BAC Receives NEA Grant to Support Professional Development for Artists
Synth Library NYC Workshop at Mayday Space led by Julia Rocha-Nava, 2024 BAC Grantee. Photo: Genesiss Mejia
BAC is proud to announce that the Brooklyn Innovation Institute (BII), our capacity-building and technical assistance program for Brooklyn creatives, has received a $20,000 grant through the National Endowment for the Arts’ Grants for Arts Projects. This funding will help support a dynamic initiative aimed at empowering underserved artists across Brooklyn such as:
Wellness workshops designed to promote creativity and mental health.
Virtual networking events that connect artists to peers and opportunities.
A day-long symposium to link artists with funders and share best practices for building thriving creative businesses.
Stay connected for more updates on upcoming programming!
Consider Culture: From Bed-Stuy to Basel—Ivy N. Jones & the Rise of Welancora Gallery by Vittoria Benzine
Ivy N. Jones at Welancora Gallery. Photo: Elliott Jerome Brown Jr.
Welancora Gallery started as a dream inside a Bed-Stuy brownstone. Now, it’s making waves on the international art circuit, representing Brooklyn at some of the world’s most prestigious fairs such as Art Basel Miami Beach, Frieze LA, and more.
In our latest Consider Culture blog, writer Vittoria Benzine explores the journey of Ivy N. Jones, the visionary founder of Welancora Gallery. Jones has built a space dedicated to championing artists of color and fostering intergenerational conversations—proving that Brooklyn talent belongs on the world stage and that success isn’t limited to white-box galleries.
BAC Grantee & Partner Events
BRACKISH Brooklyn AT ST. LYDIAS
Brackish is a 2024 BAC Grantee.
February 6 | 8pm | 304 Bond Street, BK
Brackish - music & art is a Brooklyn-based concert series committed to showcasing the work of female, non-binary, queer, and BIPOC experimental artists. Brackish offers artists across the disciplines of music, visual art, poetry, and movement a space to take risks, create, and explore new work. Our curators - Angela Morris (founder), Ryan Easter, and Jessica Pavone - are dedicated to cultivating an experience of unusual/underground performance in an intimate, safe and accessible environment.
THE BROOKLYN CLASSICAL GUITAR SOCIETY Open Mic
The Brooklyn Classical Guitar Society is a 2024 BAC Grantee.
February 13 | 7pm | 636 Dean Street, #2F, BK
The Brooklyn Classical Guitar Society open mic events provide an opportunity for all classical guitarists, musicians, and music lovers alike to get together to socialize and share music in a laid-back and welcoming environment.
Classical guitarists are welcome to stop by to play an 8 minute or less set or come to listen and support the other players! All ages and levels are welcome. If you don’t play classical guitar or don’t feel like playing, we highly encourage you to come by anyway.
Events, Workshops, & Professional Development
Know Your Rights Webinar
February 6 | Virtual
Join the offices of Councilmembers Jennifer Gutierrez, Lincoln Restler, and Shahana Hanif for a presentation by New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) on the rights and protections for immigrants in New York City. The presentation will cover Federal and City immigration regulations, expectations with the new administration, and resources in New York City.
The presentation will be given in English, with live Spanish interpretation. Please provide your contact information if you are interested in receiving future resources or follow-ups from this conversation.
Art on the Block NYC Opening
February 7 | 107 West 86th Street, NY
Art on the Block NYC was established with the dual purpose of making art more accessible to the general public and offering practicing artists a venue to create and display their artwork. In a city like New York, renowned for its abundance of talented artists, many remain undiscovered by the broader audience, overshadowed by those featured in prominent museums and galleries. Through short-term residencies in a New York City storefront, Art on the Block NYC seeks to spotlight these artists. Throughout these residencies, artists will transform the space into their studio, while simultaneously hosting FREE programs for youth, families, and adults. These programs include art-making workshops, artist interviews, and more. The overarching goal of Art on the Block NYC is to support and advocate for artists while providing local communities with opportunities to engage with art.
Black History Month: Nature Poetry
February 8 | Fort Greene Park Visitor Center
Join the Urban Park Rangers for a spoken word and poetry session at the Fort Greene Visitor Center. Learn about Black History in Fort Greene Park and take part in creating your own piece of art through poetry about nature.
Greenwood Cemetery: Brooklyn’s Black Trailblazers
February 8 | 25th St, BK
In recognition of those who paved the way in fields ranging from art and activism to music, medicine, and real estate, this trolley tour will spotlight Black pioneers of Brooklyn and Green-Wood.
You’ll visit the memorials of revolutionary artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, civil rights leaders Grace Nail Johnson and James Weldon Johnson, mathematician Charles L. Reason (the first Black college professor in the United States) and other trailblazers who left a lasting impact on the ongoing fight for equality.
Application Clinic for Grassroots Nonprofits
February 11 | Virtual
Join Brooklyn Org to learn more about the funding we provide and how to apply to receive support for your nonprofit.
Free Artist Lab: 2024 Tax Preparation for Artists and Creative Entrepreneurs
February 12 | Virtual
Dr. Elaine Grogan Luttrull, a certified public accountant, personal financial specialist, and accredited financial counselor, will review federal income tax basics for artists, including common deductions claimed and 2024 tax year updates. Elaine will outline how the tax landscape changes based on the type of income an artist earns and highlight key aspects of tax law that impact financial wellness, including deducting interest for student loan payments and saving for retirement. She’ll touch briefly on some state and local income tax issues and conclude by reviewing some tips and best practices to keep excellent records.
NYFA: Inside Representation: Paths to Working with Galleries
February 13 | Virtual
Attaining representation is a goal for many visual artists. While it’s seen by many as a marker of success and support, it’s often unclear how to get representation. This FREE event will focus on how to attain representation with a gallery, and provide an overview of industry standards. In this panel discussion, you’ll hear directly from artists on their paths towards reaching this milestone. You’ll also hear from gallerists to get their perspective on what factors they consider when deciding whether to represent an artist.
Farmhouse Family Day: Fabrics of the Diaspora
February 15 | The Wyckoff House Museum
This Black History Month, learn about the history of Western Africa and the Diaspora through the story woven intricately into fabrics. Find your creative resistance by learning about the history art of Adire Eleko, a wax resist dying technique practiced by the Egba People of Yorubaland (Nigeria, Benin and Togo).
Brooklyn Children’s Museum: Black Future Festival
February 16 | Brooklyn Children’s Museum
Join BCM for a week of reflection and future-forward fun inspired by the national celebration of Black History Month and the African Diaspora! We’re partnering with Kendra J. Bostock and STooPS to honor Black culture with incredible dance performances, powerful storytelling, dynamic workshops, and more!
Office Hours with Pam and Dyalekt | Creatives Thrive NYC
February 20 | Virtual
We’re just going to say it - office hours can feel awkward. You feel embarrassed if you don’t have any questions, you feel embarrassed that your questions don’t sound “smart enough,” and so no one goes. We invite you to lean into this feeling and just come - come with no questions, come with questions that seem completely unrelated to finance, come with personal questions that you’re going to private chat to us while we read it anonymously and gush about how good the question was. CTNYC Office Hours are a place for us to be together, in this moment, and hold space for all the confusion, fear, shame, and heaviness so we can lighten each other’s load. We’ll see you there.
Thrive in Place! Affordable Housing Workshop
February 27 | Virtual
A guide to affordable housing options for NYC creatives, jointly presented three times per year by ArtBuilt and the Entertainment Community Fund. Learn about rent stabilization, city housing lotteries, affordable home-ownership opportunities, and how to qualify for these programs.
Funding Opportunities
Open Call: New York Curatorial Seminar 2025
Deadline: February 7
ICI's Curatorial Seminar is a free professional development program that supports emerging curators to advance their practice. It centers a first-person approach to curating, and focuses on strengthening curatorial practices that support overlooked artists and engage with local art communities while working outside of a large institution.
In the 2025 New York Curatorial Seminar, six New York-based curators will meet monthly from March to July 2025 for discussion-based seminars and site visits across New York, led by ICI staff, guest curators, artists, and arts professionals. Over the course of the Seminar, each participant will also workshop a proposal for a project and receive individual advisement from selected mentors, who provide a unique perspective on the participant's curatorial practice.
NYC Department of Transportation Art: Call for artists
Deadline: February 9
On Saturday, April 26, 2025, NYC DOT will host its annual Car-Free Earth Day event, transforming NYC streets into active and attractive public spaces. As part of the event, NYC DOT Art is seeking environmentally conscious professional artists to submit proposals for new or existing artwork to be presented as a one-day installation along the event route. Selected artists for one-day installations will receive up to $10,000 to cover all project costs and will be responsible for installing and de-installing the installation on the day of the event, coordinating with NYC DOT throughout the project, being available to monitor the installation on site, and providing an engineering memo pending project scale.
The Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship and Scratchpad Series
Deadline: February 10
The Writing Fellowship will support 4 early-career playwrights with 9 months of resources, readings, and feedback designed to help them reach their professional and artistic goals. In the Scratchpad Series, participants will spend 1 week in NYC for a developmental reading of their play with top-notch professional collaborators—director, cast, and The Realm’s artistic staff.
Rauschenberg Dancer Emergency Grants
Deadline: February 11
The Rauschenberg Dancer Emergency Grants program provides one-time grants of up to $3,000 to professional dancers facing dire financial emergencies, due to the loss or lack of recent/current live performance work, because of circumstances outside of their control.
CUNY Dance Initiative Residency
Deadline: February 20
New York City choreographers and dance companies are invited to apply for residencies via the CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI). Designed to take advantage of CUNY facilities while integrating NYC’s dance sector with the public university system, CDI provides local artists with rehearsal and performance space on 13 CUNY college campuses across the boroughs, plus 4 partner arts organizations.
Asian Women Giving Circle Request for Proposals
Deadline: February 21
The Asian Women Giving Circle (AWGC) believes culture is an essential part of any strategy for social change. We support projects led by Asian American women or gender-expansive people in NYC that harness the power of arts and culture to:
Advance a just, free and safe society
Raise awareness and catalyze action around critical issues that affect Asian American women, girls, gender-expansive people, and families
Shine an authentic spotlight on our experiences and stories
In this grants cycle, we anticipate that 8 – 10 project grants will be awarded, contingent on available funding. The maximum grant amount is $8,000.
NYFA The Incubator for Executive Leaders of Color
Deadline: February 26
This program provides six months of free leadership development and community support to 18 executive-level arts administrators in NYC. The program supports leaders who are uniquely positioned to influence the culture and operations of their organization, informed by guest workshop facilitators from BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities.
Brooklyn Botanical Garden Performing Artist in Residence 2025
Deadline: February 28
The theme for the 2025 residency is Natural Connection. Explore the relationship between humans and nature and their dynamic and sometimes fraught interdependence. Highlight how human actions reshape the environment, while nature’s responses and constant shifts influence human lives, ideas, emotions, and futures. Challenge the audience to think about their role and responsibility within this cycle, examining the human-nature relationship here in Brooklyn or beyond.
One artist will be selected for a residency in 2025. During the residency, the artist will spend time creating work in and inspired by the Garden and the theme, Natural Connection. They will host two public classes, seminars, or activities, then showcase their final work in September 2025.
NEW INC: Year 12 Open Call for Incubator Members
Deadline: March 3
NEW INC is the New Museum's incubator for people working at the intersection of art, design, and technology. This special cohort year will mark NEW INC’s twelfth run as the first museum-led cultural incubator. Members will be able to access creative production resources including fabrication and media labs.
NEW INC is calling to an intersectional community of artists, creative technologists, studios, collectives and entrepreneurs across a range of disciplines. Year 12 tracks include: Art & Code; Creative Science; Extended Realities; Social Architecture; and Cooperative Studies.
EN FOCO 2025 ARTIST FELLOWSHIP
Deadline: March 13
The En Foco Artist Fellowship Program is designed to support artists of color who utilize lens-based mediums and digital media technologies in their creative processes. This program merges the previous Photography Fellowship and Media Arts Fund, creating a unified opportunity for photographers and media-based artists in New York State. While applicants may apply to both forms for photographers and media-based artists, they will receive only one award. Submissions will be evaluated by a panel of industry professionals, ensuring recognition for the highest-quality work.
WFF Housing Stability Grant for Artists
Deadline: April 8
The Woodman Family Foundation Housing Stability Grant for Artists (WFF HSG) provides grants of $30,000, distributed over three years, to NYC-based visual artists in need who are seeking support for stable housing. In its inaugural cycle, the WFF HSG will award grants to five artists.
The WFF Housing Stability Grant for Artists is offered in recognition of the increasing unaffordability of rental housing in New York City, and the housing insecurity it creates for artists. The WFF HSG hopes that recipients will be able to remain in, or find, reliable and stable housing for at least three years, thereby allowing them to focus on their creative practice and build more sustainable careers. Recipients may use the funds for new housing which reduces their rent obligation, guarantees a stable rental obligation such as a lengthy lease in their existing or new housing, and/or provides greater access to live/work space.
The Creative Center: Hospital Artist-in-Residence Program
Hospital Artist-In-Residence Carmen Rios at BronxCare Health System, Family Medicine, and her art cart.
Deadline: Rolling
The Creative Center's Hospital Artist-In-Residence (AIR) Program serves patients, families, caregivers, and healthcare staff in the New York City Area and beyond. The 10 current Hospital AIRs serve over 3,000 patients each year at multiple hospital sites and develop supportive relationships with countless staff and caregivers. AIRs are professional artists trained by The Creative Center to work in a multitude of healthcare settings.
Resources
Free financial counseling for artists
LSS Financial Counseling is a certified nonprofit financial counseling service that has been providing free, nonjudgmental support and guidance for more than 35 years. Over the past decade, their Financial Choice partners’ employees and family members have paid off millions of dollars in debt and laid the groundwork for a secure financial future.
Through this new partnership between Springboard and LSS Financial Counseling, artists have access to up to six free financial counseling sessions, available in person, by phone or online.
NYFA Getting Organized About Grants
How to plan ahead so that you can still have time and energy for your art.
As an artist, you want to reserve as much of your time and energy for your practice and collaborative projects. And yet, it often feels like administrative tasks invade and take over your creative space. Grant writing, budgeting, correspondence, and project management are all important parts of keeping your art projects going, but they should not stress you out, distract you from your practice, or suck up all of your mental capacity and valuable time.
Let’s get organized about grants so that doesn’t happen!
What We're Reading
“A Brooklyn Arts Group Gets Its Own Home, a Place to Defy Gravity”
by Brian Seibert | The New York Times
“New NYC Subway Murals Challenge the Authority of Maps”
by Isa Farfan | Hyperallergic
“New Art Exhibit Honors Black Womanhood”
by BK Reader Staff | BK Reader
“BRIC's New TV Series Spotlights The Iconic Dollar Vans of Flatbush”
by BK Reader Staff | BK Reader
Cover Image: Black Broadway: The Early Years presented by Nietzsche Music Project, 2024 BAC Grantee. Photo: Shin Kurokawa, 2024.
Empowering Artists. Empowering Communities.
The arts are a lifeline to sustain wonder, inspiration, healing, and a sense of community in our lives. Please join Brooklyn Arts Council in our mission to empower Brooklyn artists and arts organizations that bring life and joy into our home borough.