Opportunities for Educators

Opens: February, 2025
Deadline: April, 2025

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: 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 Arts & Foreign Language (AFL) Grant is to support arts and foreign language education in schools, with an emphasis on ensuring that these areas become part of the school’s core curriculum. In FY25 this grant program is only available to FY24 grantees as a continuation of the work they have been doing this past fiscal year. 

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. 

The ArtsTour Roster is a resource created in collaboration between the Illinois Presenters Network and the Illinois Arts Council.  This directory lists Illinois performing artists, companies, and ensembles that tour the state.The Artstour Roster is used by Illinois presenters including schools, libraries, park districts, arts and community organizations, and performing arts presenters to identify artists, companies and groups to perform in their communities.

Poster, Poetry, and Prose Contests

Deadline: February 3, 2025

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is inviting fifth and sixth grade writers and artists from around Illinois to participate in this year’s Poster, Poetry, and Prose Contest. The 2025 theme How Can You Slash Your Trash? invites students to think creatively about how to reduce the amount of waste they produce. 

Deadline: January 16, 2025

Through fellowships to published translators, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) supports projects for the translation of specific works of prose, poetry, or drama from other languages into English. The work to be translated should be of interest for its literary excellence and merit.

Deadline: January 31, 2025

The Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in partnership with the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT), is now accepting submissions for the 2024-2025 program, an opportunity for high school students to develop and showcase musical compositions that could be a part of a musical theater production. 

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