Programs & Resources
Alternate ROOTS’ programs provide financial and other vital resources for artists and culture bearers whose work is rooted in community, place, tradition, or spirit.
Through our funding programs – Artistic Assistance (Professional Development and Project Development), Advancing Well-Being in the Arts, Partners for Change, and Partners in Action –
we live into our mission of supporting artists and culture bearers while striving for social and economic justice.
Our Fiscal Sponsorship Program provides the 501(c)(3) sponsorship needed to apply for certain grants and receive tax deductible donations. Our funding and fiscal sponsorship programs are open to ROOTS general and voting members – you can learn more about membership here.
We are also a proud founding partner organization of the Intercultural Leadership Institute – a year-long leadership program for artists, culture bearers and other arts practitioners that is changing what leadership looks like in the field of arts and culture.
ALL of our programs are a testament to our belief in the transformative power of art and artists. Read on to learn more about how ROOTS programs can support you.
Artistic Assistance
Our longest running funding program, Artistic Assistance provides direct support to individual artists and cultural workers in the South to enhance their skills, create unique projects, and build community. The program has two funding areas: Professional Development and Project Development.
Professional Development application opens: April 8, 2025
Project Development application opens: Fall 2025
Advancing Well-Being in the Arts
Advancing Well-Being in the Arts is a new program offered by Alternate ROOTS through our participation in the Wallace Foundation’s National Arts Partnership. We have designed our program to provide unrestricted funds for artists, culture bearers, and organizations who serve and reflect communities of the global majority. This program exists to promote economic and cultural justice.
Application opens: April 15, 2025
Partners In Action
Partners in Action is an 18-month program that allows ROOTS the opportunity to be a supportive partner working with artists and cultural organizers from all artistic disciplines. It provides funding and technical support for partnerships projects focused on social justice, climate justice, and cultural equity in grassroots communities throughout the US South. Focused on artist-led community partnerships, Partners in Action highlights the alchemy that happens when art and organizing combine.
Partners in Action will not be accepting applications in 2025.
Partners For Change
Partners for Change provides multi-year funding and technical assistance to artists, culture bearers, and small organizations of the global majority that imagine and practice more racially just systems and structures. Made possible by our relationship with the Surdna Foundation, this program is designed to strengthen the network of artists working in partnership with their communities in support of a progressive southern movement.
Application opens: May/June 2025
Fiscal Sponsorship
Fiscal Sponsorship is a formal arrangement in which Alternate ROOTS (an organization with 501(c)(3) status) sponsors a member project without 501(c)(3) status that makes them eligible to apply for grants and tax deductible individual donations. The sponsored project could be an individual project, a one time collaboration, or a new organization. In return for this service, Alternate ROOTS collects a fee based on the total donations received by the sponsored organizations.
Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI)
The Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI) is a year-long intensive leadership experience for artists, culture bearers and other arts practitioners. ILI’s “intercultural” approach emphasizes overlapping experiences, shared spaces, and mutual accountability – and seeks to challenge dominant social norms while honoring differences of histories, traditions, vocabulary, and more. As a peer cohort, ILI intercultural leaders hone personal and professional skills to affect local, national, and global communities – and promote a shift toward greater awareness, resourcing, and action in the broader field of arts and culture.
Now in its sixth year, ILI is a collaborative program of Alternate ROOTS, First Peoples Fund, National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures (NALAC) , PA’I Foundation, Sipp Culture, First Alaskans Institute, and The International Association of Blacks in Dance.
YOOTS : Youth At ROOTS!
Alternate ROOTS has always benefited from the presence and leadership of young people at our events and in our community. Team YOOTS aims to:
- Create art and relationship-building opportunities for young and emerging artists within Alternate ROOTS
- Develop programs that highlight creative and organizing work by and for young people in the region.
- Empower young artists and culture workers with the resources they need to thrive in their practice and beyond, allowing them to be their authentic selves.
