Press Release via Philadelphia Cultural Fund
PHILADELPHIA—(April 13, 2021)—The Philadelphia Cultural Fund (PCF) has announced the recipients of its 2021 Art & Culture Grants. A total of $914,517 will be awarded to 205 Philadelphia-based art and culture organizations. The grants are resourced through the City budget and supplemented by donations. The 2021 Art & Culture Grants provide much needed general operating funds to small and mid-sized organizations at a time when the pandemic has devastated the arts sector.
The Philadelphia Cultural Fund has been the primary vehicle through which the City of Philadelphia has funded the arts since 1994. It was established as an independent 501 (c) (3) to ensure fair and apolitical access to public funding for a broad and diverse spectrum of arts organizations that serve all corners of the city. Due to COVID-19, the City’s 2021 allocation to PCF was reduced by 68%, thus the number of grants and the amount of each grant is significantly less than in past years. In 2020, $2,928,500 was awarded to 349 organizations.
Recognizing that not all segments of the city’s population have equitable access to financial resources, PCF aimed to focus its limited dollars where their impact could be greatest: on small and mid-sized organizations, which most likely have less access to revenue sources such as foundation grants. PCF has long been an accessible and vital source of financial support for Philadelphia’s smallest arts organizations – 71% of the grant recipients have annual operating budgets below $150,000.
The grant amounts are based on each organization’s 2020 Art & Culture Grant that utilized a funding formula and peer review panel scores that are a key element of the Philadelphia Cultural Fund’s participatory grantmaking. The peer review panel process involved over 115 volunteers spanning the local arts and culture space, including artists, administrators and educators. The panels evaluated and scored grant applications and conducted site visits, with Community Impact serving as the most heavily weighted evaluation element.
“We celebrate and deeply thank these arts organizations, and the many others that PCF was unable to fund this year, for the services they continued to provide despite the extraordinary challenges they faced this year,” said Philadelphia Cultural Fund Executive Director Barbara J. Silzle. “We recognize the vital role that the artists and arts organizations have in this city – to transform lives, amplify voices, and connect us to one another. And the arts will be essential to Philadelphia’s recovery from the pandemic.”
CLICK HERE to download a PDF of the press release with a complete list of grant recipients.
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About the Philadelphia Cultural Fund
Established in 1991 to support and enhance the cultural life and vitality of the City of Philadelphia and its residents, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, through the combined efforts of the Philadelphia City Council and the Mayor, promotes arts and culture as engines of social, educational and economic development and has played a key stabilizing role for numerous organizations by providing much needed general operating funding.
Learn more at www.philaculturalfund.org and follow along @PhilaCulturFund on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.