October 7, 2021
Dear Arts Action Fund Members,
SVOG UPDATE
See the latest Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program Report as of October 4, 2021. To date, more than $11 billion out of a total of $16.2 billion has been awarded to 12,175 arts-related organizations and companies. Over 98% of all applications have now been processed. Supplemental grant awards have begun rolling out, but we are aware there have been some SBA calculation errors. You are advised to accept the award amount offered in order to guarantee your right to request “Reconsideration of the Supplemental Award Amount.” Send an email describing the discrepancy along with screenshots to [email protected] with this subject line: "Attn: SVOG High Level Review Team." Additionally, the SBA is planning on rolling out decisions on Appeals to declined applications during the week of October 11, 2021. Please know that there are sufficient SVOG funds still available to cover all initial awards, supplemental awards, reconsiderations for higher amount awards, and successfully appealed awards as well as their supplemental awards.
Helpful SVOG links:
- Full SBA data reports on SVOG Awards
- List of all SVOG awardees and grant amounts
- Nina Ozlu Tunceli’s SVOG slide deck presentation to the International Entertainment Buyers Association (IEBA) on 10/4/21
BONAMICI LEGISLATION
We are pleased to announce that U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) will introduce sweeping new legislation tomorrow, entitled, “Arts Education For All Act.” Americans for the Arts, Grantmakers in the Arts, and the National Association of Music Merchants invite all arts education advocates to show their support in the following ways:
Organizations can join the sign-on letter to express your support.
Indviduals can send customizable emails in just two minutes to their federal legislators to support the “Arts Education For All Act.”
Representative Bonamici is one of the top champions in Congress on arts in education and equitable access for these critical services as well as a leader on the Education and Labor Committee (on which she is the Chair of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services). The Arts Education for All Act (see infographic below) includes key provisions that will support and encourage the offering of arts education and programming experiences to Americans including our youngest learners, K-12 students, and youth impacted by the juvenile justice system. Crucially, the bill will also include provisions that would allow for rigorous arts and arts education research to be carried out, to further inform how elementary and secondary education in our country is improved.
RESEARCH SURVEY
Following requests from field partners and collaborators, Americans for the Arts has launched a new, 5-10 minute, anonymous survey for artists and creative workers so we can better understand the impact of the pandemic on your employment and income, and whether and how you were able to access unemployment assistance. This research is crucial to future advocacy efforts around unemployment support for independent creative workers. So, if you’re an artist, please take the survey -- and whether you’re an artist or not, please pass the link on! The survey will only be open through 10/15/21. Thank you!
ZOOM OFFICE HOURS TOMORROW @ 11:00am ET
If you have federal COVID-19 relief questions, please join me at my weekly Zoom Office Hours tomorrow on Friday, October 8th @ 11:00 am ET.
To read an archive of Arts Action Fund federal updates and more, visit COVID-19 Arts Resources Page.
