KANSAS CITY, MO, JANUARY 16, 2025: Charlotte Street is pleased to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Grants for Arts Projects award of $25,000. This grant will support Charlotte Street’s Studio + StartUp Residency Programs, the only programs in Kansas City that provide free studio, rehearsal, and storefront spaces to a mixed-disciplinary cohort of artists for 2-year terms. Notable alumni of the Studio Residency Program include Paul Anthony Smith, Anthony Baab, Rachel Hayes, Michelle Tyrene Johnson, cat mahari, and many more. In total, the NEA will award 1,127 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling more than $31.8 million that were announced as part of its first round of fiscal year 2025 grants.
“The NEA is proud to continue our nearly 60 years of supporting the efforts of organizations and artists that help to shape our country’s vibrant arts sector and communities of all types across our nation,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “It is inspiring to see the wide range of creative projects taking place, including Charlotte Street.”
Since 2003 when the Urban Culture Project launched in downtown Kansas City, Charlotte Street has provided critical support to the region’s arts community, providing free studio and rehearsal spaces in a city where affordable rents and available spaces are increasingly difficult to acquire. Many artists lack sufficient support structures available to people in other careers, such as regular income, access to capital, a professional network, and a space to work. Initiatives such as Charlotte Street’s StartUp Residency Program provide creative entrepreneurs a rent and utility-free storefront in the Pendleton Arts Block in Northeast Kansas City to create a proof-of-concept for their independent arts business. Through its work, we strive to foster an equitable, diverse, and inclusive art community, which we interpret as all artists having fair access to the tools and resources they need to realize their artistic endeavors.
Charlotte Street’s Studio Residency Program provides free studio and rehearsal spaces to a mixed disciplinary cohort of exceptional artists for 2 year-long terms. Through the program’s offerings—which include free studio space, advisors, public programs, monthly cohort meetings and presentations, studio visits and access to a multidisciplinary network of artist peers—Charlotte Street’s Studio Residency Program encourages creative production, artistic experimentation, professional development, and community building. The program fosters Charlotte Street’s values of risk taking, openness, excellence, and collaboration by creating an environment where artists use the platforms and resources available to meet personal goals and career milestones.
For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.
For interview requests with Charlotte Street Residency + Programs Manager Pat Alexander, contact Amanda Middaugh at [email protected].
ABOUT CHARLOTTE STREET
Charlotte Street centers Kansas City’s most forward-thinking visual artists, writers, and performers—acting as the primary incubator, provocateur, and connector for the region’s contemporary arts community, and its leading advocate on the national stage. Since 1997, Charlotte Street has distributed over $2.5 million in awards and grants to artists and their innovative projects, and connected individual artists to each other and to the greater Kansas City community. For more information about Charlotte Street, its awards, programs, and initiatives, visit www.charlottestreet.org.
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View the Press Release as a PDF here.
