Grant & Funding Opportunities
The Individual Artists Fellowship provides unrestricted funding to artists and culture bearers working across all disciplines and at different stages of their careers:
- Emerging ($5,000): For those at the beginning of their public career.
- Established ($10,000): For artists with a sustained body of work.
- Legacy ($50,000): For those who have made significant, long-term contributions to the field.
Central California Region: Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura
The California Arts Council Individual Artists Fellowship Program (IAF) will support artists at key career stages to recognize and increase artists’ capacity for continued contribution to the field and our state. This program is meant to uplift individual artistic practice. As the fellowship opens, the invitation is simple: If you have a sustained practice, a point of view, and a connection to your community, then this is for you.
Download the toolkit
Register for an informational webinar about the program and application
*Mural by Hollister artist, Clay Peer.
Arts Express
2025 Arts Express Grant Program is NOW OPEN
The goal of the San Benito County Arts Council’s Arts Express Grant Program is to promote artistic and cultural engagement, accessibility, equity and diversity in San Benito County. Arts Express provides funding support to local artists, art groups, art and cultural organizations, and arts-based businesses through project-based grants and general operations grants.
Applications will open Summer 2026
Central Coast Creative Corps
The Central Coast Creative Corps (CCCC) Program, a new grant opportunity funded by the California Arts Council, will provide $140,000 grants for 23 projects produced by working partnerships between community-based organizations and local artists, creative workers or culture bearers, addressing one of four priority areas: public health, civic engagement, social justice and climate impact. Interested participants may apply to one of the following categories:
Community Partners (Nonprofits, Government agencies, or Tribal governments) are invited to apply for one of twenty-three grants to be used over one year — from Sept. 2023 through Aug. 2024 — to fund artistic collaborations. Together, Artists and Community Partners will co-create and co-develop an engagement campaign that communicates powerful messages for their communities centered on one or more of the targeted themes.
Artists in this program will be paid $100,000 of each of the $140,000 grants for their work over one year. Selected Artists will co-create projects with Community Partners to bring their collective vision to life. Sign up at the Artist Directory by June 1st.