2024 BAC Grants Cycle
Deadline: October 8, 2023
Brooklyn Arts Council's 2024 Grants Cycle is now open! Additional information including links to guidelines and applications can be found here.
Upcoming Info Sessions
Michelle Thompson Ulerich & Caleb Paterson for CreateART, 2023 Brooklyn Arts Fund Grantee. Photo by Effy Grey.
Join BAC for a 2024 Grants Info Session ahead of the application deadline. We’ll tell you everything you need to know about how to write a successful proposal and win a BAC grant. All Creative Equations Fund applicants as well as those applying for Community Arts Grants for the first time must watch/attend at least one Info Session. Cant make it? Info sessions are also available on-demand until the October 8th deadline.
August 10 | 4:30 - 6pm | RSVP
Virtual Info Session with Live Q&A
August 31 | 12:30 - 2pm | RSVP
Virtual Info Session with Live Q&A
September 7 | 5 - 6:30pm | BAC Office | RSVP
In-person Info Session with Live Q&A
September 14 | 12:30 - 2pm | RSVP
Virtual Info Session with Live Q&A
September 21 | 5 - 7pm | Location TBA | RSVP
In-person Info Session with Q&A
October 3 | 12:30 - 2pm | RSVP
Virtual Info Session with Live Q&A
“This is How We Remember” by Zoe Rabinowitz, 2022 Brooklyn Arts Fund Grantee. Photo by Effy Gray.
Draft Narrative Reviews
Want a BAC Program staff member to review your narrative? You're in luck! Sign up for one-on-one time with Desiree Gordon, Didintle Ntsie, or Mai-Elka Prado. Both Spanish and English speakers are welcome to reserve a time with Mai-Elka. During your review, there will be 20 minutes to talk through strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement in your application. Then you can go on to implement any changes and press submit well in advance of the October 8th deadline!
Desiree’s Availability (English)
Didintle’s Availability (English)
Mai-Elka’s Availability (English & Spanish)
Creative Aging: SU-CASA
Proposal Writing - Working with Older Adults
Asia Sztencel, BAC SU-CASA Teaching Artist, at Krakus Senior Center, 2023.
Deadline: October 8
Info Session: August 10 | 10:30 - 11:30am
Applications for BAC's SU-CASA Creative Aging, Global Rhythms, and AIE Performing Groups are now open! Additional information including links to guidelines and applications can be found here.
Proposal Writing - Working with Older Adults is an invigorating and informative 1-hour workshop that will help artists and creative professionals in applying to be a Brooklyn Arts Council FY24 SU-CASA Teaching Artist. Come to learn about how to enhance your ability to write the most effective proposal, understand the needs of Seniors today, and how to develop community-based workshops that support lifelong learning in the arts. To learn more about BAC’s SU-CASA program, click here.
Coaching Sessions: Recordings Now Available
DreamboxXx presented by Death by Audio Arcade (DBAA) & Dreamhouse. DBAA is a 2023 BAC Grantee. Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk/Gothamist.
Through educational endeavors, Brooklyn Arts Council is devoted to promoting the understanding, appreciation, and practice of the arts. This mentoring series provides our audience with opportunities to improve their grant application processes, personal digital collection archiving skills, and writing for art publications.
All 2023 Coaching Session recordings are now available to watch on-demand.
AIE Digital Banner Contest
Deadline: September 25, 2023 via AirTable
Brooklyn Arts Council invites Brooklyn students grades 1-12 to submit new banner designs for our Global Rhythms program. The digital banner will be used for various marketing and promotional materials including on BAC’s website, social media, letterheads, brochures, posters and flyers, souvenir trinkets and gifts, and/or anywhere else BAC chooses.
The first-place contest winner will receive a $400 gift card. Second and third place will receive a $50 gift card. All winners will also receive a BAC canvas tote bag, pencils, and a sketchbook.
BAC Executive Director, Rasu Jilani, named one of Brooklyn Magazine’s “Brooklyn’s 50 Most Fascinating People”
For the third year in a row Brooklyn Magazine asked readers, writers, contributors, and friends who they consider to be among the most fascinating people in the borough.
“Why we’re fascinated: Because Jilani has been out here supporting Brooklyn creatives for over 15 years. Producing Afropunk via his Coup d’état Art Collective, curating global grant partners for the Lambent Foundation, and assembling diverse artist networks for the New Museum’s art/tech-incubator NEW, Inc, the man knows what’s good: Artists and local communities depend on each other. As the Brooklyn Arts Council’s new executive director, Jilani continues to advocate for the locals who make Brooklyn an epicenter of global culture.”
Brooklyn Savvy: “Art through Innovation and Social Justice”
Toni Yuille Williams, Host of Brooklyn Savvy & BAC Board Chair, introduces Eli Kuslansky, co-host for Art Movez. Art Movez, a podcast now in it's 3rd season, looks at art through the lens of innovation and social justice.
Brooklyn Savvy is a social justice digital talk show network that seeks to inform, inspire, look at and unpack long-standing societal habits, behaviors, stigmas, policies and structures in marginalized communities through invigorating conversations with guests who are diverse bootstrappers, activists, educators, and leaders.
BAC Grantee & Partner Events
Octavia Project Summer Showcase
Octavia Project is a 2023 BAC Grantee.
August 3 | 5:30pm | Center for Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA)
Join the Octavia Project and the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) to celebrate the end of their 9th annual Summer Institute. See projects from this summer’s participants--video games, stories, visual art, textiles and more--as well as hear about their experiences. Free and open to the public!
Theater in Asylum presents: The Nobodies Who Were Everybody
Theater in Asylum is a 2022 BAC Grantee.
August 3 - 20 | Jalopy Theater
The year is 1935 and the Great Depression is roaring. Six theater artists find themselves newly employed by the New Deal's Federal Theatre Project. Playing everybody from Macbeth to Mussolini on stage, these hardworking but unsung artists bond over their work on some of the Project’s great plays. But now in 2023, the Federal Theatre Project no longer exists, and hasn't for 84 years. What happened?
The Nobodies Who Were Everybody gives voice to the thousands of incredible artists, the "nobodies," who powered the Federal Theatre Project, and examines why it is still so difficult to give artists—and audiences—the support we all deserve.
5X5 Block Party Series: Celebrating Hip Hop’s 50th
5X5 Block Party Series is proudly supported by Brooklyn Arts Council.
August 5 | 3pm | Fulton St & Washington Ave
Mayor Eric Adams in partnership with ITSALLBLACKMUSIC present 5X5 Block Party Series, Celebrating Hip Hop’s 50th. Pull up to these FREE block parties and events taking place across all five boroughs, featuring Hip Hop royalty, alongside renowned DJs, street art installations by The LISA Project NYC, markets curated by The Lay Out, interactive experiences, and other headliners, to be announced. Don't miss out on this opportunity to pay homage to the genre’s rich history and community impact.
Dancers Unlimited: Black August
Dancers Unlimited is a 2023 BAC Grantee.
August 13 | 10am - 1pm | Brooklyn Grange
Black August is an acknowledgment and commemoration of the countless organizers, activists, and freedom fighters who sacrificed their freedom and lives in the struggle for Black liberation. Participants from our Social Justice Creative Lab will showcase their original solo and/or collaborative work created throughout the week.
Gathering Exhibition Potluck Closing
Cecile Chong & Sophia Ma are 2023 BAC Grantees.
August 13 | 4pm - 6pm | FiveMyles
Join Asianish artist members for a potluck closing of Gathering. Bring a dish that you share with your chosen family! Gathering highlights the relationships between forty-five Asianish artist members and their works, curated by Cecile Chong and Sophia Ma. Asianish is an informal social group for people of Asian descent working in the visual arts for connection, visibility, and a place for their experiences to be heard.
Brooklyn Beats 2: A Celebration of Brooklyn's Street Sounds
Phil Andrews is a 2023 BAC Grantee.
August 18 | 3pm - 7pm | Herbert Von King Park
Brooklyn Beats: A Celebration of Brooklyn's Street Sounds is organized by Funkrust Brass Band bandleader Phil Andrews co-sponsored by Honk NYC. Brooklyn Beats will feature the Honk Family Band, Mambembe, Pan Evolution, and Brooklyn United.
Six Foot Platform
Six Foot Platform is presented by Art in DUMBO in partnership with Brooklyn Arts Council.
Saturdays through September 4 | 12pm - 9pm
The intersection of Washington and Water Street becomes the setting for a new project: the Six Foot Platform Experimental Residency Program. Presented in partnership with Brooklyn Arts Council, this project will feature eleven Brooklyn-based artists in full-day residencies.
Issue Project Room FALL OPENING: ROSCOE MITCHELL & JOHN MCCOWEN / BEAM SPLITTER
ISSUE Project Room’s Fall Opening event is proudly supported by Brooklyn Arts Council.
September 9 | 8pm | First Unitarian Congregational Society
ISSUE celebrates its 20th Anniversary and Fall 2023 season with internationally renowned musician and composer Roscoe Mitchell, joined by composer/clarinetist John McCowen. The evening also features a performance from BEAM SPLITTER, the duo project of Audrey Chen and Norwegian musician Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø.
Iviva Olenick & Danielle Moore: Plant Dye, Food and Medicine Workshop
Iviva Olenick is a 2023 BAC Grantee.
September 10 | 3pm | Old Stone House
Join herbalist Danielle Moore and local artist, Iviva Olenick for a deep dive into local plants that make food, medicine and dye. After learning about traditional medicine and food, we will dye fabrics and threads. Materials provided. Please note that they are sharing cultural and traditional medicinal practices rather than providing medical advice.
SABINA SETHI UNNI & NIKOLAS MICHAEL: A Fun Play about How Scary Climate Change Is
Sabina Sethi Unni & Nikolas Michael are 2023 BAC Grantees.
September 15 | 6pm | Gowanus Dredgers Boathouse
Are you scared about the future? Do you feel climate despair? What’s your first memory of a storm? What’s a time you’ve leaned on a neighbor during a disaster? Do you think the world has ended, or has it just begun? Sabina Sethi Unni & Nikolas Michael are excited to present A Fun Play About How Scary Climate Change Is to answer these questions, creating a performance that draws from our personal and cultural stories of climate, flooding, rain, and community, in a way that is authentic, personal, intimate, and comedic.
HIVEWILD: OPEN CLASS
Hivewild is a 2022 BAC Grantee. Photo by Travis Emery Hackett.
Fridays from September 22 - November 17 | 11:15 - 12:45pm | The Floor
Led by Hivewild choreographer Katherine Maxwell, class is an invitation to connect with the body while sourcing tools from intuition and education. As effort builds from personal curiosities to group tasks and games, class will culminate into phrase work built upon the resonating themes of the day. Phrases crafted are ever-changing but reliably athletic, detailed, fluid, and sensation driven.
Events, Workshops, & Professional Development
bric celebrate brooklyn!
August 3 & 4, 10-12, 18 & 19, 22-24
BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! is a free, summer-long experience allowing New Yorkers to appreciate and discover new genres, acclaimed artists, and world cultures each night of the Festival.
GRANDMASTER FLASH & FRIENDS: BIRTH OF A CULTURE: THE 4 ELEMENTS BLOCK PARTY
August 4 | 5pm - 9pm | Crotona Park
Grandmaster Flash, one of the founding fathers of hip-hop responsible for technical and stylistic innovations that helped shape its culture, is making a triumphant return to Crotona Park on August 4 for a monumental event: Birth of a Culture: The Four Elements Block Party. Flash is bringing several of his friends and fellow pioneers of the culture back to Crotona Park to celebrate their contributions to hip-hop.
Collective Focus presents Indigenous Heritage Week Cultural Expo
August 9 at 4pm - August 12 at 7pm | Various Locations
Join the community in celebrating Indigenous Heritage Week and preserving Indigenous culture through traditional dance, craft workshops, film screenings, textile fashion, art, storytelling and more!
August 9 - Opening Ritual with Aztec Dance; Indigenous Scholars Academic Conference; Reunification Announcement and Ceremony
August 10 - Artisanal Vendor Demos and Interactive Craft Activities; Food Culture Workshop
August 11 - Indigenous Film Festival; Indigenous Handmade Textile Fashion Show and Auction
August 12 - Art Exhibition and Folkloric Dances; Traditional Storytelling Workshop; Live Music and Dancing
Classes at UrbanGlass
Screen Printing & Imagery in Fused Glass
August 8 - 12
Screen printing with glass powders and enamels is great for bold, graphic images, repeatable patterns, and colorful backgrounds. It’s capable of creating clean, crisp line work and perfect color gradients. Additionally, sifting powder by hand, and painting with enamel, allows us to incorporate spontaneity and gesture. It also allows us to render meticulous detail and blend colors to achieve realism. In this class, we will explore the pros and cons of creating images with silkscreens vs. drawing or painting them by hand.
Queer Glass: An Intro to Graphic Stained Glass
August 22 - 26
This five day course will provide an introduction to creating copper foil “tiffany style” stained glass panels, with a modern twist. This class is designed for beginners and intermediate students. You will leave with a finished stained glass piece that you’ve made from a pattern you select. We will cover the fundamentals of cutting, grinding, foiling and soldering glass, through a mix of short demos and hands-on instruction.
The Bushwick Starr: Summer Arts Festival
August 27 | 2pm - 7pm | Bushwick Starr HQ
Presented in partnership with Oye Group NYC and the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (Made in NY), the Summer Arts Festival is a FREE annual event featuring free food, entertainment, arts, games and giveaways, good for all ages. The 2023 Summer Arts Festival marks the 8th year of this Bushwick community event.
Job Opportunity
Dance Theatre of Harlem: Senior Director of Philanthropy
Dance Theatre of Harlem is a leading dance institution of unparalleled global acclaim. Reporting to and working in close collaboration with Anna Glass (the Executive Director) and the Board of Directors, the Senior Director of Philanthropy will design and execute on a comprehensive philanthropy strategy for DTH. The Senior Director of Philanthropy will oversee and execute on both capital campaigns and ongoing fundraising efforts. The placement will manage DTH’s current philanthropy team and volunteers with opportunities to grow the department.
Artist Opportunities
Sight/Geist Open Call
Deadline: August 8
The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation (SDRF) is excited to announce its second open call. For this iteration, the Foundation is seeking ambitious performance work from emerging NYC-based performance artists for fall 2023 programming at The 8th Floor, SDRF’s gallery near Union Square. Sight/Geist will continue to highlight work that addresses the Foundation’s mission of art and social justice, now through the often underserved but expansive medium of performance.
Queens Museum: Frame Curatorial Research Fellowship
A reading by Frame Curatorial Research Fellow 201-2023 Ama Josephine Budge. Image Sheung Yiu/Frame Contemporary Art Finland.
Deadline: August 13
The Frame Curatorial Research Fellowships offer support for developing new curatorial research practices and cultivating active practices embedded in an organisational context. It explores what kind of curatorial research is needed in order to imagine new ways of presenting and mediating contemporary art and cultural production in forms inseparable from daily life, politics and the policies of artists and institutions.
2024 Artist-in-Residence Program at CPR
Deadline: August 16
CPR – Center for Performance Reseach’s year-long Artist-in-Residence (AiR) Program seeks to support artists working within various perspectives of contemporary dance, performance, and time-based forms. CPR values experimental approaches to content, form, and aesthetic, and encourages risk-taking and the unexpected.
The Laundromat Project 2024 Create Change Open Call
Deadline: August 18
Create Change programs are for artists and cultural producers who are interested in developing and deepening a collaborative, community-based, and socially-engaged creative practice.
Fellowship - Six-month incubator that gives participants the tools to develop, workshop, and generate project ideas incorporating The LP’s values and community-based methodology.
Residency - Supports the development of participatory and community-attuned creative projects by artists of color working within their communities. Projects may take place anywhere in the five boroughs of NYC, either in person or virtually.
Bed-Stuy Residency - Supports the development of participatory and community-attuned creative projects by artists of color who live, work, or are otherwise invested in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
Arts for Abilities consortium: Request for Proposals
Deadline: August 25
Event Date: October 20 | The Museum of Jewish Heritage
The Consortium provides a means by which professionals and stakeholders involved in Arts Education for students with disabilities in New York can share perspectives, determine needs, develop ways to meet them, and deepen practice and understanding. The Consortium invites community members working at the intersection of arts education and disability to propose innovative sessions that will help all of us move beyond the silos we so often work in and deepen the growth and learning of the students we work with.
The National Arts Club Artist Fellowship Program
Deadline: September 1
This fellowship provides established professional artists with a year-long full membership to the historic National Arts Club in Gramercy Park, New York. The chosen Artist Fellows can be working in any one (or more) disciplines: Archeology, Architecture, Art and Technology, Culinary Arts, Dance, Decorative Arts, Fashion, Film, Fine Arts, Literature, Music, Photography, and Theater.
LMCC’s Manhattan Arts Grants
Deadline: September 12
Manhattan Arts Grants celebrate the importance of the arts to a resilient New York City and contribute to the sustainability of our diverse communities that call Manhattan home. In 2023, LMCC awarded over $1.7 million in support of 340 cultural events and activities across Manhattan by individual artists, groups, and organizations. There are three grant programs: Creative Engagement, Creative Learning, and UMEZ Arts Engagement.
Foundwork Artist Prize
$10,000
Deadline: September 26
The Foundwork Artist Prize is an annual juried grant that recognizes outstanding emerging and mid-career artists working in any media. Honorees receive unrestricted $10,000 grants. The honoree and three shortlisted artists will also be invited for interviews as part of our Dialogues program to further public engagement with their practices.
KUNSTRAUM Open Call for Artist-in-Residence 2024-2025
Deadline: October 15
KUNSTRAUM is a community of artists by artists with the goal of redefining the collaboration between artists and curators. Through our program, we aim to explore the relationships between artists and curators by opening our gallery spaces to those interested in exploring unconventional, engaging ideas and taking risks. The Artist-in-Residency program offers three-month residencies for national and international artists on a quarterly cycle.
What We're Reading
“Bed-Stuy’s Annual Art Crawl Envisions a Black Utopia”
by BK Reader Staff | BK Reader
"Brooklyn Museum Union Accepts Raises as Contract Negotiations Progress"
by Kimberlean Donis | BK Reader
"New NYC Record Label Provides a Platform for Differently Abled Artists"
by Precious Fondren | Gothamist
“Mayor Adams And Mayor’s Fund Unveil Scholarship Initiative Aimed At Promoting Diversity In Journalism”
by Harlem World Staff | Harlem World
"Worldwide Investment in Cultural Projects Continues to Rebound, With $15 Billion of Infrastructure Completed or Announced in 2022"
by Eileen Kinsella | Artnet
“Theatre in Crisis: What We’re Losing, and What Comes Next”
by Alexandra Pierson, Amelia Merrill, et al. | American Theatre
Cover Image: Eclectic Charango Beats perform at U Street Music Fest presented by Urbano Street, 2023 Brooklyn Arts Fund Grantee. Photo by Oscar Salazar, UnoStar.
Empowering Artists. Empowering Communities.
The arts are a lifeline to sustain wonder, inspiration, healing, and a sense of community in our lives. Please join Brooklyn Arts Council in our mission to empower Brooklyn artists and arts organizations that bring life and joy into our home borough.