North Charlotte Today

City of Charlotte issued the following announcement on Nov. 1.

The City of Charlotte's Arts and Culture Advisory Board on Tuesday awarded a total of $251,000 in grants to 13 local arts and culture projects.

The awards are the latest grants from Opportunity Fund, which supports local arts and culture projects, programs and initiatives that may fall outside existing grant cycles or structures in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area. Projects must also meet the goals and guidelines of the larger Infusion Fund, which is a partnership of the city, Foundation For The Carolinas and private donors to support arts and culture through June 2024.

Having awarded nearly $400,000 from the Opportunity Fund in the current fiscal year, the advisory board also voted Tuesday to pause its acceptance of any new grant requests while it evaluates the fund's progress to date and fine-tunes the grant request process. Requests made by applicants who have already submitted letters of intent and who have been invited to submit a full proposal may be considered in November for grants from the remaining funding. Those full proposals must be received by Nov. 3 to be considered for an award.

"The amount of funding requests the board received since launching in early September, totaling far more than $400,000, shows the need for innovative tools like the Opportunity Fund that fill gaps in local funding," said Priya Sircar, the city's arts and culture officer. "We will now consider the best next step for the fund, and we look forward to opening new opportunities in 2023."

Latest Recipients of Opportunity Fund Grants

10-Minute Play Festival by the African American Playwrights Group and the Performing Arts and Literary Society.

• A festival of one-act, 10-minute plays written by members of the African American Playwrights Group.
• Grant amount: $5,000.

2023-2024 dance and circus performances by Caroline Calouche & Co. and the Charlotte Cirque and Dance Center.

• Performances include "Clara's Trip: A Cirque and Dance Nutcracker Story," the cabaret-style "Rouge," and "Stargazer: A Trek Into Outer Space."
• Grant amount: $25,000.

  Culture Bearers Artist Residency by QC Family Tree.

  • A 12-week residency program in Enderly Park focused on Black artists and producing cultural content that reflects the Enderly Park community.
  • Grant amount: $17,500.
• Fresh2Death by CrownKeepers
  • A series of curated events that highlight the impact of, and educate people about, Black culture.
  • Grant amount: $30,000.
• Hunnid Dollar Art Fair by BLMRKTCLT.
  • An entry-level art fair with accessible price points to introduce young people of color to art collecting.
  • Grant amount: $20,000.
• "Move to Live; Migrate to Survive: A Woman's Dancing Body" by Movement Migration.
  • Original dance and musical works by choreographers and composers who identify as women.
  • Grant amount: $20,000.
• Queen Sugar Bash by Holiday Wish Foundation.
  • A showcase for Black LGBTQ+ performing artists to be seen, heard, followed, and fairly compensated.
  • Grant amount: $18,500.
• Street Culture Arte led by Jose Valentin Ramirez Cardiel.
  • A collaboration of Latinx artists to create public murals in Charlotte that celebrate Latin culture.
  • Grant amount: $20,000.
• "The Flirt Bar" produced by Charlotte's Off-Broadway.
  • A concert reading of "The Flirt Bar" by Susan Lambert Hatem, Michelle Malone and Amy Ray, a new musical about women who turn a former club into the Flirt Bar, a place where women can go to be flirted with.
  • Grant amount: $10,000.
• "The Little Prince" adaptation by Moving Poets.
  • A multimedia concert performance of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's classic book.
  • Grant amount: $20,000.
• The Print Shop Concert Series by Shoot2Edit Studios.
  • A live, taped concert series showcasing independent singers, musicians and instrumentalists of all genres from Charlotte-Mecklenburg music community. During the performances, screen printers create custom t-shirt designs to be future merchandise for the artists.
  • Grant amount: $40,000.
• "Violence/Enough" (a working title) by Carlos Alexis Cruz and the Nouveau Sud Circus project.
  • A circus and spoken word production responding to issues of gun violence and safety in the Charlotte area.
  • Grant amount: $20,000.
• Welcome Here by Arts for ALL.
  • Planning the development of a public database listing arts organizations and artists in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area that are accessible and friendly to disabled patrons and artists.
  • Grant amount: $5,000.
• Past recipients of the Opportunity Fund include:
  • "Brooklyn: The Collective Memory" exhibit featured during the Charlotte International Arts Festival.
  • The Charlotte International Arts Exchange program for artists in Charlotte to travel to Kenya in a cultural exchange program with Kenyan artists.
  • South Arts, which named JazzArts Charlotte among its inaugural cohort for the Southern Cultural Treasures program.
  • Organizers of the "I Am Queen Charlotte" project.                 

Original source can be found here.