The Cedar and American Composers Forum Present
MINNESOTA MUSIC GRANTS MIXER
Monday May 11th, 2020, 6-8pm
All Ages
Free (RSVP Encouraged)
This is both a standing and seated event. The Cedar is happy to reserve seats for patrons who require special seating accommodations. To request seating or other access accommodations, please go to our Access page.
Tickets are free and can be reserved online, or feel free to show up on the night of the event without a reservation.
About the Minnesota Music Grants Mixer
Are you a creative musician, sound artist, and/or composer looking to learn more about how grants can support your art, and trying to figure out how to get support on writing grants?
Join The Cedar, American Composers Forum, Minnesota Music Coalition, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, the Minnesota State Arts Board, Springboard for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, and past grantees at a free mixer introducing you to some of the grant support available to Minnesota musicians!
Talk directly to program officers about grant opportunities, meet artists who have gone through grant programs, meet with a Springboard Artist Career Consultant, and mingle with other musicians.
There will be free snacks provided and a cash bar.
At 7pm, enjoy a short performance from Ritika Ganguly (2016-17 Cedar Commissions Grantee, 2017-18 Jerome Naked Stages Fellow, 2018 MRAC Next Step Grant Awardee).
Representatives from the following organizations will be on site to give you more information about the following grant programs and grant resources:
The Cedar Cultural Center
The Cedar Commissions: This grant, intended for emerging Minnesota musicians and composers in all genres, gives six artists $4,500 to create 30 minutes of new music to be performed on The Cedar Cultural Center’s stage in February 2021. Applications open on May 1st, and close on June 1st 2020.
American Composers Forum
Minnesota Emerging Composer Awards: ACF seeks to expand our reach by identifying and supporting early career artists creating original music who typically operate outside our known circles. Artists must reside in Minnesota and are nominated by anyone in the community. Three artists are selected and awarded $3,000 to create a project that will advance their career to the next level. Nomination process will open in April 2020 and close August 2, 2020.
ACF | Create: Commissioning program supporting the creation, presentation, and subsequent life of a new work. Five commissions are available to early career composers and their ensemble partners. $8,000 or each of the selected artists for the creation of the new work and $3,000 for each of the artists for production and promotional support. Applications open May 2020, and close September 2020.
ACF | Connect: Provides opportunities for composers to build relationships with leading American ensembles to create new work, reach new audiences, and engage with new communities. Each year, ACF partners with a different ensemble partner. Through this program, composers are offered competitive commission fees, and have significant time to both work with performers and participate in learning/networking opportunities with industry professionals. The 2020/2021 ACF | connect program will be announced in late Spring / early Summer 2020 with an application deadline in late Summer / early Fall. For further information email Billy Lackey at wlackey@composersforum.org.
McKnight Composer Fellowships: This fellowship provides recognition and financial support for mid-career composers working in any musical genre living in Minnesota. The program is designed to award composers whose work is of exceptional artistic merit, who have created a substantial body of work over a period of time, and who are at a career stage that is beyond emerging. Four fellowships of $25,000 in unrestricted funds will be awarded. Application process will open in December 2020 and close in March 2021.
Minnesota Music Coalition
The Minnesota Music Coalition is a statewide network for independent musicians who care about creating and sustaining a vibrant popular music community. Through education, communication, and advocacy, we create access to resources and professional development services. The organization provides various performance opportunities for members including weekly opportunities at Republic at MSP International Airport.
Metropolitan Regional Arts Council
The Next Step Fund is an annual grant opportunity for individual artists in the 7-county metro area made possible by the McKnight Foundation. It is a career development grant for artists in any discipline and at any stage of their artistic career. Applicants are asked to define career goals and how a $5000 project can help them achieve the next step in their artistic career. Compelling projects often involve mentorship, learning, travel, and/or equipment purchases. The 2020 recipients will be named in late May 2020 and the next deadline will be in January 2021. This is a very competitive grant program with approximately 7% of applicants receiving the award.
Minnesota State Arts Board
The Artist Initiative grant program is designed to support and assist professional Minnesota artists at various stages in their careers by encouraging artistic development, nurturing artistic creativity, and recognizing the contributions of individual artists to the creative environment of the state of Minnesota. Grants of $2,000 - $10,000 will be awarded for projects that will enhance or expand the applicant's artistic skills or process, and advance the applicant's career by helping the artist generate greater visibility with and exposure to potential audiences. Applications for performing artists are due each April.
Jerome Foundation
The Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship Program will have closed for 2020 and will not open again until 2022. Jerome Hill Artist Fellowships support Minnesota or New York City-based artists, early in their careers, who generate and create bold, innovative and risk-taking new work that explores and/or challenges conventional artistic forms. In Music, this fellowship is open to composers, vocal composers, sound artists and creators of new original music.
Springboard For The Arts
Springboard Artist Career Consultants will be available to provide free 15-20 minute consultations for participants. Artists can use their “mini consultation” to gather business resources for artists, get quick feedback on a new career goal, or get tools to strategize their next steps after the Mixer ends.
ABOUT RITIKA GANGULY
Ritika Ganguly is a committed tea drinker in a coffee drinker's world. New Delhi-raised and Minneapolis-based, she is a vocalist, composer, anthropologist, performance artist, and a keen observer of how people make meaning through music. She has trained in multiple genres within Bengali music, and her vocal and compositional style allows her to inter-fuse storytelling from different musical genres. As a 2016-17 Cedar Commissions artist, Ritika composed, arranged and performed six poems written by six poets spanning 17th century Bengal, Victorian England, 20th century Chile, and contemporary New Delhi. Her musical work 'Osthir: states of effervescence' brought to Twin Cities stages Indian and Mexican musicians from Delhi, and connected with audiences at a gut level. She was a 2017-18 Jerome Naked Stages Fellow, and a 2018 MRAC Next Step Grant Awardee. Her art puts her immediate reality into conversation with 13th, 14th, and 15th century oral literatures, and she tries her best to keep her premiered musical and performance art pieces in Bangla, untranslated. Ritika is a research consultant and grant writer with organizations in the academic, for-profit, and non-profit worlds.