Clinic for Open-Source Arts Receives $30,000 NEA Grant

Denver, CO—The Clinic for Open Source Arts (COSA) has been approved for a $30,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support the training of new artist communities to contribute to open-source tools. COSA's project is among the more than 1,100 projects across America totaling nearly $27 million that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2021 funding.

“As the country and the arts sector begin to imagine returning to a post-pandemic world, the National Endowment for the Arts is proud to announce funding that will help arts organizations such as COSA at the University of Denver reengage fully with partners and audiences,” said NEA Acting Chairman Ann Eilers. “Although the arts have sustained many during the pandemic, the chance to gather with one another and share arts experiences is its own necessity and pleasure.”

Director Chris Coleman is excited that "the grant will allow us to invite a new generation of diverse voices to the community of open-source tools that are in use by artists around the world."

The project will train new artist communities to contribute to open-source tools. A five-week online workshop plus a two-day event in Denver will train a diverse national group of 10 digital artists to be open-source contributors. They will learn to engage and reshape the communities of developers around creative, open source tools as fully participating members. We are empowering under-represented people in the field to do this work, to seed new, more inclusive ideas into the toolmaking communities and into the shape of the tools themselves. By training them as a group and pairing them with the Community Leaders from our previous grant, we will also help to create a long-term support network. 

For more information on the projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.