FROM THE ARTS COUNCIL OF INDIANAPOLIS
SUPPORT SESSION DATES: JUNE 15-19, 2020
Arts Council of Indianapolis and gener8tor Announce Emergency Response Program for Artists
The Arts Council of Indianapolis, in partnership with gener8tor, announced today a new initiative supporting Indianapolis [and surrounding area] artists affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. The initiative is a collaboration with the Arts Council, Indy Music Strategy, Indy Chamber, and Musical Family Tree. Under the Indy Arts & Culture COVID-19 Emergency Relief Program, artists will have access to free one-on-one consultations with advisors designed to identify and leverage critical resources in order to weather this ongoing public health crisis. The free support sessions will be available June 15, 2020 – June 19, 2020.
The gener8tor team will work one-on-one with artists to address the various issues they are facing during the COVID-19 outbreak along with questions about various federal, state, local, private programs (unemployment benefits, loans, grants, etc.) and other things they need assistance with.
The Arts Council’s latest artist survey indicates that less than 40 percent of artists in central Indiana have applied for unemployment benefits under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PAU) program. The primary reason cited for the lack of participation is confusion as to who is eligible, how to apply, what documentation is needed, etc. Interested artists may visit www.gener8tor.com/emergency-response-program/indy-arts to register. The free support sessions are available June 15, 2020 – June 19, 2020. Artists living in central Indiana counties (Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Morgan, and Shelby) are welcome to signup.
“Since mid-March, the Arts Council [of Indianapolis] has been working to provide relief funding as well as curated/qualified resources for our central Indiana artists. We are excited to partner with gener8tor to offer these one-on-one sessions in hopes of offering information and clarity surrounding unemployment benefits and other programs that may benefit artists,” said Shannon M Linker, Vice President and Director of Artist Services and Gallery 924 at the Arts Council of Indianapolis. “Thanks to the generosity of our community partners, we’ve been able to provide more than $475,000 to artists through 950 rapid response relief grants to date. The 1-1 support through gener8tor is an important next step as we respond to the evolving COVID-related relief, recovery, and restart needs of artists in our community.”
