this work through events like the Rural Arts and Culture Summit, our Rural Regenerator Fellowship, and many others.
The Rural Connection Fund is an extension of Springboard’s Rural Arts and Culture Summit. Pre-pandemic, the Summit took place every two years from 2011-2019, and gathered more than 2000 people over that time to celebrate and network around the importance of the arts in rural places. Since the pandemic has interrupted our capacity to effectively host the Summit, we are using this “late pandemic” time period to explore and test other sustainable models to continue supporting and expanding the vital connections the RAC Summit provided to rural practitioners for nearly 10 years. We are hoping to resume the Rural Arts and Culture Summit in 2023, but in the meantime, we have seen the impact of exchange across geographies through other programs, and wanted to support these opportunities through the Rural Connection Fund.
The Rural Connection Fund is supported in part by the Builder's Initiative and the Bush Foundation.
Applicant eligibility:
- Applicant must live or work in a rural or tribal community in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, or Illinois, or the Native Nations that share the same geography.
- Applicant must live or work in a rural-identifying community of 30,000 people or less.
- Applicant considers themselves an artist, creative, storyteller, crafter, musician, or other creative person or culture bearer.
- Proposed gathering must include at least 2 artists/creatives in at least 2 communities that are more than 75 miles distance from one another.
- Applicant must be located in the Upper Midwest (MN, ND, SD, WI, IA, MI, IL) but their exchange partner(s) can be located anywhere in the United States.
- Applicant is not a current Rural Regenerator Fellow (2021 or 2022 cohorts)
- Applicants can only submit one request. Duplicate requests will be removed from the lottery pool.
Gathering Requirements:
- If gathering is in a public or private space, you have permission/agreement to use that space/those spaces.
- Gathering must be completed by July 31, 2023
- 3 weeks after your gathering, complete a short survey recapping what you did, its impact, and 2-3 pictures.
The Rural Connection Fund will support up to 20 different in-person gatherings between November 2022 and July 2023.
After an initial eligibility screening, Connection Fund requests will be selected through a lottery process, with three rolling deadlines on November 1, January 6, and March 3 . Connection Fund recipients will be notified of their application status 1 week after each deadline.
The Rural Connection Fund has 3 rolling deadlines for you to enter your request in our lottery-based selection process. The lottery pool is reset after each selection, but in your form, you can choose to automatically resubmit your request for each deadline.
- November 1, 2022 at 11:59 pm CST
- January 6, 2023 at 11:49 pm CST
- March 3, 2023 at 11:49 pm CST
- We will notify you of your request status 1 week following the deadline.
- 85% of funds will be distributed within two weeks of signing all relevant paperwork and documents, and the remaining 15% distributed upon completion of a post-gathering survey sharing what you did, who participated, and 3-5 photos of the gathering.
We have limited staff capacity to help you come up with ideas of who you could connect with. Here are some tips for how you might find a collaborator:
- Think of a town or region you’ve always wanted to know more about, and research artists or arts organizations that live there, then send a friendly email to see if they’re interested in talking about this opportunity with you.
- Reconnect with another person you met briefly at an event, or used to work with.
- Post an invitation to connect around a specific topic or idea in social media arts groups.
- Use the funds to host an open invitation gathering in your community, and invite others to attend.
The Rural Connection Fund has 3 rolling deadlines to enter your request in our lottery-based selection process. The lottery pool is reset after each selection, but in your form, you can choose to automatically resubmit your request for each deadline. Duplicate applicants or applications will be remove from the lottery.
- November 1, 2022 at 11:59 pm CST
- January 6, 2023 at 11:49 pm CST
- March 3, 2023 at 11:49 pm CST