Right now it seems like every time I come up for air more weeks have passed, and here we are at the end of April. How?! Time has gotten away for me as I have been writing emergency grant after emergency grant for clients. However, I realized something the other day. Most of the COVID-19 response grants are for nonprofits in health and human services fields.
Of course that makes perfect sense. Those organizations are on the frontlines serving people during a pandemic. But I was wondering about the other nonprofits who also provide vital services to the community through the arts, humanities and culture that are also impacted by COVID-19 who aren't getting support. Those organizations employ thousands of people who provide for their families, and those organizations provide a myriad of services that can (and does) include health and human services.
I will say, having employed a full-time artist on our staff has aided in growing my deep understanding of how arts organizations impact our community. But the realization I had is still astounding.
I'm excited to amplify that The Oklahoma Arts Council and Oklahoma Humanities will invest more than $800,000 to preserve jobs and stabilize organizations in the nonprofit arts, humanities and cultural sectors in Oklahoma in response to COVID-19! Those applications are available now! Check out the Oklahoma Humanities website and the Oklahoma Arts Council website.
The funding is being made available through the federal CARES Act to the two organizations as state partners of the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities.
The impact this pandemic has on all nonprofits is much, much larger than many of us can comprehend. I am so happy to see that arts, humanities and cultural nonprofits are also getting support.