LARGO – Creative Pinellas is pleased to announce their 2024 Emerging Artist Grant. These grants, open to applicants now through Sept. 6, aim to support and build meaningful relationships among the outstanding creative artists in Pinellas County and their audiences.
It provides a solid foundation to nurture the creative community and elevate Pinellas as an art and cultural destination that draws tourists worldwide. Grants will be awarded for original work in choreography, literature, media arts, music composition, theater creation, visual arts and interdisciplinary arts.
Emerging artists are defined as those who demonstrate excellence in their work, are widely recognized by their peers and the community, and still have some ground to cover on their path to recognition as professional artists. So, for example, the emerging visual artist may have shown some work but is still building a solid record of exhibition history, awards, and commissions or sustaining an income derived solely from sales production and performance of their work.
These artists are also early in their careers, are quickly growing as artists and find themselves at an important moment when these grants would have an especially large impact on their development as professional artists.
“I am proud to be a part of our grant programs like the Emerging Artist Grant, which offers multiple opportunities for the grantees,” said Creative Pinellas Grants & Business Manager Charlene Harrison. “The grantees receive a wealth of experience that will stay with them forever.”
The Emerging Artist Grant program, now in its seventh year, selects up to ten artists for the annual program. Each artist will receive a financial grant of $2,000, a professional artist mentor chosen specifically for them, who will work with them on a one-to-one basis during the grant period and will be part of the Emerging Artist group exhibition, sponsored each year by Creative Pinellas.
A panel of artists and curators carefully selects artists based on their work, vision for the future and commitment to show or perform their work for the benefit of residents and visitors to Pinellas County.
“The Emerging Artist Grant has been instrumental in my artistic journey. It has pushed my artist vision personally and conceptually,” said 2023 Emerging Artist grantee Jenipher Chandley. “It provided me with the opportunity to embrace the challenge of time, and overall gave me the confidence to push boundaries and evolve in ways I never thought possible.”
Program guidelines, eligibility details, grant FAQs, workshops and the online application will be available at creativepinellas.org/emergingartists. The grant is underway and closes Sept. 6 at 11:59 p.m. (Eastern). Grantees will be selected on or around Oct. 16.
Creative Pinellas will work to pair recipients with an artist mentor to guide the grantee through their development as a professional artist. They will have several months to create new work culminating in an exhibition at the Gallery at Creative Pinellas tentatively set for Spring 2024 and a virtual gallery exhibit.
Throughout the funding period, recipients will provide insight into their creative processes for interested visitors through blogs posted at creativepinellas.org. Past awardees have written about current projects, critiques on work in progress, reflections on life as an artist and more.
For additional information on this grant program, contact Charlene Harrison, Creative Pinellas Grants & Business Manager at Creative Pinellas, at grants@creativepinellas.org.
