Who We Fund
We’ve awarded 2,143 grants to artists and arts organizations across the Capital Region.
Charter Grants
The Arts Council’s Charter Grant program is our signature granting program. These grants provide unrestricted operating support to ensure organizations have funds available to address their most critical needs. As grant makers continue to move toward programmatic funding, these grants are vital for organizations, allowing them to keep their lights on and continue to serve their community. Charter grants are funded by the Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign.
2020 Recipients
Amistad Center for Arts & Culture • Ballet Theatre Company • The Bushnell • Charter Oak Cultural Center • CONCORA • Cuatro Puntos • HartBeat Ensemble • Hartford Artisans Weaving Center • Hartford Chorale • Hartford Stage • Hartford Symphony Orchestra • Hill-Stead Museum • Judy Dworin Performance Project • Little Theater of Manchester • Mark Twain House & Museum • New Britain Museum of American Art • Queen Ann Nzinga Center • Real Art Ways • Spectrum in Motion Dance Theater Ensemble • TheaterWorks • Wadsworth Atheneum
Arts + Wellness Grants
The Arts & Wellness Grant Program supports arts-focused programs and projects that promote healing and wellness through the arts within the Greater Hartford Art’s Council’s 34-town service area. The Arts + Wellness grant in 2020 supported programming that addressed isolation and stresses on mental health, during the COVID-19 pandemic, on the population in the Greater Hartford region. This program is made possible by the Greater Hartford Arts Council's United Arts Campaign, with major support provided by UnitedHealthcare.
2020 Recipients
Hartford Performs • New Britain Museum of American Art • Night Fall • Southington Community Cultural Arts
Hartford Events Grants
The Greater Hartford Art’s Council’s Hartford Events Grant program, made possible by support from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, supports and promotes arts-focused events that take place within the city of Hartford and virtual events conducted by organizations located in the City of Hartford.
2021 Recipients
Asylum Hill Neighborhood Association • CICD Puerto Rican Day Parade • CONCORA • Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra • Hartford Opera Theater • International Hartford • Mark twain House & Museum • Out Film CT • Trinity College • Riverfront Recapture
Summer Events Grants
Summer Events Grants support community arts and cultural events happening in the City of Hartford that are free to the public. Projects funded through this program can include concerts, festivals, parades, and public celebrations with clear arts connections such as music, spoken word, dance or visual arts; and similar activities. The arts must be the central focus of the event and events must draw both a local and regional audience. Summer Events Grants are made possible by Summer in the City, a partnership program of the Arts Council and City of Hartford with support from Raytheon Technologies.
2021 Recipients
Ballet Hartford • Bushnell Park Carousel • Connecticut Landmarks • Connecticut Science Center • Friends of Keney Park • Greater Hartford Chamber of Commerce • Hartford Stage • Night Fall • RiseUP • Sonia Plumb Dance Company • Spectrum in Motion Dance Theater Ensemble
Arts Catalyst/Catalyst Amplified
The Greater Hartford Arts Council’s Catalyst Amplified program supports a cohort of organizations through building belonging, deepening values, asset/culture mapping, collaborative learning and generative action. The first cohort will meet from September 2021-September 2022 to begin a new era of sustainable sharing and organizational resiliency across the entire arts sector.
2021 Recipients
Amistad Center for Arts & Culture • Artists Collective • Cuatro Puntos • EcoSpace 224/Conference of Churches • Farmington Valley Chorale • First Night Hartford • Greater Hartford Arts Council • HartBeat Ensemble • Hartford Chorale • Hartford Performs • Judy Dworin Performance Project, Inc. • Layavinyasa • New England Ballet Theater Company • Night Fall Hartford • Nonprofit Accountability Group • Playhouse on Park • Queen Ann Nzinga Center • Sankofa Kuumba • Sea Tea Improv • Spectrum In Motion Dance Theater Ensemble, Inc. • Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
COVID-19 PPE Distribution
The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving funded a partnership between the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the City of Hartford to provide PPE to the arts and culture sector. The goal of this partnership is to help support the safe reopening of the sector for arts organization employees, artists and the public.
2021 Recipients
Ballet Theatre Company • Caribbean American Dance Company • Cuatro Puntos • Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society • Queen Ann Nzinga Center • RiseUP
2020 Recipients
The Amistad Center for Art & Culture • Artists Collective, Inc. • Candace Donaldson • Charter Oak Cultural Center • CONCORA • Connecticut Landmarks • Dance Kraze Dance Studio • David Elliott • Farmington Valley Arts Center • Hartford Artisans Weaving Center • The Hartford Dance Collective, Inc. Hartford Performs • Hartford Symphony Orchestra • Jacqueline Bright • Judy Dworin Performance Project, Inc. • Leslie Manselle • Little Theatre of Manchester • Lutz Children’s Museum • Music School at Sound Crossing • Newington Children’s Theater Company • Night Fall, Inc. • Partypat/Pksadboy • Playhouse Theatre Group, Inc. • Real Art Ways • Revisionist Films • Simsbury Performing Arts Center, Inc. • Sonia Plumb Dance Company • Spectrum in Motion Dance Theater Ensemble • Stanley-Whitman House • TaylorGrace Butler • TheaterWorks, Inc. • Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Small Organization Recovery Grants
Assists small nonprofit arts organizations with annual operating budgets of less than $300,000 during the Covid-19 crisis. The Arts Council recognizes the importance of helping sustain these organizations, which are critically important to our community and often serve some of the most vulnerable populations.
2020 Recipients
ActUP Theater • Arts Center East • Connecticut Chopin Foundation • CT Murals / The RiseUP Group • Cuatro Puntos • Farmington Valley Chorale • Hartford Artisans Weaving Center • Hartford Chorale • The Hartford Dance Collective • Hartford Men in Harmony • Hartford Opera Theater • Little Theatre of Manchester • Lutz Children’s Museum • Newington Children’s Theatre Company • Night Fall, Inc. • Sonia Plumb Dance Company • Spectrum in Motion Dance Theater Ensemble, Inc. • Windsor Art Center
Back in Business Grants
The Back in Business Grant program, made possible by support from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, supports the safe reopening of the arts sector for arts organization employees, artists, and the public. Back in Business Grant funding can be used on expenses related to reopening arts organizations, increasing audience capacity to pre-pandemic levels, and for individual artists to restart art workshops and other artistic engagements with the public.
2021 Recipients
ActUp Theater • Anne.Gogh • Artists Collective • Ballet Hartford • Connecticut Virtuosi Orchestra • David Waterman • Farmington Valley Chorale • HartBeat Ensemble • Jasmine Jones • Katherine Kennedy • Layavinyasa • Lindsey Sniffen • Newington Children’s Theater • Playhouse on Park • Sandro Ladu • Sarada Nori • Soyeon Kim • TheaterWorks