Municipalities and boroughs across Alaska that allocate federal CARES Act funding to support arts and culture nonprofits now have an opportunity to see their money matched up to $50,000.

Rasmuson Foundation is committing $250,000 in total as an incentive for municipalities to invest stimulus funds into arts and culture organizations.

“Our arts and culture nonprofits contribute so much to our quality of life,” said Rasmuson Foundation President and CEO Diane Kaplan. “With performance venues closed and fundraisers canceled, many of these organizations are in perilous financial shape. We have to make sure they are supported during these unprecedented times, and we hope every dollar of match is paid out.”

The Foundation will provide a $1-to-$1 match up to $20,000 and a $1-to-$2 match for everything above that amount, with a cap per community at $50,000. The grant funding is available only to municipal and borough governments, and they will have discretion on which arts and culture nonprofits to support.

The grant application and guidelines are being distributed to communities through the Alaska Municipal League. The brief application requires the municipality to indicate how much in CARES dollars it will invest in arts and culture nonprofits. The Foundation will provide the appropriate match. Grant recipients will follow up with a brief report summarizing which organizations were supported.

“The need is far greater than what we were able to allocate,” Kaplan said. “We hope this gets municipal governments talking about arts and culture in their communities and ensures they are part of the discussion when communities start allocating their funding.”

Documents to download:

Muni Arts & Culture Grant Opportunity Description

Muni Arts & Culture Application Form

Press release_Rasmuson Foundation to match municipal art investments 06_17_20

About the Foundation
Through grantmaking and initiatives, Rasmuson Foundation aims to promote a better life for all Alaskans. Main funding areas are housing, homelessness, education, health care, the arts and organizational and community development. The Foundation was created in 1955 by Jenny Rasmuson to honor her late husband, E.A. Rasmuson.

Bethel photographer Katie Basile has spent more than a decade documenting The Children’s Home, an abandoned orphanage near Kwethluk in Southwestern Alaska. She received an Individual Artist Award in 2019 from the Foundation for a project photographing elders. She has worked on other grant-funded projects including a documentary about Newtok, a village moving to higher ground because of climate change. (Photo by Katie Basile)