Applications for the 2025 Central Appalachian Living Traditions Black Appalachian Storyteller Fellows are now open!

Each year, the National Association of Black Storytellers (NABS) awards six fellowships in support of the Black Appalachian Storyteller Fellowship program - one each in Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Fellows will show a commitment and proven ability to sustain the traditions of Black Storytelling which embody the history, heritage, and culture of African Americans in Appalachia. The goals of the Fellowship are to preserve and advance understanding of these storytelling traditions and to build bridges through intergenerational opportunities.

Fellows each receive $5,000, a handmade physical award, travel to the NABS Festival and Conference, and a one-year NABS membership.

The NABS Black Appalachian Storytellers Fellowships are funded in part by Mid Atlantic Arts’ Central Appalachia Living Traditions (CALT) program and South Arts' In These Mountains, Central Appalachian Folk Arts and Culture initiative.

Central Appalachian Living Traditions Experiences Grantees Announced

We are so excited to celebrate and share the recipients of the 2025-2026 Central Appalachian Living Traditions (CALT) Folk and Traditional Arts Experiences grants! This program public-facing projects in Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC)-designated counties in Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia to support living traditions and cultural knowledge.

The 2025-2026 grantees' work sustain so many kinds of folklife throughout Central Appalachia: Storytelling concerts that engage deaf and hard of hearing people, foraging traditions, African American quilt making, and more.

This program is a part of our Central Appalachian Living Traditions initiative, which invests in communities, seeds new folk and traditional arts experiences, and honors underrecognized practitioners of Central Appalachian traditions.

View the full list of 2026 CALT Experiences grantees on our website.

Image: Colonial Garden Walk led by Todd McCree of Great Escape Farms. This lecture was held at Fort Edwards and discussed the importance of plants both edible and medicinal. Credit: Monica Wilson/The River House.

Delaware Division of the Arts Individual Artist Fellowships Application Deadline Approaching

Applications are open for the Delaware Division of the Arts’ FY2026 Individual Artist Fellowships! This grant program supports visual, performing, literary, media, jazz, and folk artists in the three award categories:

• $5,000 for Emerging Artists
• $8,000 for Established Artists
• $12,000 for Master Artists

Applications are due Friday, August 1, 2025 at 11:59 PM ET

For more details on the disciplines offered and for program guidelines, visit the link below.

Board News!

At its June 2025 annual board meeting, Mid Atlantic Arts welcomed a new board member and elected its 2025-2026 officers. We'd like to give a warm welcome to Geoffrey Kershner to our board!

Geoffrey Kershner (VA) has served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Academy Center of the Arts for a decade and was the founding Artistic Director of Endstation Theatre Company. A National Arts Strategies’ Chief Executive Fellow, he currently chairs Virginians for the Arts, advises the Radically Rural Conference’s arts track, and is the inaugural director of the low-residency MFA in Arts Administration at Randolph College. 

Additionally, the board elected its slate of officers for fiscal year 2026. The officers are:

• Donna Walker-Kuhne, Chair
• James Lemons, Vice Chair
• John McEwen, Secretary
• Nicholas Hawkins, Treasurer

We extend lots of gratitude to Carlos Ruiz, our departing board member. We thank you for your steadfast commitment to the arts in Puerto Rico and the rest of our Mid Atlantic Arts region!

Opportunity Quick Links

• The AXS Film Fund invites applications from creators of color in documentary filmmaking or nonfiction new media. This program is for creators of color in documentary filmmaking or nonfiction new media who identify as living with a disability. Grants of up to $10,000 will be awarded to up to five creators to assist them in finishing their projects in any stage of production. Deadline: Thursday, July 31, 2025. Learn more here.

• The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America invites applications from emerging artists to support installations, the composition, and distribution of carillon music. Grants will be awarded to promote the development of aspiring artists and provide them with educational opportunities and the equipment and tools necessary to establish themselves professionally. Deadline: Friday, August 1, 2025. Learn more here.

• The Terra Foundation for American Art invites applications for Collections Grants program. This program supports organizational efforts to re-interpret and re-present their permanent collections. Ideal projects will collectively reflect the full breadth and complexity of American art and its histories through the artists represented, voices included, and stories told; engage artists, scholars, and communities who present a plurality of perspectives and methods, including intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches; and catalyze inclusive and expansive practices in the field of American art. Organizations with 501(c)(3) status or its international equivalent are eligible to apply. Deadline: Monday, August 4, 2025. Learn more here.

• The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation invites applications for educational and preservation projects in Suffolk County, NY. The foundation invites applications for educational and preservation projects conducted by historical societies, historians, anthropologists, academic institutions, museums, and similar organizations with the potential to promote appreciation of the heritage of Suffolk County and/or preserve local historical collections and structures. Deadline: Friday, August 8, 2025. Learn more here.

• The New York Foundation for the Arts invites applications for artist fellowships, which will provide unrestricted cash grants of $8,000 to artists living in New York State and/or one of the Tribal Nations located therein. Fellowship categories in 2025 include architecture/environmental structures/design, choreography, music/sound, photography, and playwriting/screenwriting. The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship is not a project grant, but is intended to fund an artist’s vision or voice at all levels of artistic development. Deadline: Wednesday, December 17, 2025. Learn more here.

Image: Luciane Dom in performance at the Buskirk Chumley Theater at a Performing Arts Global Exchange engagement. Credit: Kevin Atkins.