The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) recently announced a call for emergency grants for Latinx cultural workers, artists and arts organizations through the Actos de Confianza program.

Grants for artists are $2,500, and organizations can receive up to $5,000 that are intended to support the Latinx cultural sector that has been hard hit by COVID-19.

"We are clear about our responsibility to support humanity in a time of need, and the support we provide through Actos de Confianza is an effort to bring a level of relief to artists and arts organizations that continue to provide hope and manifestations of our higher self," said NALAC President and CEO Maria Lopez de Leon.

The open calls for Actos de Confianza grants, which have been made in collaboration with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Institute for Intercultural Leadership (ILI), are coordinated by geographic region. 

The first grant was released on Jan. 13 for applicants in the Mid-America region. The second will be opened on March 3, 2021 for the eastern United States and Puerto Rico. The third will be launched on April 28, 2021 for the western United States.

For his part, NALAC Deputy Director Alberto Mejía said that "during the pandemic, NALAC and ILI partners have looked at each other, our communities, and critical data to deepen decades of intersectional cultural advocacy and practice with a racial and spatial equity lens to inform the design, scope, and intended impacts of Actos de Confianza."

Guidelines on the application process are available on NALAC's website.

The selection of candidates will be based, according to the partnership, on social, racial and geographic equity and justice, with a commitment to support Black and Indigenous Latino creators, Latino artists and cultural workers with disabilities, and diversity in geographic location and landscape.

NALAC's Actos de Confianza support plan began in April 2020 and supported 221 Latino artists and organizations in 28 states and Puerto Rico through grants of approximately $186,000.

Now, the program that began with a budget of $25,000, has grown with the support of individual donors, the Ford Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Eastside Arts Initiative and San Antonio Area Foundation.

The following are the calls for proposals:

Opening of calls: Jan. 13 2021

Application deadline: Jan. 27, 2021 (closed at 11:59 p.m. CT)

Applicants must reside in one of the following states or territories: Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin. Wyoming

Opening of calls: March 3 2021

Application deadline: March 17, 2021 (closed at 11:59 p.m. CT) 

Applicants must reside in one of the following states or territories: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire , New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington DC and Puerto Rico

Opening of the call: April 28 2021

Deadline to apply: May 12, 2021 (closed at 11:59 p.m. CT)

Applicants must reside in one of the following states or territories: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington.