The Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region is announcing the launch of Peak Arts Prize, a broad-based community contest to fund great art that inspires fresh ideas and grows audiences. Peak Arts Prize will allocate awards from The Fund for the Arts, a fund of the Pikes Peak Community Foundation. With the Cultural Office in the lead of that partnership, Fund for the Arts’ resources can now be offered to eligible creative businesses ó like art galleries, dance studios and individual artists ó offering broader support to a diverse arts and cultural ecosystem.††Video applications will be accepted at PeakArtsPrize.org through Feb. 15. The applications will be videos of less than five minutes, submitted as a YouTube link. The video application process offers a fresh perspective on the creatives in the community, allowing applicants to shine in a different way than in a traditional grant application.†Learn more about the application process at PeakArtsPrize.org/apply.†Applications are invited in three categories:Large Arts Organizations (Prize: $7,500)Small Arts Organizations (Prize: $5,000)Individual Artists (Prize: $2,500)††After the application window closes, a panel of expert judges will select nine finalists (three finalists in each category). Those nine finalists will advance to online public voting at PeakArtsPrize.org., from March 1 to March 15, when the community will decide which three projects to fund in 2018.Winners will be announced at a media event on March 21. The Cultural Office is designing and coordinating Peak Arts Prize with the support of partners Pikes Peak Library District, KOAA-TV and American Advertising Federation ó COS. It is currently funded for two years ó 2018 and 2019.†
