The City of Windsor is offering grants to help artists in the city during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It has made $60,000 available through the Arts, Culture and Heritage Fund to give $500-$1,000 grants to projects throughout the community that can be accessed online.
Local musicians, comedians, storytellers, dancers, singers, theatre artists, poets, filmmakers, visual artists, designers, and artisans are all eligible to apply for a grant. The main criteria for the funding is that the project be made available online for the community to view and/or participate in.
"Local musicians rely on performance income and people getting together in a space and losing that has had a significant impact on our community," said Michael Hargreaves, founder of the Soul City Music Co-op. "This fund is going to go a long way in helping people get through this transition in learning new forms of media and learning new technology and learning new ways of making an income during this time."
The projects will be promoted through the City of Windsor's social media accounts and through the artists themselves.
"We want everyone to see what's going on in the community right now. We want them to be connected and see what's out there," said Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens. "There may be some art forms and culture forms that people have never thought of before or experienced before, they may not have even known some of the things that will be done actually existed in the City of Windsor and so this could be a very new experience for many people in many ways."
Applications can be made online at www.achfwindsor.ca starting on Friday, April 17, 2020. Interested parties will have until April 24 to apply. The works must be available to the public between May 1, 2020, to June 30, 2020.
