“In this time” has become a refrain we lean on because language fails us. It opens and closes too many sentences, a placeholder for something too vast to name. Even the simplest question—“How are you?”—hangs unanswered between us. We hesitate, glance downward, offer a half-shrug. We say, “I don’t know what to say.” This moment resists ease; it fractures small talk. The ordinary scripts no longer hold.

Toni Morrison wrote “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” During Operation Metro Surge and its wake, people in Minnesota fearlessly went to work in response to the federal brutality and violence.

Minnesotans went to work forming mutual aid networks and leading creative resistance—through public rituals, poetry, songs, song circles, drumming, dances, murals, posters, banners, knitted protest hats, videos, brass bands! We went to work providing emergency resources, art supplies for youth, “know your rights” trainings, documentation of human rights violations, space for artists’ creative interventions, protective gear for protesters, rides for neighbors, safety watches for children going to school, grocery deliveries, gatherings for connection, care, healing, and collective processing, memorials for our murdered—poet Renée Nicole Good, nurse Alex Pretti—and vigils for the thousands of people snatched from their lives, from our communities.

Maya Angelou wrote, “Just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides, just like hopes springing high, still I'll rise.” Minnesotans rise. We work. We gather. We plan. We strategize. We show up with love and solidarity. We say, “What have you done?” We say, “Shame.” We say, “Enough.” We find our way through the heartbreak. We keep going, holding on to our humanity, insisting on our constitutional rights. We do not comply. We stand with everyone impacted by ICE invasions. We say “no” to fascism.

Together we work. Together we rise. Together we resist. Together we love and make the good.

—Eleanor Savage

New Music USA’s New Music Organization Fund

This program offers grants to non-profit organizations, performance groups, dance organizations, festivals, presenters, and venues that need support to sustain their programming of new music and/or nurturing of music creators and other artists. The program offers three funding areas: General Operating Support, Creation of New Work, and Live Music for Dance.

Application deadline March 19, 2026.

Eyebeam’s 2026 NYC Residency

This 2026 Residency calls on emerging artists based in NYC within the 5 boroughs to apply to the Open Call; artists whose practice and thinking act as catalysts in defining our paths ahead, and align with the theme Speculating on Plurality.

Application deadline March 20, 2026.

International Contemporary Ensemble’s Call For ___ Commission Program

The International Contemporary Ensemble invites practitioners of performed sound to apply to create a new work for the Ensemble.

Application deadline March 27, 2026.

Art of the Rural’s Spillway Fellowship

The Spillway Fellowship Program seeks early career artists and culture bearers from Minnesota and the Native Nations in this geography who are cultivating a range of work across visual art disciplines and socially-engaged practice.

Application deadline March 31, 2026.

Artadia’s New York City Awards

Offering three awards of $15,000 in unrestricted funds, the application is open to visual artists living and working within NYC for a minimum of the last two consecutive years. Individual artists and collaboratives working in all visual media and at any stage in their career are strongly encouraged to apply.

Application deadline April 1, 2026.

Franklin Furnace FUND

Grants are awarded to early career artists of all backgrounds to assist in the production of new major performance art works in NYC.

Application deadline April 1, 2026.

BAX’s Artist in Residence Program

The AIR program centers artists at a generative stage of development, offering time, space, and sustained institutional support to develop projects-in-progress before their work enters larger production ecosystems.

Application deadline April 2, 2026.

BAX’s EmergeNYC

EmergeNYC is a Latinx-led incubator and affinity network for socially engaged artists to develop their creative voice, explore the intersections of art and activism, and connect to a thriving community of mostly BIPOC, migrant, and LGBTQIA+ practitioners who challenge dominant narratives through cultural resistance.

Application deadline April 2, 2026.

Creative Capital 2027 Open Call

The 2027 Creative Capital Open Call seeks proposals from individual artists in all 50 states for new artistic works in the Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Film, and Literature.

The Creative Capital Award provides unrestricted project grants of up to $50,000 to individual artists to create new work. The new State of the Art Prize provides unrestricted artist grants of $10,000.

Application deadline April 2, 2026.

Pepatián and BAAD!’s Dancing Futures Residency 2026

This 2026 Residency calls on emerging artists based in NYC within the 5 boroughs to apply to the Open Call; artists whose practice and thinking act as catalysts in defining our paths ahead, and align with the theme Speculating on Plurality.

Application deadline April 8, 2026.

National Queer Theater Call for Submissions 2026

National Queer Theater is accepting submissions for new queer theater and performance that push the boundaries of queer performance, entertain, enlighten, educate, and fuel social change.

Application deadline April 10, 2026.

Accessible Arts Grants (for organizations)

This pilot program offers project grants to increase the arts sector’s capacity to make arts experiences more accessible. Funds may be used for investments that will have a longer-term impact on the applicant, such as professional development related to accessibility, hiring accessibility consultants, and/or small equipment investments.

Application deadline April 10, 2026.

Arts Experiences Grants (for individuals and organizations)

This pilot program supports individuals and organizations in providing meaningful arts experiences for Minnesotans within their communities. Funds may be used for a variety of arts projects such as creating and/or presenting concerts, plays, tours, exhibitions, arts festivals, public art, etc.

Application deadline May 1, 2026.

Firelight’s Documentary Lab

This 12-month fellowship is designed to nurture filmmakers of color working on their first or second nonfiction feature film. The Documentary Lab provides holistic support for fellows’ projects and careers through professional development, customized mentorship, and a $25K project grant.

Application opens April 6 with a deadline of May 6, 2026.

Cultural Expression Grants (for individuals and organizations)

This pilot program supports activities that share, explore, pass on, express, or celebrate culture through the arts. Culture may be defined by a common ethnicity, tribal affiliation, geographic or regional identity, or language. Traditional and contemporary forms of cultural expression may be funded in this program.

Application deadline June 6, 2026.

National Black Theatre’s I Am SOUL Playwright Residency Program

This program serves the best and brightest early career Black writers from around the country, with a commitment to producing a public presentation of a newly commissioned play over the course of 18 months.

Applications open in Spring 2026.

Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grants: Cancellation Funds

Cancellation funds are available to experimental artists with previously confirmed public presentations, including exhibitions, readings, and performances. Recognizing that artists and venues need to rethink budgets, redirect resources, and limit or eliminate programming, cancellation funds aim to mitigate the loss of financial commitments and outlays made prior to the cancellation.

Grants are accepted on a rolling basis and distributed monthly in amounts up to $3,000.

Minnesota Emergency Relief Fund Pilots

Providing short-term, rapid relief to artists facing unexpected expenses or loss of income due to personal/professional emergencies or natural disasters. The ERF application is designed to be straightforward, so that artists can access funds when they need them most.

Minnesota’s Regional Arts Councils administer these funds and have varying guidelines and deadlines.

Arts Midwest announced the MN Arts Rise and Respond Fund, a pooled fund established by Arts Midwest, the Jerome Foundation, and 10 partners that distributed over $376,000 to 16 organizations providing emergency resources, support for youth and families, mutual aid, documentation of ICE brutality and violence, funding for artists’ creative interventions, and spaces for connection, healing, and collective processing. Anyone interested in donating can find links here.

We invite you to check out these upcoming film screenings!

MSPIFF, aka the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, takes place April 8-19, 2026, and features a number of screenings of new work by past Jerome Hill Artist Fellows and MN Filmmaker Mentorship and MN Film Production grantees:

• Mohammed Sheikh’s Barni (feature)

• Elizabeth Chatelain’s Bigfoot Woods (feature) and I & Me (short)

• Deacon Warner’s Come Talk to Me (feature)

• Yasmin Yassin’s Dhaanto (short)

Indigenous Roots’ Mary Anne Ligeralde Quiroz is featured in Oogie_Push’s documentary Why We Dance.

Jerome’s Board Co-Chair Lori Pourier was awarded the 2026 Berresford Prize from United States Artists, given annually to a cultural organizer who has contributed significantly to the advancement, well-being, and care of artists in society.

Dyani White Hawk said, “Lori’s leadership has demonstrated what values-based work in the arts can look like, achieve, and model for future generations.”

Jerome President and CEO Eleanor Savage was one of the inaugural recipients of the Minnesota Council on Foundations’ Ubuntu Leadership Award.

Get to know the thirteen recipients of Jerome@Camargo residencies, which will take place in 2026–2028.

With a heavy heart, we share that Petey McSweetey, Jerome’s office dog, passed on February 3, from cancer. During her 16 years with us, she enjoyed welcoming guests and sneaking kisses at every opportunity. We will forever miss her enduring love, smiles, and wags.