The New Music Solidarity Fund
This fund is designed to help new/creative/improvised music freelancers whose livelihood has been threatened as a result of performances that have been canceled during the COVID-19 crisis. The Fund was started by a group of musicians in the new music community who have raised over $130,000 in a week, primarily from fellow musicians, composers, and music professionals. Our hope is that the Solidarity Fund will continue to grow in the coming weeks so that we can assist and bolster more people in need of emergency relief. For now, at least two hundred and sixty, $500 emergency assistance grants will be made available to applicants who meet the below criteria.
We are grateful to New Music USA for donating their time and services to help us run the Fund. Most importantly, we are immensely grateful to you, freelance artists who have risked so much in service of the music of our time. We stand in solidarity with you, and we are committed to helping you as much as we can.
In solidarity,
New Music Solidarity Fund Collective
Eligibility
- Are you a musician working in new, creative, experimental or improvised music and are you a freelance artist, i.e., non-salaried by an institution?
- Have you had a COVID-19 related cancelation of project(s)/performance(s) involving music by a living composer?
- Is your immediate livelihood threatened by these cancelations?
- Did you read the FAQs?
If you answered yes to all of these questions, you are eligible to apply for a $500 emergency assistance grant from the New Music Solidarity Fund. Please note that funds will be allocated on a first come first serve basis to everyone in need. We plan to fundraise through April 30 to support as many people as we can.
Application Questions
After confirming your eligibility, you will be asked to provide the following information. All information submitted through the form will be kept confidential.
- Your name
- A link to your website and/or your bio (500 words or less)
- Please tell us about the concert/s that were canceled. Include date/s, venue/s, and program/repertoire. If available, include a URL or a brief description of the canceled event(s).
- Optional Question: To help us gauge the impact of COVID-19 on the new music community, can you let us know how much you lost as a result of the cancelations? This information will also be kept confidential.
Applications for the Solidarity Fund will be accepted beginning at 12 p.m. Eastern time on March 31. Please read the FAQs, otherwise please direct all questions regarding eligibility to solidarity@newmusicusa.org.
APPLY HERE FOR THE NEW MUSIC SOLIDARITY FUND
Newport Festivals Musician Relief Fund
Newport Festivals Foundation has established the Newport Festivals Musician Relief Fund to provide financial relief to musicians in our Folk & Jazz communities experiencing a loss of income as a result of COVID-19 through rapid micro and full grants. Our focus and priority will be on artists who have played the Newport Jazz or Folk Festivals and those in our Rhode Island community. All other applications will be considered on a case by case basis.
Artists are at the core of the Newport Festivals community. Their performances fill us with hope, bring us together in celebration and support us during the good times and the bad. Now it’s our turn to give back. The COVID-19 crisis has proven particularly devastating for musicians whose livelihood is dependent on congregation. As a result, we’re establishing the Newport Festivals Musician Relief Fund. This fund will provide financial relief to musicians experiencing lost income as a result of COVID-19 through rapid micro and full grants.
The Foundation will also continue to provide support for music education programs through their Artist Donations Initiative, which works directly with festival artists to identify and support music education programs they’re passionate about. Since 2018, the initiative has provided over eighty-five grants to music education programs, including instruments for public schools, funding for music instruction workshops for Veterans, Girls Rock Summer camps, after school music lessons for children with learning disabilities, and more.
“It is with utmost hope that the Newport Folk and Newport Jazz Festivals will go on this summer, but in the meantime we feel the call to do more. We are in a unique position with our foundation, where we can go above and beyond and help provide support for our musicians community while other tours and festivals are cancelling due to COVID-19. I want to be clear, this is not a fundraiser, these are funds that our Festivals Foundation already allocates to annual giving. In this dark time, we feel blessed to be able to provide some small comfort for those whose songs carry us through each day.” – Jay Sweet, Executive Producer
APPLY HERE FOR THE NEWPORT FESTIVALS RELIEF FUND
GO HERE FOR THE MWI MUSICIANS EMERGENCY FUND DATABASE