Opportunity Fund Awards $251,000 to 13 Arts and Culture Projects
CHARLOTTE, NC (Oct. 27, 2022) — The City of Charlotte’s Arts and Culture Advisory Board on Tuesday awarded a total of $251,000 in grants to 13 local arts and culture projects.
The awards are the latest grants from Opportunity Fund, which supports local arts and culture projects, programs and initiatives that may fall outside existing grant cycles or structures in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area. Projects must also meet the goals and guidelines of the larger Infusion Fund , which is a partnership of the city, Foundation For The Carolinas and private donors to support arts and culture through June 2024.
Having awarded nearly $400,000 from the Opportunity Fund in the current fiscal year, the advisory board also voted Tuesday to pause its acceptance of any new grant requests while it evaluates the fund’s progress to date and fine-tunes the grant request process. Requests made by applicants who have already submitted letters of intent and who have been invited to submit a full proposal may be considered in November for grants from the remaining funding. Those full proposals must be received by Nov. 3 to be considered for an award.
“The amount of funding requests the board received since launching in early September, totaling far more than $400,000, shows the need for innovative tools like the Opportunity Fund that fill gaps in local funding,” said Priya Sircar, the city’s arts and culture officer. “We will now consider the best next step for the fund, and we look forward to opening new opportunities in 2023.”
Latest Recipients of Opportunity Fund Grants
10-Minute Play Festival by the African American Playwrights Group and the Performing Arts and Literary Society.
2023-2024 dance and circus performances by Caroline Calouche & Co. and the Charlotte Cirque and Dance Center.
Performances include “Clara’s Trip: A Cirque and Dance Nutcracker Story,” the cabaret-style “Rouge,” and “Stargazer: A Trek Into Outer Space.”
Grant amount: $25,000.
Culture Bearers Artist Residency by QC Family Tree.
Fresh2Death by CrownKeepers
Hunnid Dollar Art Fair by BLMRKTCLT.
“Move to Live; Migrate to Survive: A Woman’s Dancing Body” by Movement Migration.
Queen Sugar Bash by Holiday Wish Foundation.A showcase for Black LGBTQ+ performing artists to be seen, heard, followed, and fairly compensated.
Grant amount: $18,500.
Street Culture Arte led by Jose Valentin Ramirez Cardiel.
“The Flirt Bar” produced by Charlotte’s Off-Broadway.A concert reading of “The Flirt Bar” by Susan Lambert Hatem, Michelle Malone and Amy Ray, a new musical about women who turn a former club into the Flirt Bar, a place where women can go to be flirted with.
Grant amount: $10,000.
“The Little Prince” adaptation by Moving Poets.
The Print Shop Concert Series by Shoot2Edit Studios.A live, taped concert series showcasing independent singers, musicians and instrumentalists of all genres from Charlotte-Mecklenburg music community. During the performances, screen printers create custom t-shirt designs to be future merchandise for the artists.
Grant amount: $40,000.
“Violence/Enough” (a working title) by Carlos Alexis Cruz and the Nouveau Sud Circus project.
Welcome Here by Arts for ALL.
Past recipients of the Opportunity Fund include:
