The past few months have been a whirlwind of uncertainty. Throughout these difficult times, CultureWorks remains dedicated to our mission to elevate and drive a vibrant Richmond and Tri-Cities region through arts and culture, even if our service in the community looks looks a little bit different nowadays.

We believe that now more than ever, arts and culture are vital to the soul of our region, and we understand that our arts and culture community has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We want to share what CultureWorks has been doing to strengthen our region’s artists and arts and culture organizations during this challenging year.

Within days of the pandemic reaching the United States, we created an online hub for COVID-19 Arts & Culture Resources. This web page includes funding resources, guidance about Federal relief efforts, practical contacts to help with technology, and much more. It is updated daily with new information. Please share this resource with anyone in your networks that might benefit from it.

We quickly launched the first phase of the COVID-19 Arts & Culture Relief Fund. The Fund provides $500 in emergency financial assistance to professional artists of all disciplines (visual, performing, and more) throughout the region who have lost income from cancelled paid creative opportunities during the Coronavirus pandemic. As of July 15th, we have awarded 148 grants to eligible artists, totaling $74,000 given away. In late June, we implemented the second phase of the relief program, offering support for small and mid-sized arts and culture organizations.

Like many other folks, we made significant shifts in the way we communicated with our audience. The Arts & Culture Calendar, weekly email, and social media posts now highlight virtual events and local digital resources. We do this with the hope that these resources will entertain, educate, and inspire people during this time of ‘stay-at-home’ and social distancing.

CultureWorks remains committed to strengthening artists and arts and culture organizations to drive community health and success. Together, the COVID-19 Relief Fund and Annual Grants Program will award over $205,000 in grants this year, resulting in over $1,000,000 of funding awarded since the Grants Program began 10 years ago. We are eager to announce and celebrate the recipients of our 2020 Grants Program awards in the coming weeks.

In May and June, the systemic racism and injustices that still occur in our country every day entered the spotlight. Our hearts break over the lives lost and pain suffered as a result of hundreds of years of racial discrimination, and we understand that there is more work to do. As we do that work together, CultureWorks will listen to, learn from, and stand beside the Black artists and arts and culture professionals throughout our community. We are committed to shining a light on arts and culture that elevates voices and facilitates honest and healing conversations in the pursuit of peace and justice.

To the Black community: we see you, we hear you, and we support you.

This year has presented challenge after challenge that no one could have predicted. But we are not discouraged. We are motivated and inspired to continue the work! It’s been incredible to see the creativity of our community shine throughout these past months. We’ve seen online film watch parties, virtual gallery openings, living room concerts, and more. Artists from all backgrounds are using their talents to show support in the fight against systemic racism or auctioning their work to raise money for COVID-19 relief. Our region is slowly, but safely opening up; twenty-two of our region’s museums and cultural institutions worked in solidarity to create a plan for reopening that will allow their patrons to safely visit again.

Our creative and resilient arts and culture community, and our region, will rise out of this difficult time. CultureWorks is here for you. Please reach out to our staff if there is anything we can do to support you through this.