Artist Opportunities

Become an NC Handmade artisan! We're featuring a wide variety of craft traditions on NC Handmade. Whether you're a potter or a quilter, we encourage you to apply to be an artisan featured in our marketplace.

Sweetgrass Artisan Mercantile is seeking consignments artists who create quality and dynamic fine art and crafts with emphasis on folk art, pottery, glass, textiles and jewelry. Preference will be for those in the NC or Blue Ridge Region.

The Actors Fund provides services and financial support to entertainment professionals facing personal or work-related problems. It is also a conduit for emergency financial assistance in times of pressing need or in response to catastrophic events.

The Artists’ Fellowship provides emergency aid to professional fine artists and their families in times of sickness, natural disaster, bereavement or unexpected extreme hardship. At this time, we are temporarily limiting relief and assistance applications to those qualified applicants who are dealing with immediate MEDICAL emergencies and their aftermaths. 

Since 1917, the Authors League Fund has helped professional authors, journalists, poets, and dramatists who find themselves in financial need because of medical or health-related problems, temporary loss of income, or other misfortune. Most of those we help suffer severe health problems but have inadequate insurance; some face eviction; many are older writers whose income has ceased through no fault of their own. The Fund exists to help professional writers continue their careers with dignity by providing no-strings-attached “loans” to pay for pressing expenses. Repayment of this emergency support is not required.

The Chatham Artist & Arts-Worker Relief Effort (CAARE) is available to performing, visual, or literary artists or arts-workers living in Chatham County, NC – and in need of financial assistance due to COVID-19 cancellations and closures. (For the purpose of CAARE, we define arts-worker as someone who earns some part of their income in the arts by making arts projects possible, including exhibition managers, artist managers, stage managers, arts nonprofit administrators, sound technicians, etc.)

Decisions will be made each Thursday, beginning April 9. Applications must be received by Tuesday at 4:59 p.m. to be considered by the CAARE committee for that week’s funding. Applications received after Tuesday at 5 p.m. will be reviewed the following week. Disbursements will be made weekly.

As artists attempt to maintain a sense of "business as usual" when things are anything but usual, Rhonda Wheatley discusses lessons in healing and wellness to manage the growing isolation, anxiety, and uncertainty we are all facing during this recorded workshop (via YouTube). Wheatley closes with a guided meditation.

If you're thinking about livestreaming for the first time during COVID-19, it can be hard to know where to start. Yara Travieso and Brighid Greene suggest using livestreaming less as a final product, and more as a way to continue a creative practice. In this recorded workshop (via YouTube), they assess different platforms and what to know when just getting started.
 

DGF provides emergency financial assistance to individual playwrights, composers, lyricists, and bookwriters in dire need of funds due to severe hardship or unexpected illness.

Do you have an unanticipated opportunity to present your work? Did you incur an unexpected expense that you didn’t budget for? The Foundation for Contemporary Arts offers Emergency Grants between $200 and $2,500 for visual and performing artists. They review applications once a month, so you can quickly take advantage of momentum or solve any budget errors. Rolling deadline.

The Blues Foundation established the HART Fund (Handy Artists Relief Trust) for Blues musicians and their families in financial need due to a broad range of health concerns. The Fund provides for acute, chronic and preventive medical and dental care as well as funeral and burial expenses. Throughout the year at various events the HART Fund provides free health screenings for musicians, with services including but not limited to checking blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, prostate cancer, Hep C, anemia, thyroid, kidney and liver testing via blood work. 

The Max’s Kansas City project provides emergency funding and resources to professionals in the creative arts.

The Rauschenberg Medical Emergency Grants program provides one-time grants of up to $5,000 for unexpected medical/dental/mental health emergencies. Emergencies are defined as taking place within the last six months (July 1, 2020 or later). The New York Foundation for the Arts partners with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation to administer these grants, available to visual and media artists and choreographers who live anywhere in the U.S., its Territories, and the District of Columbia. Artists of color, artists with disabilities, and those living outside of the East and West coasts are particularly encouraged to apply.

This relief fund provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians and music industry workers who are struggling to make ends meet because of COVID-19.

MONO NO AWARE is a cinema-arts non-profit organization, educational lab space and film-positive community based in Brooklyn, New York. In an effort to maintain an active role in serving the community while public events are on hold, we have established a zero-contact film care package initiative. If you have a project or photo-chemical film practice affected by COVID-19 and would like to participate, please fill out a questionnaire. Each week MONO NO AWARE will select a handful of artists to receive film, related materials, equipment or motion picture services by mail free of charge.

Grant support, outreach, and engagement for social issues documentary film and other storytelling projects. Rolling deadline.

Allies in Arts is offering SOS grants to BIPOC artists. They are small but immediately available. Just send your website or IG of your artwork, and they’ll do the application for you.

VAE is excited to launch their Collaborative Curatorial Fellowship! This is your chance to be PAID to do your own artistic research and curation, in order to make your boldest idea into a reality. This program aims to equitably pay creative individuals for their time and artistry while exposing them to VAE’s way of creating programming, with the community, rather than simply for the community. The ultimate goal is to create a diverse community of past Fellows who become leaders in the arts community and continue to advocate for equitable pay structures and community collaboration throughout their successful careers!

South Arts invites emerging and mid-career jazz artists to take your music to places it's never been and apply for Jazz Road Tours grants. Jazz Road Tours offer grants of up to $15,000 to develop tours into communities across the country.

The microgrant program awards $500–$1,500 to proposals with a compelling vision for net art, which considers political radicalization and the internet. Rolling deadline.

The Individual Artist Career Opportunity Grant supports a milestone opportunity in an individual artist’s career that is likely to lead to substantial and significant career advancement. Grants of up to $2,000 are available to support opportunities taking place between April 1, 2021 and August 31, 2022. Applications are due at least 60 days prior to activities. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until this program’s funds are depleted.

For a new blog series celebrating the life of James Baldwin in Saint-Paul de Vence, we are soliciting submissions of articles, book excerpts and personal essays that address the elder Baldwin, from the years 1970 to 1987. 

Seeking poetry submissions for online poetry journal. Publication. 

Bear Review is a biannual journal of poetry, art and micro prose based in Kansas City. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. Turnaround time is fast. All published writing is automatically considered for an annual editor's prize which includes an honorarium and interview. The first editor's prize will be judged this fall and will consider work from this issue and the fall issue. Submit up to five original, previously unpublished poems or micro prose pieces (fiction or nonfiction, 500 words or fewer). Rolling deadline.

The literary journal Inch is looking for flash fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Rolling deadline.

A new online poetry journal seeking new poets. Cash awards. Rolling deadline.

Hamline Lit Link intends to connect current and past students within, or interested in, the realm of the English major. We are constantly looking for submissions of various types of writing. Rolling deadline.

Hermit Feathers Press accepts full-length poetry manuscripts on an ongoing basis. Manuscripts should be introduced via query. Rolling deadline.

Linden Avenue Literary Journal publishes poetry, short fiction,and creative non-fiction which highlights the intersection between art and everyday life. Please be sure to include your social media information, website,  and a brief biography with your submission. Rolling deadline.

Seeking fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for publication. Cash awards. Rolling deadline.

The North Carolina Literary Review is accepting interviews with and critical analyses of work by North Carolina writers who teach, teachers who write. The literary/interview subject must a North Carolina writer, but the author/interviewer does not have to be.

The Centifictionist is an online literary magazine that publishes powerful, compelling, and memorable international microfiction in 100 words or less. The Centifictionist publishes two online issues per year, a Spring/Summer issue and a Fall/Winter issue. All issues of The Centifictionist will include thirty pieces of microfiction in each issue, with each individual piece being 100 words or less. Rolling deadline.

Seeking entries for the Emerging Playwright Award. Cash award. Rolling deadline.

Many artists in our community have asked how they can support our essential personnel during the COVID-19 crisis. Would you like to share your appreciation to the Duke Health staff through the arts, with your original artwork & message? If so, we would love to see them and share directly with those who have worked tirelessly to help our community during this unprecedented time. Your contributions are intended to provide encouragement, appreciation and emotional support for our healthcare staff.  Submissions will be shared with Duke Health employees and some may be printed for staff spaces.  Content may be shared on Arts & Health's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram account sites.

The Journal of Black Mountain College Studies is a peer-reviewed open-access digital publication. We invite submissions of scholarly articles, essays, reviews, poetry, and creative work in any discipline. We are especially interested in receiving work about aspects of Black Mountain College that are under-explored or deserve another look. Submissions of contemporary creative work should include a clear description of how the work connects to Black Mountain College’s legacy.

Palaver is UNCW’s online interdisciplinary journal housed in the Graduate Liberal Studies program. Palaver seeks creative and academic submissions that defy the confines of a single discipline. Palaver also accept art submissions in any medium, including video, still image, and multimedia.

The Rooted in Rights Blog is a platform dedicated to amplifying the authentic perspectives of disabled writers. They invite you to pitch articles and op-eds on disability rights topics. Rolling deadline.

Awesome Disability is a chapter of the Awesome Foundation, a global micro-granting community. How it works - Every month, people with awesome ideas submit a grant application. The winner is given $1000, no strings attached. Submit your application by July 15 to be considered for November's grant. Ongoing, rolling deadline.

Raleigh Little Theatre is holding auditions for its upcoming production of The Velocity of Autumn by Eric Coble on July 26 and 27. This show will be directed by Patrick Torres and presented in the Cantey V. Sutton Theatre.

This program is a weekly online performance featuring Durham musicians. Tune in to the @downtownDurham Facebook page at 1 p.m. on Tuesdays to experience some of what you love about Durham and connect, virtually, to the downtown Durham community. 

Raleigh Boychoir is accepting online and in-person placements for the new 2021 – 22 Season for appointments in July and August.

The McColl Center for Art & Innovation presents AIM: Artists in the Marketplace, a four-week marketing class specifically designed for artists, administrators, and small arts businesses. Participants will learn how to create a robust marketing strategy while honoring their creative voice and talent.  

Resource: Founded in 1980, Art Table is a national non-profit organization of over 1,200 women who are leaders in the visual arts. Members expand their circle of colleagues, gain special access to art world events, and grow through professional development and mentorship opportunities. Awards recognize innovative women leaders across the country and identify emerging leaders in the field.

Artist Relief has produced a series of free wellness videos to help artists’ physical, mental, and emotional well-being. These sessions led by artists include discussions of movement, meditation, herbalism, sound therapy and music, poetry and writing prompts, and more.

Offering one-on-one Artist Business Brainstorm Sessions for artist entrepreneurs. 

Offering professional development courses through their podcasts, Thriving Artist.

Need help finding a center of calm in this crazy year? Triangle ArtWorks will be launching Creative Centering on February 4, 2021 - a new bi-monthly online (for now) meditation collective open to anyone working in the arts in the Triangle.

Arts Access and VAE invites artists to join Disabled Artists/Artists with Disabilities Group every Thursday at 7pm. Open to all disabilities and artforms, this group will share resources and provide mutual support, constructive criticism, and informal instruction.

Full Frame's annual Teach the Teachers program immerses a small group of Triangle educators into the festival experience, where we give them the tools and the confidence to successfully integrate documentary film into their classrooms.
  
Open to high school and middle school teachers, this important media literacy initiative will be accepting applications for the 2020 program soon. 
 

NC Stage Company invites applications for "Intergenerational Theatre Workshop," a free program that brings together teens and young adults (ages 17-23) and elders (ages 60+) to share their stories and create an original performance piece inspired by each other’s lived experiences.

Resource: Locust Projects is a not for profit exhibition space dedicated to providing contemporary visual artists the freedom to experiment with new ideas without the pressures of gallery sales or limitations of conventional exhibition spaces. Local, national and international artists are encouraged to create site-specific installations as an extension of their representative work. Locust Projects supports the local community through educational initiatives and programming that are free to the public.

Offering business and marketing courses with some specifically for artists.

Resource: Patreon is a membership platform that provides business tools for creators to run a subscription content service, as well as ways for artists to build relationships and provide exclusive experiences to their subscribers, or patrons. Popular among YouTube videographers, web comic artists, writers, podcasters, musicians, and other categories of creators who post regularly online, it allows artists to receive funding directly from their fans, or patrons, on a recurring basis or per work of art.

Resource: The School of Making Thinking is an artist-thinker residency program, experimental college, and nomadic investigation into collaborative practice. Its mission is to create a unique environment where participants are able to create original work that challenges disciplinary conventions of art-making and thinking.

Resource: The Sustainable Arts Foundation is a non-profit foundation supporting artists and writers with families whose mission is to provide financial awards to parents pursuing creative work.

Join Triangle ArtWorks for the class "The Business of Art Licensing: Create - Licen$e - Repeat," which will help artists begin to see consumer products in a whole new way.  This class will learn about the art licensing industry and the layers of consultants, art directors and product developers who collaborate with artists to put their artwork on consumer products and  how you can get your artwork in front of buyers. 

Accepting applications for The Awesome Foundation Grants. The Raleigh-Durham chapter of the Awesome Foundation is a program of VAE Raleigh, with grants being funded with our amazing group of Trustees. Our chapter wants to fund creative ideas that are specific, public, and spark thought in a meaningful way for the Triangle community.

Resource: Women in Photography (WIP)is an innovative website that showcases the work of women artists. It focuses on exhibiting work outside of the traditional model of the commercial art world, allowing it to reach a global audience and to provide opportunities at no cost. In 2009 WIP launched the Grant & Mentor Program which awards funds and materials to support women artists.

The Pitt County Arts Council, in collaboration with the Civic Arts Committee and the City of Greenville, NC, invites visual/graphic artists located nationwide to create an original design for the Five Points Archway Public Art Project that emphasizes community, innovation, and/or culture.

The Stochastic Labs offers fully-sponsored residencies to engineers, artists, scientists, and entrepreneurs from around the world. Residencies include a private apartment at the mansion, co-working and/or dedicated work space, shop access, a $1k monthly stipend and a budget for materials. Rolling deadline.

Vermont Studio Center’s Displaced Artists Fund exists to assist visual artists and writers displaced due to natural disasters, climate change, or political turmoil or threat by providing residencies in a safe and supportive community of creative peers. Rolling deadline.

Offering various residencies and internships in printmaking, book arts, ceramics, and photography.

Sunset Vision invites artists to apply to their 2021 Art Show and Sale

Center for Visual Artists (CVA) invites US based artists to submit work to be considered for the A. Doren Photo Biennial. This show will be strictly Lens Based Media, or photographic process. We welcome all types of photography, but hope to see just as much alternative and experimental processes as traditional. Photography work should all be monochromatic, video work is encouraged to explore ideas through monochromatic imagery, but not required. All works must have been completed from January 2019 to present.

ReimagineIt Grants are unconditional, non-matching awards made directly to individual artists to help launch or support careers in the inspiring world of repurposed art. Cash awards. Rolling deadline.

Art@Work is a newer DAG program designed to connect local artists to local businesses. The primary goal being to sell (or lease) local art to local businesses to be displayed in their corporate offices and private or public buildings. Membership fee and non-cash awards. 

The Art Committee reviews applications in early January, April, July and October of each year. You will receive notification on the status of your application by the 15th of the month following the review. The artist is responsible for the exhibit installation and de-installation. Rolling deadline.

Central Piedmont Community College seeks artist submission for exhibit proposals for 2022-24 in the Bill and Patty Gorelick Galleries.

Are you interested in displaying your work at the GPAC? We are always interested in seeing new works and helping artist gain the exposure they deserve! Complete our free online application to get started. Rolling deadline.

The Hillsborough Arts Council Gallery’s mission is to empower local artists to forge productive cultural and socio-economic ties with their community through professional exhibit opportunities in HAC Gallery. We are a gallery founded on the principle that art is a vehicle for intellectual, cultural, and socio-economic growth and that it is the community’s responsibility to collectively support the arts. We provide a free space with no commercial pressure so that you can make your best work and actively engage with this community in the way you choose. Rolling deadline.

Individuals or collaborating pairs of artists/makers/creators working in 2-D mediums, performance and words, who live and work outside of the Twin Cities area of Minnesota are welcome to apply for a no-cost, 10-day residency. Individual artists or pairs of collaborating artists will be chosen. 

The Overcash Gallery at Central Piedmont Community College invites exhibition proposals for 2022.

Waterworks presents three rotating exhibitions in its galleries every year, and welcomes professional artists to submit their work for consideration. Submission deadlines are January 30 and September 30 of each year.