We Don't Bow Down, Yellow Pocahontas, Mardi Gras Indian Collective, photo: Zack Smith
NPN is committed to building power, opportunities, and resources for artists and communities of color in New Orleans and the South.
As a community service organization, we provide direct support to artists and culture bearers in our region, including funding, professional development, and capacity building. As a movement builder, we provide leadership in emergency preparedness and response initiatives, engage in local and regional efforts that address racial and economic injustice, and advocate within the national philanthropic sector for greater resources for Southern artists and communities of color.
New Orleans
Through our New Orleans-based programs, NPN has shared our mission, values, and vision with our local community and home since 2001.
NPN’s local program supports a diverse group of New Orleans–based artists, arts organizations, and initiatives to work toward a more just and equitable community in which artists can create and thrive.
NPN provides peer-to-peer exchanges, technical assistance, and financial-planning resources to arts organizations. We offer fiscal sponsorship for artists and art collectives, giving access to grant funds and financial support that would otherwise be unavailable to individuals or emerging groups.
Artists Get Ready Grants
The National Performance Network envisions a world in which artists and culture bearers of color living and working in Louisiana have the power, resources, and opportunities to thrive. The Artist Get Ready Grants—in partnership with CERF+—support activities that help artists prepare for emergencies, implement safety measures to safeguard their studios and artwork, and plan to better protect their creative careers. BIPOC artists in Louisiana may apply for $1,500 (as individuals) or $3,000 (as groups/collectives).
NPN invites Louisiana-based artists, culture bearers, and collectives who identify as Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color (BIPOC) to self-determine what they need to face future challenges, disasters, or other circumstances. While the Get Ready Grant guidelines include some examples of emergency preparedness activities, we trust artists and culture bearers to know their needs according to their creative practices, households, communities, and circumstances. We invite you to think expansively and tell us what readiness means.
NPN is committed to making our opportunities accessible. We are here to support and assist applicants. Please contact the Program Assistant, Daniel Pruksarnukul, at or (504) 595-8008 ext. 703.
There is no deadline to apply for Get Ready. NPN reviews applications for eligibility and will award grants on a rolling basis through 2024 or until all funds are awarded.
Get Ready Grants are administered by the National Performance Network on behalf of CERF+, with funding provided by the Mellon Foundation.
Take Notice Fund
Provides $5,000 project grants to artists of color living and working in Louisiana.
Southern Artists for Social Change
Provides $25,000 project grants to artists and culture bearers of color living, working, and engaging in social change in urban, rural, and tribal communities of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
Fiscal Sponsorship provides nonprofit umbrella status and financial and administrative services to artists and artist collectives. By managing fiscally sponsored projects, NPN offers artists the opportunity to gain experience with and support through formal granting systems and private philanthropy, so that artists can continue to practice their art. NPN supports artistic practice across the US and sponsors artists and projects operating beyond New Orleans.
With seed funding from the Ford Foundation, in April 2020 NPN awarded $150,000 to independent artists of color in Louisiana who had experienced significant financial losses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, $50,000 was awarded to 11 Louisiana arts organizations led by people of color. Recipients represent the range of artistic practices that shape our home region, including the significant culture-bearing work of Black Masking Indians.
2020 COVID-19 Artist Relief Fund
$150,000
to independent artists of color
$50,000
to small community-based arts organizations
100+
Grants
Staff Contact
Stephanie Atkins (she/her)
Director of Southern Programs
504.595.8008 ext. 702
Brittany Dudley (she/they)
Fiscal Sponsorship & Data Associate
504.595.8008 ext. 713
Daniel Pruksarnukul (he/him/his)
Program Assistant
504.595.8008 ext 703