Sharing Our New Strategic Plan: Imagine Next! | | |
We are so pleased to share our Strategic Plan, Imagine Next, a brand-new way of facing change and embracing it while centering the voices of the people we serve every day. The input we received from our friends and constituents created the backbone of this plan and allowed us to better understand how to grow in a way that supports and celebrates the extraordinary creativity of our region.
Imagine Next centers local voices, promotes innovation, and reshapes the way we engage with the arts in our region. Shaped by a multi-year listening effort to understand the needs, challenges, insights, and big ideas of the communities we serve, the process combined field engagement, data analysis, and internal reflection to ensure that our new strategic plan is grounded in evidence, collaboration, and care.
A new mission, vision, and values ground our work while focus areas sharpen the lens on what we do – and what we hope to do – as we work towards a more sustainable arts ecosystem.
Imagine Next invites our region to dream boldly, collaborate meaningfully, and build a thriving creative future—together!
| | Welcome to our New Director of Programs | | |
We are thrilled to introduce our new Director of Programs, Nikki Kirk!
Nikki Kirk (she/her) is a leadership development and cultural equity practitioner, with diverse experience as a facilitator, program developer, grant administrator, project manager, team leader, and advisor. She has lived and worked across the country with arts organizations in the nonprofit, government, and higher education sectors. She has vast experience in program strategy and grantmaking, most recently serving as the Director of Community Impact and Strategic Investment with the Indy Arts Council in Indianapolis. She centers her work on equitable investment in a thriving arts ecosystem, which in turn strengthens and impacts communities.
Nikki earned a Master’s Degree in Arts, Festival, and Cultural Management from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she researched the impact of programming at the intersection of arts and social justice. She received a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Linguistics from Pitzer College in southern California, where she affirmed her interests in and the significance of language and identity, human rights, and cross-cultural understanding.
Nikki’s previous work experiences include Americans for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Berklee College of Music, El Sistema USA, and the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning, among others.
Welcome, Nikki!
| | Help Us Reach Our Year-End Giving Goal! | |
As the arts are facing growing pressures and continued divestment, your support means more than ever. Help us reach our end-of-year goal of $10,000!
When an artist or organization receives support from Mid Atlantic Arts, they are able to strengthen community by sharing work with new audiences, traveling regionally and internationally, and taking creative risks. Sustaining the arts means sustaining community, and that includes you!
You can play a part in sustaining the artists and organizations that shape our communities.
Your gift directly supports:
- Hundreds of unique communities
- Millions in direct grant support to artists and organizations
- 200,000+ people engaged worldwide
Plus, gifts of $250 or more come with a special thank you - a commissioned artwork from a regional artist!
| Mid Atlantic Arts Open Grants Opportunities | |
USArtists International
USArtists International (USAI) supports in-person performances by artists from any state or territory in the U.S. at engagements at international festivals, global presenting arts markets, and other eligible engagements outside of the United States. The program funds individuals and ensembles across all performing arts practices and disciplines.
Deadline: Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Learn more and apply here.
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CALT Experiences
Central Appalachia Living Traditions (CALT) Experiences supports public-facing projects and events in Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC)-designated counties of Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia that bring community members together around traditional arts and cultural knowledge. Eligible project activities may include:
- hands-on learning experiences/workshops
- public art projects
- exhibitions
- performances or performance series
- film/video
- radio broadcasts or podcasts
- archival collections or fieldwork with a significant public-facing component
Deadline: Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Learn more and apply here.
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Mid Atlantic Tours
Mid Atlantic Tours brings exemplary performing arts ensembles to communities across the mid-Atlantic region. Non-profit presenters located in the Mid Atlantic Arts grantmaking region can book an artist from an annually-curated roster and receive grant support of up to 50% of the artist fee. Presenters work directly with the Roster Artist’s Tour Agent to negotiate terms, including public performance dates and community engagement activity plans.
Booking Deadline: Monday, March 23, 2026.
Learn more and apply here.
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Mid Atlantic Presenter Initiatives
Mid Atlantic Presenter Initiatives (MAPI) opens the former Special Presenter Initiatives program, which was limited to specific states and jurisdictions, to the larger mid-Atlantic region, including Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, West Virginia, and the Native nations that share this geography.
The program supports performing arts engagements including public performance and community engagement at small and mid-size arts and community organizations, with budgets under $3 million.
The MAPI application opens on Wednesday, January 7, 2026,
Deadline: Thursday, April 30, 2026.
Learn more here.
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Folk and Traditional Arts Community Projects Grants
Folk and Traditional Arts Community Projects grants fund projects that support the vitality of traditional arts and cultures in the mid-Atlantic region. Non-profit organizations in DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, USVI, PR, or WV may apply.
Eligible project activities may include performances, public art collaborations, workshops/trainings, exhibitions, fieldwork/documentation, and creation of new traditional work. Mid Atlantic Arts encourages projects that support or engage underserved or underrepresented artists, practitioners, traditions, or constituents.
Deadline: Thursday, April 30, 2026.
Learn more and apply here.
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If you're attending APAP 2026 in New York City, come say hi to us! Our booth will be at Rhinelander 182.
You can sign up for a meeting time by clicking this link, or just stop by during open Expo Hall hours.
| Mid Atlantic Arts Winter Break | |
Mid Atlantic Arts wishes you a very happy and safe holiday season! Our offices will be closed from December 22, 2025 - January 4, 2026. After a big year of challenges, our staff will be enjoying some much needed rest and recuperation.
We hope this season you stay warm, enjoy time with loved ones, and make or see some engaging art. We will see you in the new year!
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The Gottlieb Foundation invites applications from mature artists for its Individual Support Grants program. This program awards $25,000 in support of mature painters, sculptors, and printmakers who have been creating art for at least 20 years and who are in financial need. Twenty grants are awarded per year. Deadline: January 15, 2026. Learn more here.
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The Indian Arts Research Center invites applications for artist-in-residence fellowships programs. The fellowships support diverse creative disciplines and can include sculpture, performance, basketry, painting, printmaking, digital art, mixed media, photography, pottery, writing, and film and video. Eligible applicants include people indigenous to North America and its current outlying territories, including Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
Deadline: January 15, 2026. Learn more here.
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The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts invites applications for fellowships in literature, visual arts, and music. Applicants will be considered for a VCCA residency and as many fully funded fellowships for which they are eligible. In addition, all eligible applicants who demonstrate need will be considered for financial aid to help cover the cost of their residency.
Deadline: January 15, 2026. Learn more here.
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The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program invites applications from visual artists for rent-free, non-living studio space to 17 visual artists for year-long residencies in DUMBO, Brooklyn. The program is open to professional visual artists, ages 21 or older, who live in the United States, as well as U.S. citizens or permanent residents living abroad. Applicants may not be enrolled in any degree program, participate in any other residency program, or maintain a separate studio during their residency. The studio program is open to eligible artists nationwide, though artists are responsible for their own housing.
Deadline: January 15, 2026. Learn more here.
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The JA Community Foundation invites applications for its 2026 spring grants program, which will award grants of up to $50,000 in support of efforts to benefit the Japanese American and broader Asian American communities. The foundation funds programs and projects focused on senior health and services, history, arts and culture, and youth.
Letter of inquiry deadline: January 25, 2026. Learn more here.
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The New York Foundation for the Arts invites applications for its NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship program, 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 the 2026 award cycle include craft/sculpture, digital/electronic arts, nonfiction/literature, poetry, and printmaking/drawing/book arts.
Deadline: January 27, 2026. Learn more here.
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Arts Midwest invites applications for its Shakespeare in American Communities program, which provides funding to nonprofit theater organizations in the United States that connect young people across the country to Shakespeare’s plays. The program offers three grant opportunities for eligible nonprofit theater organizations: its Schools Program, Juvenile Justice Program, and Apprenticeship Program.
Deadline: January 29, 2026. Learn more here.
| | Image: Core dancers from Furia Flamenca performing on the Atlas Performing Arts Center stage at a Folk and Traditional Arts Community Projects Grants engagement. Credit: Bogdan Alexandrescu. | | | | |
