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A new Triangle microgrant is backing community-first art.
A recently launched Triangle microgrant is built on a familiar impulse: Take what you have been given and send it back out into the community. Enter the Serendib Embers Micro-Grant, which opened in line with local art business Serendib Creative’s five-year anniversary.
“I’ve had my company for five years, which is huge for me,” remarks founder Mayanthi Jayawardena. “I never thought I would be a full-time artist.” After years working in public health advocacy, Jayawardena shifted gears to be a creative, and now sees art as inseparable from community care. “There’s just so much going on in the world, and I feel like art is such a form of advocacy,” she notes.
The Serendib Embers Micro-Grant is designed to support community-centered, cross-sector projects that use art as the primary driver for connection and collaboration. The program prioritizes partnerships between artists and organizations working across disciplines, with projects responding to social, cultural, environmental or economic needs across the Triangle. This year, three recipients will each receive $500, with the option of two mentorship sessions.
For Jayawardena, the grant is about catching (and funding!) ideas before they slip away. “I just want these microgrants to be a catalyst for folks who are sitting on these ideas and provide that support to get them started,” she says. “I want to let people know what they care about matters, and if they want to take action, there are people in this area that will support them.”
The program is designed with staying power in mind, nudging applicants to dream past one project and toward ideas that can put down roots locally. “I really want folks to be able to talk about how this is something that essentially they’re planting the seeds for,” maintains Jayawardena, mentioning the mentorship component is meant to extend that support beyond the initial funding. “I want them to have not only financial support, but also a strategic kind of development support too.”
The grant itself is funded through Jayawardena’s own creative practice. “Anybody who invested in me in the Triangle… I took a percentage of part of what they paid me, and I put it into this fund,” she says. “Everybody who invested in me is also a part of investing back into the community.”
If you’re a local creative itching for a boost, now is a great time to start. Applications are welcome through April 17, with awardees dropping April 30. Funded projects will take shape across the Triangle May through December. @serendibcreative
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