Mid-America Arts Alliance

a woman with medium brown skin taking notes in a journal next to her computer, text read: Future Pathways

If it has been a minute since you dusted off your financial policies and procedures, now's a great time to check in. 💸

Join a free workshop for artists with Dr. Elaine Grogran Luttrull on April 9!
Register: https://www.maaa.org/event/future-pathways-nonprofit-check-up-seven-financial-things-2026/

Stop and smell the grants 🌹 residencies 🪻workshops 🌸 and more! www.maaa.org/news/artist-...

a woman playing upright bass

Take your music to places it's never been! Jazz Road: Tours offers $15K grants to develop tours into communities across the country. 🎷🎼

Submit a Letter of Interest by March 10 at https://www.southarts.org/grants-opportunities/jazz-road-tours

Justice for #Punch. May he find his cohort.

Creative Missouri logo

#Artists, arts organizations, #makers, and #creatives in MO — Creative Missouri 2026 is March 28!

Swing by Columbia, MO for mind-blowing presentations, electrifying performances, cool vendors, and more! 🎭

Tickets can be found at https://missouriartscouncil.org/creative-missouri-convening/

No red tape, just accessible information

Artist INC Express is coming soon to: Oklahoma Statewide — February 20–22 Joplin, MO/SE Kansas — March 21–22 Texarkana — April 11–12 Kansas City —April 11–12 Kansas Statewide — April 17–19 Memphis, TN — April 18–19 Nebraska Statewide —April 24–26 Hannibal, MO/Quincy, IL — April 25–26 Branson, MO/Eureka Springs, AR — May 16–17

Get un-stuck in your practice! ✂️
Our facilitators are here to share their expertise freely, not hide the difficulties of creative entrepreneurship. They'll keep it 💯 and help you reach the next level of your #arts business.

Register at https://www.maaa.org/series/artist-inc-express/

artists thrive summit logo in blue and red, mimicking the crown on Royals stadium and water in a fountain

Get ready for the Artists Thrive Summit! Kansas City's theme: Artist-Led Spaces 🧑‍🎨

When artists are in charge, organizations empower underrepresented voices, foster new ideas, and collabs — and KC does it well! 😎

Grab your ticket at https://www.artiststhrive.org/summit/kansascity

🚨 RESOURCE ALERT🚨

WAGENCY offers free membership to a collective of artists and tools. And for $5/month you can access their contract generator, skills calculator, and more! https://wageforwork.com/wagency/join-wagency

A young black boy wearing a cowboy hat is leading a brown horse by a rope in a grassy fenced area.

"The Long Ride Home" challenges assumptions about the cowboy identity.

Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Ron Tarver provides insightful photographs of Black people embodying Western culture. https://eusa.org/exhibition/the-long-ride-home/

📸 Ron Tarver "Small Boy, Big Horse."

hands carving wood, weaving, sewing, carving clay, and forging

Are you a #nonprofit #craft guild or collective? We want to hear from you!

Help shape our upcoming #grant program, Heartland Craft Guilds: Capacity Support Grants, via a roundtable session.

Register at https://www.maaa.org/series/heartland-craft-guilds-roundtable-sessions/

A rabbit, with its back towards the viewer, looks thorugh a giant book with a hole in the center.

Exhibits USA's traveling exhibition "Finding Alice" explores the influence of this classic story on artists across generations with work by Abelardo Morell and others. https://eusa.org/exhibition/finding-alice/

📸 Abelardo Morell "Down the Rabbit Hole" Courtesy of Edwynn Houk Gallery.

Artist and Arts Organization Opportunities and Deadlines M-AAA's curated list of upcoming deadlines and opportunities for artists and arts organizations seeking to grow their practices and secure funding.

🩷 Roses are red, violets are blue, creativity thrives when it’s nurtured by you. www.maaa.org/news/artist-...

a modern woman with long red hair holding up a paper cutout of a suffragette.

New from Exhibits USA!

"A Yellow Rose Project" features the work of more than 100 contemporary artists responding to the centennial of the 19th Amendment, securing women's right to vote.

📸 Megan Jacobs, "Equality Then & Now;" archival inkjet print on paper; Courtesy of the artist.

writer typing in a bookstore

Needing support in your practice?

Artist INC is a wellspring of expertise from professional artists. And afterward, you have a new network of artists in your community!

See our upcoming sessions in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and more! https://www.maaa.org/series/artist-inc-express/

gallery full black dresses on headless mannequins against a pink background

For a century, one garment has remained an icon of style, sophistication, and cultural expression—the LBD. 🖤

Exhibits USA's "The Little Black Dress at 100" explores the enduring legacy of this style icon.

Take a look. Get inspired. https://eusa.org/exhibition/the-little-black-dress

Congrats to Anthony Sonnenberg (Arkansas), Nathan Young (Oklahoma), and Willi Carlisle (Missouri) on being named 2026 USArtist Fellows!

@unitedstatesartists.org honors artists with $50K in unrestricted funding and tailored services. https://www.unitedstatesartists.org/programs/usa-fellowship/2026

Blue map of Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas with cities highlighted by white stars.

@smudataarts.bsky.social dropped a spicy 🌶️ list of the Top 100 Most Arts-Vibrant Communities of 2025.

Did your town make the cut? Do you agree with the order? 🤔
https://culturaldata.org/arts-vibrancy-2025/top-100-communities
#missouri #texas #arkansas #nebraska #kansas #oklahoma

Missouri Citizens for the Arts A vital resource for artists, arts organizations, and arts patrons in Missouri, dedicated to arts advocacy, securing arts funding, and encouraging the community to lobby for arts initiatives through t...

Without action, these cuts would significantly reduce MAC grants, limiting access to the arts for Missourians of all ages.

🎨 Stand up for the arts. Join advocates from across the state on February 4 for Arts Advocacy Day at the Capitol in Jefferson City.

👉 Get involved at MO4Arts.org

🚨 Missouri Citizens for the Arts needs your voice 🚨

The Governor’s proposed budget would cut funding for the Missouri Arts Council by more than 36% even though MO’s Arts and Culture sector generates $11.5 billion for the economy.

OK State Capitol rotunda

Yesterday, Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor Matt Pinnell and the Oklahoma Arts Council recognized 21 individuals and organizations from Tishomingo to Tulsa for their outstanding efforts in the arts!

Congrats awardees! arts.ok.gov/our_programs/Governors_Arts_Awards.html

Brandi Pace holding a wooden banjo. Credit: Courtesy of the artist; Riyaaz Qawwali and Jones Family Singers Houston Performance 2021. Credit: Indo-American Association; ¡Viva Teatro! Cinco de Mayo Festival de Danza y Musica. Credit: Dustin Wyatt.

The US Regional Arts Organizations announced the grant recipients of Walking Together: Investing in Folklife in Communities of Color!

12 artists and organizations from the M-AAA region were awarded $390K. https://www.maaa.org/news/walking-together-awards-supporting-folklife-communities-of-color/

Kendell in her studio surrounded by VHS tapes

Kendell capturing a voice recording of someone watching an old tape

Kendell capturing a voice recording of someone watching an old tape

Kendell in the a blue van, The Roaming Center for Magnetic Alternatives

When Kendell Harbin Steinback found 30 years of family footage on VHS, she gained a passion for preserving queer history.

That’s why she founded the Roaming Center for Magnetic Alternatives, a mobile media and research center. maaa.org/news/overlooked-stories-artist-kendell-harbin-steinback/

a man in a dark gray shirt and baseball hat singing at Lincoln Crossroads Festival in Nebraska

We're proud to announce the FY26 Artistic Innovations grantees!

Funded projects include a Native-led exhibition in Salina, Kansas, and new music by Oklahoma-based oboist Susan Miranda—among many other innovative works.

🪩 Get to know their projects at https://bit.ly/49A8K8O

Health and Wellbeing in Museums Fund - Museums Association Supporting UK museums to deliver health and wellbeing programmes

Applications for round two of the Health and Wellbeing in Museums Fund are now open 🧘‍♀️

If your museum is looking for support to develop or continue a groundbreaking health and wellbeing programme, we want to hear from you.

Complete our eligibility quiz to find out more about next steps 👇

Art programs give hope to veterans facing PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder is common among veterans, with 10% of men and nearly 20% of women reporting having symptoms at some point in their lives. But could exposure to more arts programming be ...

Check out this story from @pbs.org on Creative Forces grantee Path with Art and their programs' ability to help veterans process their emotions and build community.

Do you have any art-based resolutions for 2026?

Artist and Arts Organization Opportunities and Deadlines M-AAA's curated list of upcoming deadlines and opportunities for artists and arts organizations seeking to grow their practices and secure funding.

We're back with new #competitions, #grants, #residencies, and more! 2026 is going to be chock-full of opportunities.
www.maaa.org/news/artist-...

We're proud to highlight the work of Houston-based artist Alex Arzú, whose deep commitment to creativity, community, and artistry has made a lasting impact on students and neighborhoods across the region.

Read more about Alex at https://www.maaa.org/news/in-the-studio-with-muralist-alex-arzu/

teens singing

The Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge is opportunity for high school students to develop and showcase musical compositions that could be a part of a musical theater production.

Draft one submissions close February 2! https://namt.org/challenge

Artist Marketing Grant. Graphic of a book.

Southwest Contemporary is launching their Artist Marketing Grant, a program created to jumpstart the visibility of working artists in the Southwest.

2 artists will receive a professional development package valued at $3.5K designed.
https://southwestcontemporary.com/artist-marketing-grant/