October 22, 2021 | From City of New Orleans
MAYOR CANTRELL HIGHLIGHTS NOTCF CULTURE BEARER GRANT RECIPIENTS
NEW ORLEANS — Today, Mayor LaToya Cantrell hosted an event honoring the recent New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund (NOTCF) grant recipients, who are culture bearers in the city. The event was hosted at the JOB1 Center, who is a partner that offers business center space to NOTCF staff and technical grant assistance to cultural applicants and career services.
“I came up close and personal with how we use resources to market our culture, our community and our people. There was a real deficit in the reinvestment in the people that we marketed, and so we had to change that dynamic,” said Mayor LaToya Cantrell. “When I picked up the can that had been kicked down the road for infrastructure dollars, part of that was getting funding for the foundation of this city, which is our culture. The thought was getting money to our people, the people that keep culture alive, the people that we depend on.”
“NOTCF grants serve as a catalyst for investment in culture bearers, producers, and organizations and create a virtuous cycle of reinvestment for growth of the cultural economy,” said Lisa Alexis, Director of the Office of Cultural Economy. “Investment in our cultural community makes our tourism economy, and the economic success of our other businesses possible.”
Mayor Cantrell is the pioneering champion of the establishment of NOTCF as she worked with colleagues on the state level to allocate more tax dollars derived from tourism to directly support the progress made since the launch of the grant program in May 2021.
The mission of NOTCF is to support cultural industries and culture bearers of the city of New Orleans through partnerships, grants and programs to advance sustainable tourism.
This event centered around the distribution of $1.1 million in grant awards given directly to cultural artists. Of that money, $112,000 in grants went to Mardi Gras Indians and Baby Dolls. The Open NOLA Venue grant has had 7 recipients thus far, totaling $40,000, including recipients like Preservation Hall and Gasa Gasa. Some of the other grant recipients included Mardi Gras Indians, Baby Dolls, Krewe of Red Beans, Preservation Hall Foundation, Make Music Nola and many more.
New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund offers a funding program to individuals and organizations that are engaging in activities that promote the cultural economy through educating our youth, training our cultural producers, providing networking opportunities, creating cultural events and much more.
Some of the grants that NOTCF offers includes the Open NOLA Venue grant which offers up to $6,000 and is a resource to help live entertainment venues re-ignite their bars/clubs by using $2,000 to purchase PPE supplies and using the remaining $4,000 to book live performances. Other grants are at different levels and fund projects up to $20,000.
Grant funding is still available to interested cultural bearers and artisans. Cultural bearers interested in applying for grant funding can visit NOTCF’s website by clicking here.
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