The Delaware Division of the Arts encourages First State artists and organizations to consider veterans and military populations.
The National Endowment for the Arts and Mid-America Arts Alliance are accepting applications for Creative Forces Community Engagement grants.
The grants help fund community-based arts engagement programming for military members, veterans and their families, supporting efforts ranging from visual to performing arts and large groups to individuals.
Program coordinator Matt Aelmore notes the project recognized the success of the arts in clinical therapy and designed grants that extend that arts programming into the community.
"We found on the community side that there's a need to see what happens to people after they finish their therapy but still want to continue on with the arts, and I think that was part of the lodestone of the Community Project."
While the creative arts are often used in clinical therapy, Aelmore says the Creative Forces program extends access to the arts beyond that - with positive results.
"Some people go on to create art works and sell them, even, and try to make it into a professional life, and others get more involved in the projects and become instructors eventually, and others just enjoy having the social outlet, depending upon what sort of interaction they’re doing."
Creative Force grant amounts range from $10,000 to $50,000 depending on the scope and length of the project. The deadline to apply in this round is January 17th.
The Creative Forces Military Healing Arts Network is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts and Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
Applications for this round of funding are now open on maaa.org/CreativeForces.
Delaware Public Media' s arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
