Overview
The Creative Opportunity Fund provides general operating support grants of $2,000-$5,000 to small professional theatres with budgets under $500,000 working throughout New York State. Applicants to the Creative Opportunity Fund are NOT required to be members of A.R.T./New York. The Creative Opportunity Fund is a regrant of a New York State Council on the Arts program. A.R.T./New York regrants NYSCA funds, and all applicants and grantees will interact with A.R.T./New York as their grantmaker.
The grant aims to distribute flexible funding to support theatres throughout the state with capacity building and stabilization and to increase funding opportunities for theatres that have been left out of mainstream funding opportunities because of barriers associated with racial, economic, disability, and sexual identity and/or geographic location. Payments are made via electronic or paper check, depending on the grantee’s preference.
(A Statewide Theatre Regrant Program)
Timeline
Application Opens: December 2, 2025 at 10am ET
Application Closes: January 20, 2026 at 5pm ET
Office Hours: December 2, 2025 - January 16, 2026
Notifications: March 2026
New for Fall 2025
A.R.T./New York is participating in the use of New York Common Application Questions!
In 2022, The New York Grantmakers in the Arts (NYGIA) formed a Common Application Committee from a variety of different funding institutions (including public, private, corporate, family, and intermediary grantmakers) who met regularly until 2025. The mission of the committee was to identify and suggest commonalities that could streamline the application experience for NYC artists and arts organizations.
The committee drafted a full set of common application narrative questions to be integrated into any grant application as well as explanatory language about the common application project.
A.R.T./New York is pleased to take part in the launch of this exciting new initiative. Several questions in our applications this upcoming year will be taken from the recommended common questions. You will know they are a common application narrative question if you see the following:
*Every question with an asterisk was designed by the New York Grantmakers in the Arts' Common Application Committee. By standardizing question language across applications, this effort seeks to reduce the amount of time New York artists and arts organizations spend on grant proposals. If you encounter one of these questions on another funder's application, you are encouraged to cut and paste the same answer. This work is based on the efforts of the Common Application for the Arts - Bay Area.
Grant Panels
The grants administered by A.R.T./New York are adjudicated by peer panels of New York-based arts administrators, artists, and theatre-makers. If you know someone who would make a great panelist, nominate them. You can also nominate yourself! We accept grant panel nominations on a rolling basis.
Accessibility
A.R.T./New York is committed to making our grantmaking and funding programs accessible to disabled theatre-makers, artists, and administrators. Office hours and virtual information sessions offer automatic captioning through Zoom and Google. Additional accommodations, including ASL interpretation, live captioning, audio description, etc., are available upon request. Please submit requests to Ash at [email protected] at least five business days in advance.
Narrative questions can be submitted in writing or by submitting an audio or video file of a company member answering the questions. If you need additional support in applying to any of A.R.T./New York's grant programs, please contact Erica Wray Barnes at [email protected].
Featured Image In Header: FY25 Creative Opportunity Fund Recipient Catskill Mountain Shakespeare production of The Tempest, April 2024
PC: Phil Mansfield
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