This is an archival page. This grant application is no longer active. To learn about current Southern Equality Fund work, including new Southern Equality Studios grants, click here.
In the fall of 2020, the Southern Equality Studios special grant round of the Southern Equality Fund worked to resource and celebrate LGBTQ artists and creatives across the LGBTQ South who are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or people of color). Grants of up to $500 supported BIPOC LGBTQ Southern artists working on a wide range of creative projects.
This new grant round was a part of CSE’s Southern Equality Fund, which has been making grassroots grants across the LGBTQ South since 2015. Since its inception, the Southern Equality Fund has prioritized supporting work led by BIPOC, transgender, and rural organizers.
Criteria for Southern Equality Studios Special Grant Round Nominations
We specifically sought nominations for artists or creatives efforts who are:
- Based in the South.
- Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC).
- LGBTQ people.
- Funds can be used to support a wide range of artistic endeavors.
- Nominees are eligible to receive this grant even if they have received a previous Southern Equality Fund grant; however, priority will be given to nominees who have not yet received a grant.
- Anyone is welcome and encouraged to nominate an artist for a grant and artists may also nominate themselves.
- There are no grant reports, budgets or supplemental materials required in this process. However, if selected, applicants will have to fill out and return a W9 form to receive their funding.
Learn More About Southern Equality Studios
Southern Equality Studios is a project that explores how the arts can be a catalyst and force in achieving lived and legal LGBTQ equality across the South.
Since the launch of CSE in 2011, we’ve worked at the intersections of personal narrative and political organizing, working with LGBTQ people and families to share the stories of their lives, whether through the written word, film, or photography. We’ve seen the power that storytelling has had on changing hearts and minds here in the South and nationwide, and it’s a vital tool as we continue our work to build a South where all are free and affirmed to live as their authentic selves. Art and storytelling have long played a powerful and central role in movements for social justice, and we’re honored to be a part of that long legacy in our region.
Special Thanks to East Fork Pottery
This Southern Equality Fund grant round is supported by a generous donation from East Fork Pottery. In summer 2020 East Fork Pottery donated a portion of sales from their new Lapis glaze to CSE, and in June the company hosted an online auction featuring artists, chefs, and makers who donated their time, talents, and art. CSE will put East Fork’s entire donation to work to support BIPOC-led organizing and people across the LGBTQ South.
Connie Matisse, Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder of East Fork Pottery, said of this grant round:
“As a founding team, Alex, John, and I see our business as the most readily available platform from which we can contribute to a liberated future. As our company’s reach has grown, so too has our ability to communicate emergent strategies for more equitable ways of doing business. So too has our ability to put money in the hands of educators, leaders, and organizers for justice.”
“It has been a true privilege to be in ever-deepening community with Campaign for Southern Equality. To join their leadership team on panels, to walk alongside them in protest, host parties together, share ideas, cry, laugh, scream—all of it. To be anchored by the belief in a shared vision for the future. We see with our own eyes the impact of CSE’s fight for legal and lived equality for LGBTQA+, BIPOC Southerners. We are so grateful to be able to support this work and we know that there’s so much more to be done. We trust that our friends at CSE are heels down, hearts open, and in it for the long haul.”
