Queens Arts Fund: Arts Access Grant

• Artists’ Fees and compensation
  • Please note: QAF encourages all of its applicants to include artist fees for themselves and their collaborators within their submitted project budget!
• Technical Assistance fees (i.e. videographer, audio editor, translators and interpreters, etc.)
• Planning and preparation expenses for a proposed event
• Supplies and materials needed to execute the proposed project (individual items may not exceed $1,000)
• This can include but is not limited to: art supplies, sheet music, hardware, and memory cards
• Equipment, software, subscriptions, and training related to the creation and promotion of virtual programming (individual items may not exceed $1,000)
• This can include: cameras, lighting equipment, subscriptions associated with virtual programming, and training to utilize these tools
• Venue rental for the project (general home/studio rent is not eligible)
• In-state travel expenses
• Marketing and publicity costs

• Public programs that exclude the general public, including members-only access workshops or programs
• Recreational, religious, or therapeutic art programs or commercial art or entertainment– this includes clowning, magic, culinary arts, and cosmetology
• Fellowships, scholarships, residency fees
• Start-up costs for new collectives/organizations
• In-school arts education activities and programs exclusively serving a school’s student body (after school activities that are open to the general public are eligible)
• Direct living or general operating expenses (residential or studio rent)
• Equipment costs or capital goods whose total exceeds $1,000
• Acquisitions
• Entertainment costs including openings, receptions, catering (food and drink), fundraising
• Out-of-state travel expenses
• Programs in which children (under 18) are paid

Priority will be given to collectives and nonprofit arts organizations whose primary mission is to provide arts and cultural programs at the community level in Queens as well as (in no particular order):

• Artist-driven projects that are collaborative between artists and/or organizations
• Cultural activities that provide cultural access for under-resourced communities
• Cultural traditions and/or contemporary creative expression of cultural ethnicity
• Projects that demonstrate uniqueness/non-duplication of comparable existing programs in the same geographical area
• Geographic diversity and distribution across neighborhoods throughout Queens

November 19, 2024: Deadline to submit an application for the 2025 grant cycle.

November-December: NYFA staff will review all applications for eligibility and completeness following the application deadline. Ineligible or incomplete applications will be eliminated from consideration and will not be reviewed by panelists.

December – February: Panelists will carefully review and pre-score assigned applications based on their artistic discipline. Panelists will then participate in virtual panel review sessions to discuss each application they have reviewed as a group, assembled by artistic discipline. This peer review process determines the distribution of grant funds to QAF applicants.

Please note: Only the information and materials contained within the application will be considered during review. Any additional information presented after the application deadline will not be accepted or considered.

March: All applicants will receive a notification regardless of the outcome.

April – May: Recipient contracting, payments, and public announcement. An exact payment and announcement timeline will be provided after recipient notification.

January 1 – December 31, 2025: 2025 recipient projects can take place at any point within the 2025 calendar year.

If awarded, grant recipients are required to submit an Event Confirmation Form at least four weeks before the public component is scheduled to take place and submit a Final Report within one month of completing all project activities.

Denied applicants will have 10 days from the date of notification to make an administrative appeal of the funding decision.

The three grounds for appeal are:

• Non-presentation of information
• Misrepresentation of information
• Improper procedure: Contention by the applicant that: 1) the review of the funding request by the appropriate panel was biased; 2) the decision by the selection panel was arbitrary and capricious.

To begin the appeals process, the applicant must first speak with NYFA staff to receive application feedback and panel notes. Once the applicant has received application feedback and grounds for appeal are valid, a formal letter to the Executive Director of NYFA must be submitted. The formal letter must specifically cite the ground(s) for the appeal, and must request that the decision be appealed.

NOTE: Dissatisfaction with a denial of an award or with the grant amount is not eligible grounds for appeal.

The below recorded information session was held on September 25, 2024 and has subtitles available in Spanish and Chinese.

The NYFA Grants team offers 25-minute appointments to provide feedback on your draft application and answer any questions you may have. A draft of your application must be started prior to your review appointment in order for us to provide the most helpful feedback.

Sessions are available from October 21, 2024 through-November 8, 2024 on a first come, first served basis and are held virtually over Zoom.

All appointments are currently full.

If you have questions about your application, please email [email protected].

The Queens Arts Fund is open to artists creating work in all disciplines. Within the application, you will be asked to select one of the following disciplines that best reflects your creative practice today:

• Craft/Textiles (including: Ceramics, Glass, Wood, Metal, Fiber, and Mixed Media)
• Choreography/Dance (all forms)
• Community Arts
• Design/Architecture (Environmental and Functional Design)
• Digital/Electronic Arts (works where technology is an essential element of the work’s creation)
• Folk/Traditional Arts (works of traditional Folk Art and creative and cultural expressions)
• Interdisciplinary Work (integrate knowledge and methods from different disciplines within a single piece or body of work)
• Literary Arts (including Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Playwriting, and Screenwriting)
• Music/Sound (Composers working in any and all styles of music)
• Theater/Performance (including Directing, Live Action, and Puppetry)
• Video/Film (all forms)
• Visual Arts (including: Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Drawing, and Sculpture)

PLEASE NOTE: The artistic discipline you select will help determine which panel reviews your proposal.

Yes. All past recipients of other NYFA grants are eligible to apply. However, the previously funded project must be completed and all NYFA reports must have been successfully completed.

Applicants who received an Arts Access Grant consecutively for the past three years (2022, 2023, 2024) are not eligible for the 2025 Arts Access Grant.

No. Regardless of your field of study, lead applicants cannot be full or part-time students, either currently enrolled at the time of application or who will be enrolled in 2025. This includes degree programs and certificate programs.

No. You do not need to be U.S. Citizens to apply. You must be able to provide a W-9 with a Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) or EIN (after selection).

No. You do not need to have a Fiscal Sponsor for their project. If your project already has a Fiscal Sponsor and you wish to include this organization in the funding process, you can.

No. You can only apply one time with one project per year. Collectives must choose between applying for the New Work Grant or the Arts Access Grant. Any duplicate applications will be removed from review.

Proposed projects must include a public component that takes place in Queens within the 2025 calendar year (January – December 2025) and provides Queens community members with the opportunity to experience dynamic, easily accessible arts and cultural events. Public Components can include, but are not limited to: exhibitions, performances, festivals, screenings, readings, and workshops. Projects may be in any artistic discipline.

The public component of your project can take place in-person, virtually, or both. All public components taking place virtually must include some type of live component (i.e. an artist talk, Q&A, listening, or viewing event), and mainly target Queens-based audiences. If planned in-person, public components must take place in Queens.

Yes, but priority is given to projects with public components that are free or have a sliding scale fee to participate.

You can submit up to 5 work samples. Work samples can be: images, a manuscript (5 pages max), audio recording (5 min max), or short video clips (5 min max). If you are unable to edit your audio/video files down to 5 minutes, you will need to provide timestamps for the 5 minute segment that the panel will review. Once you have selected and uploaded your file, an additional metadata field will appear in the application form. Please include any timestamps here.

If providing video work samples, you have the option to submit up to two links to Youtube or Vimeo in addition to uploading files. Be sure to include passwords in work sample descriptions if applicable. Promotional videos, reels, or links to interactive websites are not eligible work samples.

Work samples should be representative of your proposed grant project. This can include a combination of in-progress work samples that show the status of your proposed project, as well as completed work samples that demonstrate previous work.

Including recent work samples produced in the past three years is highly recommended. If you are providing older work samples, consider providing an explanation as to why you chose to provide an older work sample, and how they relate to your proposed grant project.

Do not submit edited promotional or interview materials. Do not include recordings with voice over narration or multiple artistic works compiled into a single recording or image. Each upload or video link should represent one single work sample, whether it is completed or in-progress.

The application form accepts the following file types: .doc, .docx, .pdf, .jpg, .png, .mp3, .mp4

The 2025 Project Budget Template can be found within the 2025 application under the “Project Budget” section. You will have the option to download a version for Excel or Google Sheets, and then re-upload a filled-out budget back into your application. If you are having trouble with the template, please email [email protected] for assistance.

The Project Budget Template has three main sections:

1. Project Income: Funds that you have received or plan to receive for your project. This could include earned income such as sales of work, tickets, recordings, or other goods or services related to your project, or contributed income such as donations, grants, or other fundraising sources.
2. Project Expenses: Funds that are needed to make your project happen, such as payment to artists or employees, production materials, space rentals, promotion and marketing, transportation, permits, etc. Contingency costs should be estimated and included in your expense budget, which can cover unexpected costs or repairs.
3. In-Kind Contributions: The value of donated goods or services, as opposed to cash.

NYFA cannot be the sole funder for proposed projects, so your Project Income section cannot be blank. Please make sure to show that you can cover at least 10% of your project’s expenses with funds or support from other sources (For example, cash, in-kind, or other donations).

Be sure to read the Arts Access Guidelines to see what expenses can and cannot be covered by Queens Arts Fund Grants. If ineligible expenses are included in the list of individual budget items that you plan to use with the QAF, your application will be deemed ineligible and will not move forward to the panel review process.

Yes! QAF encourages all of its applicants to include artist fees for themselves and their collaborators within their submitted project budget. Every artist should be paid for their work on a project, however big or small the contribution. There is no limit to how much of the QAF project budget can be allocated to artist fees.

No, applicants are required to submit a detailed project budget using NYFA’s template. This allows for ease of review for jurors and NYFA staff. Download the 2025 Project Budget Template under the “Project Budget” section of the application.

Applications are first reviewed for eligibility, and then all eligible applications are reviewed by panelists based on artistic discipline. Each panelist will then participate in a virtual panel review with 2-4 other panelists to select recipients and recommend funding. A single panelist cannot ensure an applicant’s success or failure.

NYFA is accepting nominations for the Queens Arts Fund panel. Panelists are an integral part of the Queens Arts Fund grant-making process. Panelists are artists, cultural workers, educators, and community leaders who are based in and/or familiar with Queens and care about the people who live there.

NYFA makes every effort to assemble diverse panels, considering gender, ethnicity, cultural background, and geographic location. Panelists’ names are kept confidential until the awards are announced.

Yes! Please submit your panel nomination(s) here by Tuesday, November 12, 11:59 PM EST. Early submissions are encouraged. If all spots are not filled by the deadline, nominations will remain open. NYFA staff will reach out to submitted nominees on a rolling basis, no later than December 2024 if they are selected for a panel.

All applicants will receive notification on the outcome of their application by the end of March 2025. Please do not email us regarding the status of your application.

Arts Access Grants award $1,000 to $5,000 per project.

Please review the Arts Access Guidelines for a full list of eligible and ineligible grant expenses.

Please note: If ineligible expenses are included in the list of individual budget items that you plan to use with the Queens Arts Fund, your application will be deemed ineligible and will not move forward to the panel review process.

Yes. If awarded, grant recipients are required to do the following during the grant period:

• Sign and return Grant Agreement to NYFA.
• Submit a Project Change Request Form to NYFA to request any significant changes to the awarded project proposal (if applicable).
• Include funding credit on all marketing and event materials.
• Submit an Event Confirmation Form at least four weeks before the public component is scheduled to take place.
• Submit a Final Report within one month of completing all project activities.

All applications must be submitted through the Submittable platform. All open applications can be found on Submittable.

If you haven’t already, you will need to create a free Submittable account to be able to access the application. Visit Submittable to start a free account.

Step-by-step guidance for using the Submittable platform and setting up a free account is available here.

Yes. To save your application as a draft, scroll to the bottom of your working application and select “Save Draft.” Sign in to your submittable account to view your draft applications. You can also sign in via the direct link to saved drafts here.

No. All applications must be submitted online through Submittable to be considered for review.

For assistance in applying, please reach out through our Contact Page. We ask that requests for assistance be made as soon as possible, and at least two weeks prior to the deadline to allow adequate time for staff to support you in submitting an application on time.

Instructions for scanning documents on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch are available here.

Instructions for scanning documents on an Android device using Google Drive are available here.

This free online tool can help you convert to a wide variety of file types. Accepted file types are listed directly on the application.

You have the option of including notes and comments about your work samples in the metadata field. Once you have selected and uploaded your file on Submittable, an additional metadata field will appear in the application form. Please include additional information about the work samples there.

We highly suggest using a laptop or desktop computer to complete your application on the platform, rather than a mobile device or tablet. Free access to these types of computers are available at most public library branches throughout New York City. For a smoother performance, we recommend using either Firefox or Chrome as your browser. If you’re already using Chrome, please clear the browser cache and cookies. Additionally, please make sure you are using the most up to date version of your browser.

If you are still running into technical issues, you can reach out to Submittable’s Support team directly via the contact form, Submitter Support, or via the support email address [email protected] so that they can troubleshoot directly.

NYFA staff do not have access to your Submittable account.

To preview your submitted application, please sign in to your Submittable account. If you continue having issues viewing your submission, please reach out to [email protected] for further assistance.

Note: Submitted applications should only be previewed using the link above. You may not be able to preview your submitted application by signing in through the same portal link you used to apply.

No. All applications must be submitted by the deadline. Please note that the application form will automatically close and stop accepting applications at the deadline time of 5:00 PM ET, regardless of whether you still have a draft application open on your browser. We strongly encourage you to submit your application at least 24-48 hours before the deadline date to allow time to address any technical issues. NYFA cannot extend the deadline regardless of the cause of the problem you may have encountered.

By completing this information you are helping NYFA secure future funding, collect general information about our audience, and properly assess our effectiveness in serving the creative community. Your responses will remain anonymous and any personally identifying data will be removed prior to sharing the demographic data with third parties.

NYFA is committed to supporting individuals from all backgrounds and disciplines and will continue to work towards values of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility across all programs.