Salina Art Center is pleased to announce funding from the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund (USRARF). The funding went out within a six-state region including Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. The USRARF was funded through a $10 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and amplified in the Mid-America region through additional funding from The Windgate Foundation in Little Rock, Arkansas for visual arts organizations. The grant amounts ranged between $30,000 and $100,000, a significant investment supporting the resilience of small to mid-sized arts organizations that are led by or supporting communities of color, rural communities, and historically underresourced populations, in response to the impact of COVID-19. The Salina Art Center received an award of $40,000.

“We are honored to provide this critical support to these extraordinary arts organizations within the Mid-America region,” said Mid-America Arts Alliance President and CEO Todd Stein. “In focusing on organizations led by or supporting communities of color and rural communities, we reinforce the importance of these organizations and their vital role within our arts ecosystems. The arts have the power to unite, uplift, and propel our region forward, and it is a crucial need to fund these organizations that are often overlooked and historically underresourced.”

The United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund provides non-matching grants to arts and cultural organizations across the US that face economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund targets rural and urban organizations that have statewide, regional, or national impact. These grants support small and mid-sized arts organizations of all artistic disciplines, especially those that are historically underresourced, and those representing underresourced populations, communities, and art forms. The grants support expenses associated with general operations, immediate response activities, future scenario planning, support for new media needs, help with the costs of collaborations, and costs associated with helping organizations reimagine their work and increase their resilience.

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Founded in 1978, the Salina Art Center is a 501(c)3 creating exchanges among art, artists, and audiences that reveal life. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Art Center’s galleries, Art Center Cinema, and Warehouse are located in the heart of downtown Salina, KS, Learn more online at www.salinaartcenter.org. Salina Art Center exhibitions and programs are supported in part by donors, members, underwriters, foundations, the City of Salina, and the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the Mid-America Arts Alliance, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.