Welcome!
Foundation for Louisiana is the people's foundation. We tackle the issues that most deeply impact our communities, advocating alongside Louisianans to chart our own futures. We are transparent and accountable to our community around what we fund, who we fund, and how we make funding decisions. We have strong, stated, actualized values. We use our power responsibly, acknowledge it, and push it outward. We are Black-led and honor the knowledge of people of color, women, two-spirit and transgender individuals -- and the many ways in which these identities intersect. We are bold in our analysis and movement towards freedom, amplifying the lived experiences of Louisianans closest to the work. We bring people with us, and people bring us with them. We will continue to be courageous.
Below you will see all of our current opportunities.
- You will need to create a free Submittable account or sign in with Google or Facebook credentials to submit to these forms.
- You can save a draft of your work if you would like to finish filling out the form at a later date.
- If you need to make changes to your form, please withdraw your submission and resubmit.
- If anything changes with the information you submitted, please request to edit the submission
- Submittable works best on Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Internet Explorer is not supported. Please make sure you are using a supported browser.
- You can download Firefox by following the instructions linked here.
- You can download Chrome by following the instructions linked here.
We will follow-up with you about your submission by email. Please be sure to whitelist notification emails from Submittable and check the email you used to sign up for your Submittable Account regularly. Check out the Submitter Resource Center or reach out to Submittable's Customer Support team with any technical questions here.
Summary
Louisianans are not strangers to disaster. Louisianans are also not strangers to survival, and have long created new worlds and realities in order to survive. Indigenous communities adapted to survive floods and lived with water pre-colonization. Marronage made freedom real amidst the terrors of chattel slavery, and social aid and pleasure clubs emerged in the absence of economic safety nets for Black communities. Robust practices of mutual aid surface in the wake of disaster. In our current times of upheaval, we believe it is essential to support Louisiana artists, tradition bearers, and cultural workers to stay, live, and do their work in their communities.
Foundation for Louisiana’s (FFL) inaugural round of arts and culture grantmaking will pay homage to this legacy by providing grants to 35-40 Louisiana artists, cultural workers, and tradition bearers who envision new worlds for Louisiana. We are interested in supporting folks whose artistic and cultural work addresses climate impacts, mass incarceration, cultural memory and legacy, or displacement and erasure of Black and Indigenous communities. Grant awards will range from $5,000-10,000, and we will primarily focus on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) artists and those born, raised, and/or with generational ties to Louisiana. Specific funds will also be allocated for elder artists and culture bearers as well as BIPOC trans artists.
Goals
- sustain and illuminate the visionary work of artists and culture bearers, which makes other worlds possible and material
- increase the flow of financial resources to Louisiana’s Black artists, Indigenous artists, artists of color, and transgender and gender-nonconforming artists
- provide flexible and unrestricted dollars for projects at any stage of development, as well personal and living expenses
- support visionary artistic and cultural work that addresses climate impacts, mass incarceration, and/or displacement and erasure of Black and Indigenous communities
- uplift and honor cultural traditions of Louisiana
- expand FFL’s understanding of artistic and cultural practice across the state
Grant Amount
$5,000 to $10,000
Grant Term
12 months
Grant Period
April 2021 - March 2022
Types of work funded
Grant awards are unrestricted. Funds can be used to resource creative projects and/or to address personal/living expenses that enable the artist to stay, live, and do their work in Louisiana. Applicants should be able to demonstrate their commitment to their craft through their application materials.
Artistic, creative, and cultural practice are defined broadly. We welcome applications across a wide array of genres and disciplines of artistry including: theater, film, digital media, music, dance, visual art, performance, crafts, folk arts, curation, exhibition design, experimental work, burlesque, creative writing of all genres, culinary traditions, and more.
We are particularly excited to support Louisiana-specific cultural practices, including (but not limited to):
- Cultural and artistic practices of Indigenous and Native American peoples of these lands
- Black Masking Indian Traditions
- Musical traditions from jazz to zydeco to bounce and beyond
- Louisiana food ways, cuisine, and culinary traditions
Types of work not funded:
- Fisheries and fishing businesses
- Restaurants
Justice themes/ areas of focus:
- Cultural memory and legacy
- Displacement or erasure of Louisiana communities
- Climate impacts
- Mass incarceration
Who is encouraged to apply?
- People born, raised, and/or living in Louisiana
- Native, Indigenous, and First Peoples of these lands
- Black artists and culture bearers
- POC artists and culture bearers
- Young artists and culture bears (18-25)
- Artists and culture bearers with disabilities
- Elder artists and culture bearers/ artists and culture bearers who have been in their practice for years
- Transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming artists and culture bearers
Please note: This grant program is for individual artists and collectives. Nonprofit organizations are not eligible to apply. Artists can partner with organizations on their projects, but the individual artist or collective would be the direct recipient of FFL funds. Artist-led or -driven fiscally sponsored projects are also eligible.