Supporting the Illinois Arts Sector for 60 Years
Now Available
Opens: September 25, 2024
Deadline: November 20, 2024
The Illinois Arts Council’s (IAC) Creative Accelerator Fund (CAF) provides crucial support to artists with a goal of strengthening the creative workforce that composes a significant portion of Illinois’ economic activity.
Opens: October 30, 2024
Deadline: December 18, 2024
Award Size: $4,000 to the Mentor and $1,000 to the Apprentice
Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Folk Arts Mentorship (FAM) grant supports the mentoring relationship that develops between exemplary practitioners working with dedicated apprentices in ethnic, folk, and traditional arts.
Opens: September 16, 2024
Closes: January 17, 2025
Illinois Statewide POL Contest: March 17, 2025
A partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation, and the state arts agencies, Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country.
Arts Impact in Illinois
$36.1B
of our state's gross domestic product was contributed by arts and culture in 2022 - Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Dept of Commerce
216,227
Illinois jobs were in arts and culture (2022)
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce
22
grants totaling $862,855 were directed to Illinois school districts in developing arts and foreign language curricula in partnership with the Illinois State Board of Education (FY2024)
$29.1B
in revenues to state and local government are delivered by Illinois arts nonprofits in 2022 - Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 (AEP6)
29
local arts councils partnered with IAC through its Local Arts Network to support statewide arts programming (FY2024)
100%
of all legislative districts throughout Illinois receive free access to local and regional news, public affairs and arts programming through IAC support for Illinois Public Radio and Television (FY2024)
Featured Fellowship Recipient
Patrick Earl Hammie is an interdisciplinary visual artist—painter, printmaker, illustrator, curator—and educator. Hammie’s work reclaims Black agency and authorship through representation, abstraction, and pastiche to offer stories that expand notions of self, community, and others. He specializes in portraiture, systems of knowledge production, and the politics of representation. His works are in the collections of the David C. Driskell Center, John Michael Kohler Art Center, JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, Kinsey Institute Collections, Lawrence University, Purdue University, and University of Illinois. He has exhibited in Germany, India, South Africa, and across the United States. He is the inaugural recipient of the Alice C. Cole ‘42 Fellowship from Wellesley College and was an artist-in-residence at the John Michael Kohler Art Center. He has been supported by fellowships and grants from the National Science Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Joyce Foundation, Midwestern Voices and Visions, Puffin Foundation, and Tanne Foundation. Hammie was born in New Haven, Connecticut and has a BA from Coker University and an MFA from the University of Connecticut. He is currently Professor, Chair of Studio Art, and Director’s Fellow in the School of Art & Design and Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.