The City of Charlotte’s Arts and Culture Advisory Board awarded $2.01 million on June 21 to the Arts & Science Council (ASC) for fiscal year 2023. With this award, the board is working to fulfill a commitment by the city and its partners to the whole of the local arts community — individual artists, and arts groups big and small — to meet needs by funding new and existing opportunities.
The $2.01 million includes $950,000 to support ASC operations and nearly $1.06 million for the ASC to give grants to arts and culture organizations and individual artists. The decision funds the ASC at the full amount the ASC requested from the Infusion Fund for FY 2023.
The Infusion Fund is a partnership of the city, Foundation For The Carolinas, and private donors to support Charlotte-area arts and culture with roughly $12 million annually for three years. The Arts and Culture Advisory Board is in the process of allocating the Infusion Fund’s second year of funding.
“The Infusion Fund’s purpose is to support people and groups at every level of the arts and culture sector in a new way — to create more opportunities for them to access the funding and support they need,” said Priya Sircar, the city’s arts and culture officer. “With this decision, the advisory board is ensuring the ASC’s established programs endure alongside new resources only possible because of the Infusion Fund.”
The board has already approved the bulk of the $12 million available in FY 2023. On June 14, members voted unanimously to award a total of $8.9 million to 38 arts and culture organizations in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. The vote ensured these organizations — some of the area’s best-known attractions, as well as small and mid-sized organizations offering a wide range of arts and cultural experiences — can maintain their current operations while the advisory board develops a long-term plan for the future of the cultural community. The $8.9 million approved on June 14 included more than $300,000 in funds that the ASC has a contract with the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art to provide the museum.
Additional FY 2023 funding under consideration includes about $900,000 that board members could use to fund creative projects and opportunities as they arise, or to incentivize collaboration among arts groups of all sizes. This program, unique to the Infusion Fund, would include approximately $200,000 rolled over from the previous fiscal year.
Among the organizations that will benefit are:
A Sign of the Times of the Carolinas
$20,000
Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte
$61,750
Arts+
$266,202
The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
$443,339
Blumenthal Performing Arts
$295,780
BNS Productions
$20,762
Carolina Raptor Center
$100,363
Carolina Voices
$51,762
Carolinas Aviation Museum
$119,160
Charlotte Art League
$30,000
Charlotte Ballet
$801,473
Charlotte Center for Literary Arts
$27,452
The Charlotte Folk Society
$16,268
The Charlotte Symphony
$1,049,055
Children’s Theatre of Charlotte
$501,420
Clayworks
$60,000
Davidson Community Players
$55,000
Discovery Place
$1,033,714
The Gay Men’s Chorus of Charlotte
$32,500
Goodyear Arts
$45,088
The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture
$703,628
Historic Rosedale Foundation
$17,250
JazzArts Charlotte
$117,786
Levine Museum of the New South
$525,333
Martha Connerton/Kinetic Works
$12,133
Matthews Playhouse of the Performing Arts
$100,000
McColl Center
$388,125
Mint Hill Arts
$14,789
The Mint Museum
$1,026,777
One Voice Chorus
$55,000
Opera Carolina
$464,000
BOOM Charlotte
$50,000
The Carolinas Latin Dance Company
$7,500
The Light Factory
$50,000
Theatre Charlotte
$150,000
Three Bone Theatre
$30,000
Tosco Music
$40,277
Wing Haven
$89,063