Guilford Performing Arts Festival's 2022 Artists' Awards Competition Opens

Applications are now open for the Guilford Performing Arts Festival's (GPAF) 2022 Artists' Awards, which will commission new works by Connecticut artists in dance, drama and music. As many as six $2,500 grants will be awarded for the creation of new work to be premiered at the 2023 festival.

The festival has granted a total of $20,000 since 2018 to eight performing artists, who have created or completed new work-three in dance, three in drama and two in music. The grants have enabled the festival to bring innovative new works to Shoreline Connecticut audiences, helped bolster the careers of Connecticut performers and, in 2020, provided six artists with a small amount of income at a time when the Covid-19 shutdown prevented them from performing.

Applications are being accepted for awards in music, dance and drama (which will include all forms of spoken word). Awards will be given on merit in each genre. All professional performing artists who live in Connecticut are eligible. Recipients must use the grant to develop original, new work and premiere it at the next biennial Guilford Performing Arts Festival, scheduled for September 21-24, 2023.

Award criteria, rules and an online application can be found on the festival's website, guilfordperformingartsfest.org. Applications will close on July 31. Recipients will be announced in late summer this year.

GPAF created the Artists' Award program in 2018 as a way to support the creation of new work by Connecticut performing artists and to provide a vehicle for premiering original material at the festival. The grants are possible because of the generosity of donors through the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven's Great Give and other festival supporters.