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Contact The NJ State Council
on the Arts
Mailing Address:
NJ State Council on the Arts
P.O. Box 306
Trenton, NJ 08625-0306
Office Address:
225 West State Street, 4th Floor
Trenton, NJ 08608
Tel: (609) 292-6130
NJ Relay: 711
Email: Feedback@sos.nj.gov
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Grant Opportunities
Current Grant Opportunities
Future Grant Opportunities
Please note: all guidelines and supporting documents are subject to change. If you have questions about these programs, please contact Council staff.
Arts Education Special Initiative Grants (AESI)
New Jersey arts organizations and units of government, colleges, or universities with an arts education-based mission are invited to apply for this grant program to support new or expanded programs that make substantial contributions to quality arts education in schools and youth agencies. This grant category intends to aid arts organizations in developing their full potential as community resources to educational systems throughout New Jersey and create a stronger infrastructure for arts education statewide.
Application Deadline: Applications are now closed. For more information, be sure to sign up for the Council’s newsletter.
AESI Grant Guidelines – English
AESI Grant Guidelines – Spanish
AESI Grant Application Technical Assistance
Arts Project Support (APS)
Arts Project Support (APS) provides support for a project that meets the Council’s eligibility requirements. A project is defined as a public activity or event that occurs once during the year either as a single day or weekend presentation, or a series of the same presentation occurring within a very limited and specific timeframe (12-weeks or less). Priority will be given to projects that provide opportunities to engage new voices, reach new communities, or encourage innovation in the field.
This category does not support on-going or multiple programs or the general operations of an organization. GOS and GPS grantees are not eligible to apply for APS grants except in Folk Arts.
Application Deadline: Applications are now closed. For more information, be sure to sign up for the Council’s newsletter.
Arts Project Support FY20 Grant Guidelines
FY20 Grant Application Webinar
Capital Arts
The Capital Arts grant program is designed to help New Jersey’s nonprofit arts organizations build operational stability and capacity through one of the three eligible project categories: construction; repair or expansion of existing facilities; and acquisition/installation of building service equipment (plumbing, mechanical, and/or electrical equipment, et.al.).
For the purposes of this grant program, an arts organization is defined as an organization whose primary purpose (mission) is to create, perform, present or otherwise promote the visual, performing, or literary arts and who presents that work year-round.
Application Deadline: Applications are now closed. For more information, be sure to sign up for the Council’s newsletter.
Capital Arts Grant Guidelines – English
Capital Arts Grant Guidelines – Spanish
Capital Arts Grant Frequently Asked Questions
Capital Arts Grant Application Technical Assistance
Watch our technical assistance webinar here – Recorded December 3, 2021
Capital Arts Grants for Historic Locations
The Capital Arts - Historic Locations Grant Program supports capital projects for nonprofit arts organizations located in New Jersey. In FY23, the program will be presented in partnership with the New Jersey Historic Trust and will include the distribution of approximately $2.7 million in State Arts Council grant funds.
The grant program is designed to help New Jersey’s nonprofit arts organizations operating locations with historic designation(s) or certified eligible for historic designation, build operational stability and capacity and improve or enhance a historic facility through:
- construction
- repair or expansion of existing facilities
- acquisition/installation of building service equipment
A request to fund a bundle of unrelated components will be considered, but may not be fully funded.
For this grant opportunity, priority will be given to projects directly addressing/stopping the deterioration of a historic location.
Please contact Diane Felcyn (diane.felcyn@sos.nj.gov or 609-633-1244) with questions about arts-related eligibility, or the New Jersey Historic Trust (609-984-0473) for historic and project based questions.
Capital Arts Grants - Historic Locations FY23 Guidelines - English
Capital Arts Grants - Historic Locations FY23 Guidelines - Spanish
Capital Arts Grants - Historic Locations FY23 Technical Assistance Schedule
Applications are now closed. For more information, be sure to sign up for the Council’s newsletter.
Creative Aging Initiative Grant
The Creative Aging Initiative Grant (CAI) provides $10,000 to eligible arts organizations, libraries, veterans homes, senior and community centers, colleges/universities, and units of government to cover costs for arts learning experiences with New Jersey older adults aged 55 and over. Successful applicants will receive $10,000 of funding for each year of the two-year grant cycle, pending available resources.
A CAI project is defined as an arts-based learning experience that directly engages older adults for multiple sessions. Projects may be sequential and build to a project culmination (residencies) or include a series of individual workshops that focus on skill-building and development in the performing, visual, media, or literary arts.
Applications are now closed. For more information, be sure to sign up for the Council’s newsletter.
Creative Aging Initiative FY26 Grant Guidelines – English
Creative Aging Initiative FY26 Grant Guidelines – Spanish
Creative Aging Initiative FY26 Grant Rubric – English
Creative Aging Initiative FY26 Grant Rubric – Spanish
Creative Aging Initiative FY26 Technical Assistance Schedule
Creative Aging Initiative: Introduction
Creative Aging Initiative: SAGE Overview
Creative Aging Initiative: Application Support
Cultural Trust Grants to Arts Organizations
The New Jersey Cultural Trust provides grants to support capital projects, and institutional and financial stabilization of arts, history, and humanities organizations in New Jersey. Funding for grants comes from interest earned on the Cultural Trust Fund, which is a permanent investment fund.
For FY25, the Cultural Trust will provide Institutional/Financial Stabilization Grants to qualified arts organizations. Institutional/Financial Stabilization project proposals must address the financial, operational and/or capacity challenges that have significant impact on the organization’s ability to serve its community.
Applications are now closed. For more information, be sure to sign up for the NJ Cultural Trust's newsletter.
FY25 Grant Guidelines - English
FY25 Grant Guidelines - Spanish
Watch the NJ Cultural Trust's Qualification Workshop
To learn more about the Cultural Trust grant opportunity, visit the Cultural Trust website.
Individual Artist Fellowship Awards
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowships are awarded to practicing New Jersey artists through an anonymous, competitive application process to help them pursue their artistic goals.The application submission, review, and post-award process for the Individual Artist Fellowships is administered by Mid Atlantic Arts in partnership with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
The categories for the 2025 NJ Individual Artist Fellowship were:
Choreography
Crafts
Music Composition
Photography
Playwriting/Screenwriting
Poetry
Sculpture
Applications are now closed. For more information, be sure to sign up for the Council’s newsletter.
Individual Artist Fellowship rules, instructions and application.
This Year's Council Grantees
NJ Artists in Education (AIE)
AIE is the cornerstone of the Arts Council Arts Education Program and is cosponsored with Young Audiences of New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania. Through this annual grant program, practicing professional artists are placed in long-term residencies (20+ days) in schools across the state. Residencies are offered in all disciplines and at all grade levels. All NJ PreK-12 schools can apply for one-year residencies.
The application process for the 2022-2023 school year is now closed. Please visit www.njaie.org for more information.
Artists in Education Residency Grant Program Information
NJ Arts Professional Learning Institute (APLI)
APLI is New Jersey's arts education professional learning opportunity that pairs teaching artists and school partners in collaborative, engaging workshops throughout the state. This paid opportunity is available for teaching artists and classroom educators who work within the state of NJ.
APLI's mission is to provide professional learning opportunities to New Jersey’s teaching artists, classroom teachers, and school administrators. APLI aims to engage the arts educator in inclusive, progressive, arts-based professional learning experiences so that the whole student can be reached, inclusive of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and perceived ability.
To learn more about this paid opportunity, visit njapli.org.
Projects Serving Artists (PSA)
The Projects Serving Artists (PSA) grant program provides support to help eligible organizations cover costs for technical support or services to artists who reside in New Jersey or whose work benefits New Jersey residents. The project must demonstrate direct benefit to New Jersey artists.
Applicants may request up to $25,000 in support of the project’s direct expenses. Grant funds must be matched 1:1 ($1 earned or raised and spent per $1 received from the Arts Council). The match cannot be fulfilled, in any part, through New Jersey Department of State grant awards.
Applicants may propose a new or significantly renewed project. Examples of eligible projects include, but are not limited to: specialized space for creating, practicing, or producing work; assistance or training in areas of marketing, legal issues, accounting, insurance, and technology; and/or artist career development skills. Examples of eligible renewed projects are those that have evidence of success in serving the artist community and are being re-envisioned in a significant way.
This grant program does not support the replacement of funds for an existing project, nor does it support the commissioning of new work, networking opportunities, or projects that support, engage, or further compensate the artistic leadership of an organization. Applicants unclear about the eligibility of a project should contact Arts Council staff.
Applications are now closed. For more information, be sure to sign up for the Council’s newsletter.
Projects Serving Artists FY25 Grant Guidelines – English
Projects Serving Artists FY25 Grant Guidelines – Spanish
Projects Serving Artists FY25 Rubric – English
Projects Serving Artists FY25 Rubric – Spanish
Grant Programs & Services
All of the programs and services of the Council focus its modest financial and human resources on enabling the cultural community of New Jersey to create those public values for the benefit of all New Jerseyans, both those that are intrinsic and those that are instrumental such as fostering quality education, stimulating economic development, bolstering tourism and building NJ pride.
The Council does so in ways that express its own set of public values: equal access, fair decision-making based on independent evaluation, uniform criteria and funding principles, and full public accountability. A great many of its programs and services are carried out in partnership and collaborations with literally dozens of other organizations statewide.
Grant Application Process for Organizations
The grant cycle for most Council grants for organizations begins with the distribution of Guidelines, followed by Technical Assistance Webinars and Workshops. Specific dates vary year-to-year.
Grant applications are read, discussed, and evaluated by peer review panels made up of independent experts in each of the different categories and disciplines of the applicant pool. The panels evaluate the applications in strict accordance to the criteria as published in the Guidelines.
Once all applications are evaluated by all panels, the consensus comments and rankings are forwarded to the Council's Grants Committee for deliberation in forming recommendations to the full Council. The Committee bases its work on funding principles it adopts respective of how best to invest public dollars in organizations and projects that provide high quality programs and great public benefit. The Council holds its Annual Meeting (generally the last Tuesday in July) to vote on and award grants. Following the Annual Meeting, all applicants will receive a decision letter that includes the grant amount, if awarded, and consensus comments.
This Year’s Council Grantees
For a listing of the Council recent grants made to organizations, projects and individual artists click on the appropriate heading below:
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