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New Bedford Creative will award microgrants of $500 to $2,500 to individual artists for the first time this year. The deadline to apply is this Tuesday, Oct. 20.
It’s part of the New Bedford Economic Development Council’s Wicked Cool Places and Art is Everywhere Grants.
At least 10 awards of $500 and $2,500 will be allocated, said Margo Saulnier, director of creative strategies at the Economic Development Council. Larger grants of $3,000 to $10,000 will still be awarded through a separate application process.
The application is shorter for the microgrant. Applicants are not required to provide a full budget or community benefit portion, and it is available in English and in Spanish.
“Our hope is that people who have never applied for a grant might take a look and try it out for the first time,” Saulnier said. ”Those that have applied to our grants but may not have been awarded in the past will have a likelier chance to do so with this microgrant.”
New Bedford Creative, a branch of the Economic Development Council, has operated the Wicked Cool Places and Art is Everywhere grant programs, since 2018 and 2020, respectively. This year’s projects included the New Bedford Film Festival, community yoga and wellness classes provided by Yoga Es Vida, and a dugout canoe building project at the Community Boating Center.
This year, the organization also launched Wicked Cool Storefronts, a seasonal grant for local businesses’ holiday-related creative projects. These funds are being awarded on a first-come, first-served rolling basis.
For the 2026 cycle, New Bedford Creative distributed $130,000 among 23 projects, which included nine individual artist projects. The awarded amounts ranged between $3,000 and $10,000. Saulnier said this year’s monetary pool won’t decrease from last year’s, but it might increase.
Since the programs began, 285 grants have been awarded, totaling more than $1.67 million, according to Saulnier.
The first step forward but not enough
Several local artists said the microgrant initiative is a step in the right direction, but isn’t enough money to properly fund most individual artists or projects.
Artists typically compete for grant funding with community groups, nonprofits and small businesses. Artists and nonprofit employees said the larger establishments tend to have the upper hand in this process, since they often have more staff, larger budgets and more grant-writing experience.
“If you’re an individual artist, people might not know who you are yet,” said Mandy Fraser, the producer and lead organizer for YMCA Southcoast’s AHA! Pride Block Party. “You get a little more cred[it] if you’re an organization.”
If an artist is able to string a few smaller grants from different sources together, that could make a difference for them, said Roger Andrews, founder of SketchyGOichie, a digital art and illustration program that received an Art is Everywhere grant for 2026.
“If you were able to have a collection of $2,500 grants, then it starts to become real,” Andrews said. “Still, whether it be $500, $2,500, $1,000 [or] $1,500, it’s still better than zero.”
Fitzcarmel LaMarre, a former member of the New Bedford Cultural Council — a group that scores grants funded by the Mass Cultural Council, which is separate from the New Bedford Creative — said applying for multiple grants is a good strategy, because most grant programs don’t want to be a project’s sole funder. Many organizations and artists that apply for New Bedford Creative grants also seek funding through organizations like Mass Cultural Council and MASSCreative.
S. Matt “Smatt” Read — co-founder and director of the SouthCoast Arts & Comics Maker Space, which received a 2026 Art is Everywhere Grant — said that for the average artist, researching opportunities and writing a grant application is overtime work — and there’s always the possibility the application gets denied.
“You’re spending your time on a maybe,” Read said.
Many artists and nonprofit representatives who have received the Creative’s grant funding in the past said if they were to lose that money, their programs wouldn’t happen or would come at a cost. However, many support the microgrant money being set aside for individual artists.
“I’d rather more people have the opportunity than just a few people or institutions,” said Lauren Pothier, the community engagement coordinator at the Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum, which received a 2026 Wicked Cool Places Grant.
Local artists suggested different solutions for balancing the needs of organizations with independent artists.
LaMarre said money should be allocated for organizations that consistently receive specific grants each year, to limit competition with new artists and groups. Rhonda M. Fazio, a local artist who describes herself as an “environmental alchemist,” said funds should be distributed more evenly between the two groups.
“We don’t need that much,” Fazio said, speaking as an independent artist. “We need enough that’s going to help pay our rent, maintain materials and pay us a little something so we can pay the other rent, [like] apartment [and] studio.”
Events that have received New Bedford Creative grants, like Reggae on West Beach, the AHA! Pride Block Party and Shakespeare in New Bedford: Hamlet, provide work for multiple artists. The Community Boating Center used its grant money to hire two local artists for its project.
“Hopefully, nonprofits and artists can work together,” said Caroline Conzatti, the Boating Center’s chief operating officer, “so that even if the nonprofit is getting the funding, the money is still getting funneled to a local artist.”
Crystal Yormick is a recent graduate of Boston University and a frequent contributor to The New Bedford Light. Email her atcyormick@newbedfordlight.org.
