the emi kuriyama emergency relief award lottery

Lottery is now closed. Decisions will be sent by Friday, April 10, 2020.

We are offering two $500 emergency relief awards to individual artists and writers whose creative practices and incomes have been impacted by COVID-19. Two recipients will be determined by a lottery, and must each be based in Los Angeles County.

With the cancellation of our jobs, residencies, and events, those of us that make income partially or fully through freelance work are losing critical opportunities to support ourselves. The emi kuriyama emergency relief awards will open for applications to artists and writers who have lost or anticipate losing income in Los Angeles County. Two recipients will be determined by a lottery.

We welcome applications from lower income artists and writers living in Los Angeles County, who are not represented by a commercial gallery or enterprise, and who have not received a substantial grant of $5,000 or more since January 1, 2020. 

The application will open on March 27, 2020 and close on April 6, 2020. The lottery will be conducted by one of our volunteer organizers shortly after, and recipients will be directly notified via the contact information they provided in the application. 

While many of us are experiencing unprecedented levels of precariousness, there are limited funds for us to grant. Before applying, please consider if you are actually in need. For instance (but not limited to), if you are still able to work from home or have other forms of income or financial support, or if you have health insurance, proper care and nutrition, please consider not applying so that the funds are available for the most impacted folks in our community. If you are a recipient of this award and your financial situation fortuitously changes, please consider rescinding your application and giving someone else the chance. In other words, if you know $500 can go a longer way for someone other than yourself, we thank you for being considerate and urge you not to apply. Unfortunately, due to the precariousness of our own artist-and-arts-administrator-run operation, we can only support two emergency relief awards at this time.