 I'm Kristen Cantu with Well-Told Films in Montpelier, Vermont. I'm here today talking with Amy Cunningham of the Vermont Arts Council about the Vermont Creative Futures Grant. Hi, Amy. Hi, Kristen. Thanks for having me. Thanks for being here. So, yes, I'm Amy Cunningham. I'm the Deputy Director at the Vermont Arts Council. And the Vermont Arts Council has been around since the 1960s, where the state, the designated state arts agency, and that means that we help support artists, arts organizations, and arts projects all around the state with federal and state funding and other kinds of promotion and support. And I'm really excited. This is an unprecedented opportunity we have with this Creative Futures program. Amy, can you talk to us about what the aim is of the Vermont Creative Futures Grant? Yes. So, this is a program that was established by the state, by the state legislature, to support creative economy enterprises who've been suffered extensive losses from the pandemic. This is $9 million in support, which is on a scale that we've never, the arts sector in Vermont has never seen before. And this is, we're really grateful, this is support for the creative economy as a whole. So, not just artists and arts organizations, but creative businesses of many different sorts. So, it's a really, it's a new opportunity for us and it's a new opportunity for the field. So, who is the grant open to? So, we define the creative sector as the collective organizations, businesses, and individuals whose services and products are rooted in artistic and creative content. And that, I realize that's kind of a broad statement. But in our kind of research and understanding of the creative economy in Vermont, we've divided it up into seven key segments. So, that's film and media, which you're in. The literary arts, so writers and publishers, performing arts, which is a pretty broad category, visual arts and crafts. The specialty foods, let's see if I can remember, the other six, the other two. Culture and heritage, of course, so that's museums, libraries, and then design, which is actually a big portion of the creative economy. So, architects, graphic designers, that whole area. Amy, is this grant just for businesses or can sole proprietors take advantage of it as well? Sole proprietors are, we consider businesses for this grant. And so, yes, they are eligible for this program. For this program, sole proprietors are individuals who have an unincorporated business. And so, that would be most commonly defined as someone who has a schedule C as a part of their tax, not to get too specific. But that's how we define sole proprietors. And for this grant, sole proprietors will need to have had creative economy income that comprises at least 30 percent of their total income and is a minimum of $12,000 in 2019. I'm getting really specific with some of these details, but folks should know that our website, Vermont Arts Council, will have all of the specific guidelines and application details there. The sole proprietor grants will be flat grants of $4,000. And are there any eligibility requirements for businesses? The eligibility requirements in general is that you have to be Vermont based. You have to be, you know, within the creative economy. And we've got more information on our website that goes through those segments I just talked about and has a list of kind of different kinds of codes and more specific information about who's in the creative economy. Also, eligible applicants have to be fewer than 500 employees, which isn't easy. We know that most of our creative economy businesses and organizations are much smaller than that. And for this grant, because it is focused on pandemic harm, the business or entity or sole proprietor needs to have been in operation or taken substantial steps towards being in operation prior to the pandemic. So prior to or as of March 13, 2020, when everything shut down. And so you said that the grant is open to everyone in the creative sector. And you went over what all of those are. And will those be listed on the website for anyone who may? Yes. So we'll have the website currently has the complete guidelines and eligibility requirements. And folks can also take a look at the entire application preview before they go into the portal and try to apply. You can see all of the questions and all of the documentation needed in advance. Amy, if grant applicants have any questions about eligibility, who should they get in touch with? We have a variety of different ways for applicants to seek help from us. First of all, we're going to have a series of grant seeker workshops so folks can sign up for virtual zoom session and get an overview of the grant and they can ask questions during those sessions. All of those sessions are being recorded and will be posted on the website. But in addition, folks are welcome to email us directly creative futures at Vermont Arts Council dot org. And then we also have set up on our website away for interested applicants to sign up for a one on one meeting with myself or one of my colleagues. And we can answer any specific questions. So we're hopeful that all of those things will make it really easy for applicants to get the answers they need. Can you tell us who isn't eligible for this grant? So if you're an individual but not operating as a sole proprietor, then you would not be eligible for this grant. This is for businesses owned by folks who are 18 years of age or older. In addition, businesses that are franchises or chains would not be eligible for this funding. And nor are religious political or advocacy organizations, government agencies or schools for this particular grant requirement. Okay. And are there any exceptions within that? There is an exception. If if an arts and cultural organization operates under the umbrella of a university, then they would be eligible to to come in for the program. Are there any special considerations to be aware of with this grant? Yes, for this grant program and for several other Vermont Arts Council grant programs, we do have special consideration for organizations or businesses that are either owned by, led by, or primarily serving under resourced organizations, communities. And so that means communities who have traditionally been under resourced by Vermont Arts Council from other other funding sources. And so that would include people of color or indigenous people, people who identify as LGBTQ and people with disabilities, folks who are immigrants or refugees, were really committed to special consideration for those communities to make sure there's equitable access to these funds. And what can the grant funds be used for? Well, this program is for the legislation states it's for regular operating expenses. So in that sense, this is a really flexible grant. So this is intended to help, you know, give a boost to businesses and individuals who've, you know, really suffered in the pandemic. So really, you know, your mortgage, your rent, your utilities, like those kinds of like basic regular regular operating costs that so many other grant funds won't support. This is what this grant is for. Are there any restrictions on what the grant funds cannot be used for? So these are federal ARPA funds designated from the state. And so there are a few restrictions that come from the federal government. And the key piece is avoiding duplication of benefits. And so the funding cannot be used for overlapping project costs that are being covered by other federal funds. So if your entity is receiving federal funds of some sort, these can't overlap and double dip. The other, again, if you have other federal funds and if you happen to have another federal grant that requires matching of some sort, you just have to check with that other federal grant on whether or not this funding can be a part of that match. But those are those are really the primary restrictions. And what's the criteria for the grant awards? We're going to be assessing the grant applications based on three key criteria. One is the severity of pandemic harm. And that's just really rooted in the intention of this funding. Like I said before, this is really about making whole the many organizations and entities, excuse me, who have continuing losses from COVID. So that's a primary criteria as is community and cultural impact. So an entity or business's mission, cultural significance, the community served, that's going to be taken into account. And then the third criteria is around the organization or business's economic impact. So your role in local economic recovery, ability to retain or hire jobs, the likelihood of kind of post pandemic resilience, those are all a piece of the criteria as well. I think unlike some of the early pandemic relief that or that folks might be familiar with like PPP and other things that came out of the Small Business Administration. This program is meant to be a little bit more flexible and not just based on like strict formulas. And that's why we have these questions and kind of allow people to explain their particular circumstances because we're aware that there are a lot of special circumstances and people fell through the cracks in past rounds of relief. So we're hoping that this will help to mitigate those issues. And can you talk to us about what the grant level awards are based on? Yes. So these are flat grant amounts based on a tiered system. And so on the website you can you can look at the chart and you take your 2019 operating revenue and then look at the chart and find out what your grant amount would be. Like I mentioned before, sole proprietors all receive a flat grant of $4,000 for other nonprofits or for-profit businesses. It will be it's roughly 10% of your 2019 operating income with a maximum of $200,000. So in other words organizations or businesses whose operating revenue in 2019 was more than 2 million, you'll be capped at a $200,000 grant. What is the timeline for grant applications? So this grant program has three different rounds. The first round opens on September 15th, 2022 and the deadline will be November 1st, 2022 and folks will be notified of their award status in mid December. The second round will open at the beginning of 2023 and then there will be a third round that will open in the spring of 2023. If your application is not approved for funding in one round it will automatically be moved over into the next round for consideration. Amy if you get approved for funding in the first or second round are you allowed to apply in another round for additional funding? No, we want to make room for for everyone so we're not open to multiple grants. And Amy can you tell us how applications are reviewed and selected? Yes, so we will do an initial screening internally for eligibility. We'll take a look and make sure all of the financial documentation that you need that everything's all there and then we'll have a large team of outside reviewers who will all read and score and provide comments based on that criteria those three criteria I just explained and then from there we'll take a look and evaluate and make the final decisions based on the funding we have available. Amy how does an individual or a business in the creative sector apply for this grant? First step is to take a look at our website and look at the eligibility requirements and take a look at all the documentation needed and make sure that that's all going to work for you. I encourage everyone to you know either attend one of the grant seeker workshops which will be on zoom folks can register on our website or watch the grant seeker workshop video after they've been recorded and follow up with us with any questions. Like I mentioned before you can take a look at our application preview before you go into the online portal to apply and that way you can make sure that all of the questions make sense and you've got you know the answers you need you're able to to gather the information you need to apply and then from there applications go through an online portal which is right on our website. Are there any specific documents that are required for this grant? So there is a fair amount of financial documentation that we do need for this grant and that's because part of the grant eligibility is about documenting your continuing losses from COVID. So we will need the last three years of your tax returns that's the that's the big piece because again the grant award is based on your 2019 operating revenue so we need to look at how things were for you before the pandemic and then through the pandemic. In addition we'll need a profit and loss statement and balance sheets from the current year that you haven't filed taxes for yet and again this is all the documentation we need to assess that you have continuing unmet need from the pandemic and then related to that we'll also need within the application you'll need to provide a full accounting of all other relief that you may have received throughout the pandemic it's it's fine that you've gotten other relief we know a lot of folks have but we also know that in many cases the past relief hasn't been enough and so we just need a full accounting of you know whether it was PPP or EIDL or some creative sector specific grants that you may have gotten from through the arts council of remote humanities there'll be a table in the application you just need to list all of those items there will be again this is federal funds coming through the state and so there's a list of attestations meaning you just have to kind of read and agree to some certain conditions that you're you know eligible to receive this money and not debarred from receiving federal funds things like that that again you can read through all of those things in advance of applying Amy is there anything else you'd like to share about the Vermont creative futures grant well this investment is a recognition by the state legislature and the state administration that the creative economy not only has suffered through the pandemic we're all aware of theaters and musicians folks whose you know entire livelihood was really on the line during COVID but this is also an acknowledgement this is really a transformational investment for the creative economy in Vermont and it's a real acknowledgement that the creative sector is vital for the future of Vermont so this is the result of a lot of great advocacy the part of the Vermont creative network and folks involved in the creative sector and it really is has the potential to be a transformational investment for the state well thank you Amy thank you for having me