We are thrilled to announced that the Bartol Foundation has distributed $155,000 in grants of $6,000-7,500 each to 24 Philadelphia arts and cultural organizations. This represents an increase of 25% over 2020 in the dollars distributed. The Foundation supports organizations in a range of artistic disciplines with an emphasis on arts education and community-based arts programs. A complete list with information on each grantee is available here.
The 2021 roster of grantees reflects the Bartol Foundation’s commitment to supporting cultural organizations that provide exceptional, sustained arts experiences to children, teens and adults throughout Philadelphia’s neighborhoods. The Bartol Foundation prioritizes community-based organizations which authentically connect to and represent the people they serve, in which demographics of the staff, board and teaching artists align with the community served.
These awards include 8 first-time grantees representing a third of all grants. Four organizations operate through fiscal sponsors, enabling organizations which do not hold non-profit status to receive support. Of the 24 grants, 21 organizations requested and received general operating support.
“The Bartol Foundation continues to prioritize ways to support organizations which are embedded in their communities and to work to remove barriers to receiving grants,” said Beth Feldman Brandt, Executive Director of the Bartol Foundation. “A third of our new grantees have budgets under $100,000 and the smallest has a budget under $20,000. Providing general operating support is the lifeline of essential day-to-day dollars to keep these small organizations going.”
“Adding new grantees recognizes that even while philanthropy is targeting support during COVID to organizations with which they have an institutional relationship, it’s important to also open the doors to others who do not yet have access to these relationships,” added Sannii Crespina-flores, Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees and Founder of the Un-Inhibited Muse Film Festival, the global youth initiative Do Remember Me and the art collaborative Yram Collective. “Providing arts education programs give creative voice to communities which have been marginalized or silenced. These voices are even more important as we process our experiences in the past year of the pandemic and continued racial injustices.”
The $5,000 George Bartol Arts Education Award, given annually to an organization that exemplifies the Foundation’s priorities, will be announced later this summer.
Updated guidelines and applications for the next round of grants will be available in the winter of 2022 on our website here with an application deadline of May 2, 2022.