KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — An Appalachian arts organization is offering more grant opportunities to regional LGBTQ+ artists after it said it received a $250,000 donation.
The Waymakers Collective is effectively a group of philanthropists who are seeking to fund LGBTQ+ artists, organizations and cultural workers in Central Appalachia in response to a law that sought to ban public drag performances. It was later found unconstitutional and is still being discussed in court.
With the donation, the collective said it is collecting applications for one-year project grants of $5,000. Much of the money for the organization's Queer Arts Liberation Fund comes from the Ford Foundation, and the fund is meant to support projects that help make sure LGBTQ+ voices are celebrated and amplified across Appalachia.
“In recent years, our region has been rocked by the legislative attacks on queer creative expression through 'don’t say gay' and 'drag ban' laws in several of our Appalachian states,” said Joe Tolbert Jr. in a release from the collective. "It is important to support LGBTQ+ artists in these difficult times because so much of our cultural production is about joy, and that joy is our resistance to these times of repression."
The collective said it hopes to uplift projects centered around "Appalachian Futurism." It also said Appalachian Futurism is centered on equitable justice, creative cooperation and sustainable stewardship.
Grant applications opened on April 2 and will close on April 30. The collective's group of artists, performers and activists will vote on which projects to give grants to, and grantees will be contacted by May 15. After working on projects, artists will also need to go through a post-reporting process to discuss the impact of the grant.
The Waymakers Collective said from 2020 to 2023, it gave out a total of 241 grants totaling around $1.2 million. It also said around 40% of grantees were given to Black, Indigenous and people of color.
Anyone interested in applying for a grant from the Queer Arts Liberation Fund can apply online.
