NALAC Announces National Open Call For 2022 Catalyst For Change Fellowships

The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC), in collaboration with Southwest Folklife Alliance (SFA), has announced the open call for applications for the 2022 Catalyst for Change (CFC) Fellowship program. The Fellowship is made possible with significant support from the Surdna Foundation Thriving Cultures Program and is intended to catalyze community-based, and artist supported, visions for creative solutions to racial injustices.

In 2020 via the inaugural year for the Catalyst for Change (CFC) program NALAC supported eleven artists, representing seven different artistic disciplines, ona??projects that addressed systems of injustice within their own communities. Selected projects represented a wide range of topics, such as immigration, healthcare, incarceration, and education through a variety of mediums including visual art, performance arts, and creative writing.

"The inaugural year offered an opportunity for NALAC to provide substantial support for artists, allowing them to focus their talents and skill on increasing racial justice awareness on structural issues in their communities. We are excited to move forward with the 2022 CFC program, in partnership with SFA, to expand upon the foundations and outcomes of the initial program and to further support artists approaching community issues with radical new insight," said NALAC president and CEO María López de León.

For the 2022 Catalyst for Change (CFC) program NALAC has partnered with Southwest Folklife Alliance (SFA), an affiliate non-profit organization of the University of Arizona, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Southwest Folklife Alliance (SFA) will connect with selected fellows to provide training, coaching, and support for community-based research efforts. This connection will aim to support fellows in the development of a community-centered approach to identifying racial justice issues and their impacts.

"The NALAC and SFA partnership is grounded in our organizations' shared commitment to support communities of color in harnessing cultural knowledge and artistic practice as essential tools for birthing, sustaining, and advancing movements for social justice," said Leía Maahs, Executive Director of the Southwest Folklife Alliance. "It is our hope that by supporting artists and their communities as visionary leaders of change, that the Catalyst for Change Fellowship will advance creative solutions to racial injustice."

The Catalyst for Change (CFC) Fellowship is open to Latinx artists and culture workers located in the U.S. and Puerto Rico with the potential to utilize community informed art-making to increase civic engagement/activism, thereby creating systemic change through artistic interventions. Fellows will be selected through a hybrid-application process that launches with the current open call.

The application process is as follows:

Stage 1- Open Call - CFC Letter of Interest Form, May 9 - Jun 6, 2022
Interested applicants are invited to submit a CFC Letter of Interest Form which focuses on the applicant's role in their community and perspective on working with communities on racial justice and equity.

Stage 2- By Invitation Only - 2022 CFC Fellowship Application
Offered by invitation only, select applicants who submitted a CFC Letter of Interest form will be asked to submit a more comprehensive application for the CFC Fellowship.

For full eligibility requirements and application guidelines, please visit the Catalyst for Change (CFC) webpage.

Interested applicants are encouraged to register for a Catalyst for Change (CFC) Live Applicant Support Webinar to learn more.

• Thursday May 12, 2022 from 3:00pm - 4:00pm CST
• Thursday May 19, 2022 from 3:00pm - 4:00pm CST

Register for a Live Applicant Support Webinar. Additional support opportunities are available on thea??NALAC website.

The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) is the nation's premier nonprofit organization exclusively dedicated to the promotion, advancement, development, and cultivation of the Latino arts field. For more information about NALAC and its programs please visita??www.nalac.org.