Opportunities for Communities

Opens: January 22, 2025
Deadline: March 19, 2025
 

General Operating Support (GOS) Grants are available for Illinois non-profit organizations that provide ongoing arts programming.

Youth Employment in the Arts (YEA) Grants provide funds to GOS grantees for individuals between the ages of 14-22.

Opens: May, 2025
Deadline: May, 2025

The Regional Arts Partner (RAP) Grant creates a partnership between the Illinois Arts Council (IAC) and IAC-designated organizations by providing funds to expand local mechanisms that encourage and support developing arts programs throughout the organization’s service area. Based on the assessment and perception of local needs, the RAP regranting funds make it possible for designated RAPs to develop grantmaking processes that are responsive to their service area.

Opens: July, 2025
Open Deadline

Creative Projects Grant offers support to Illinois artists and non-profit organizations for arts-related projects, events, or professional development.

The Local Arts Network (LAN) is an initiative to build capacity and excellence amongst Local Arts Agencies so they can better serve their communities and to provide opportunities for validation and support. The LAN is open to leaders from Local Arts Agencies across Illinois.

DCEO's grant programs provide funds to organizations throughout Illinois that support and maintain a strong economy. To better assist potential and current grantees, this page contains a variety of resources to provide end to end support for grant recipients.

Event: Imagine, Create, Activate!

June 23-25, 2025

This groundbreaking, three-day gathering will bring together 500 visionaries to explore the power of creative practice in activating urban centers. Imagine, Create, Activate! is not a conference or convention—it’s an immersive, hands-on journey designed to inspire, share, and examine how to collaborate in new ways.

Local Arts Agency Resources for Individual Artists

Artist education programs rarely provide information for artists to create and develop their art as a small business. In 2018, Americans for the Arts (AFTA) and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation partnered to provide support for local arts agency administrators working with individual artists.  These resources have been updated and are now available to Local Arts Agencies so they may better support artists in their communities apply for grants and other opportunities.

Search for additional state and national resources for organizations through the IAC's Discipline-Specific Resources database.