Since 1997, Charlotte Street has distributed over $2 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. Learn more about our opportunities and how to apply below.
OPPORTUNITY EQUITY
Charlotte Street values 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. We acknowledge structural inequities that have excluded individuals and communities from opportunity based on race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, class, age, and geography, and strive to counter those inequities in our work. We encourage panelists and selection committees to actively consider and seek to recommend a diverse pool of applicants as finalists and recipients of these awards and all Charlotte Street programs.
Grants
Cultural Producers Grants
The Cultural Producers Grants Program awards $50,000 in total funds for low-budget grassroots arts organizations and artist-run projects in Kansas City. Kansas City has long enjoyed a thriving and diverse ecology of small artist-run spaces, collectives, groups, and organizations, which have sometimes suffered from lack of support needed to establish sustainability. These new Cultural Producer Grants aim to both draw attention to these critical elements of our arts ecosystem as well as direct some much-needed support their way.
Applications open every February.
Rocket Grants
With support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Rocket Grants provide direct funding to artists in the Kansas City region who are creating exceptional, under-the-radar and artist-centered projects in public spaces. Up to $6,000 are awarded to individuals or artist groups for projects that exist outside established venues such as museums, galleries, theaters or arts districts.
Call for proposals open every May.
Awards
Visual Artist Awards
Charlotte Street Visual Artist Awards recognize and significantly support Kansas City-based visual artists of all media who are creating exceptional, contemporary work. Providing artists with financial support, critical recognition, and public exposure, these Awards aim to reward artistic accomplishment to date and to support the continued development of artists’ work and careers.
Applications open every September.
Generative Performing Artist Awards
The Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Awards aim to recognize and significantly support Kansas City-based artists producing exceptional performance-based work that is original, innovative, and progressive. Providing artists with financial support, critical recognition, and public exposure, these Awards aim to reward artistic accomplishment to date and to support the continued development of artists’ work and careers.
Applications open every September.
Bryon C. Cohen Award
The annual Byron C. Cohen Award provides one Kansas City-based visual artist with funding to attend a leading national/international art fair for their particular interest. The award is administered through Charlotte Street and is funded by contributions towards the memory of well-known Kansas City gallerist Byron C. Cohen. The award honors Cohen’s passion for art, artists needs for travel and his desire to connect Kansas City artists to the national and international arts world.
Art Omi International Residency
Every year, Charlotte Street offers an opportunity for one artist to attend the Art Omi Residency in Ghent, New York. All past local Visual Artist award fellows currently living in Kansas City are eligible to apply, as well as nominees from former Art Omi Residents. Art Omi guarantees one spot to a Charlotte Street artist and selections are facilitated by the Art Omi selection panel. The chosen artist receives a three week, fully-funded residency. Art Omi invites 30 artists from around the world, representing a wide diversity of artistic styles and practices, to gather in rural New York for four weeks each summer to experiment, collaborate and share ideas.