The Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) announces the recipients for the 2020-2021 Contracts for Arts Services (CAS) awards. Each year, the CAS program provides general operating and project support to non-profit arts and community organizations, as well as project support to individual artists based and producing work in the City of Atlanta.

“The CAS awards celebrate the contributions and resiliency of the Atlanta cultural community—this year, even more so amidst economic challenges posed by COVID-19,” said Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. “Atlanta’s creative community has written our city’s story through their excellence and truths, and those are invaluable gifts that will benefit generations to come.”

The program, initiated in 1982 to support Atlanta’s thriving arts community, awards annual contracts related to the production, creation, presentation, exhibition, and managerial support of artistic and cultural services in the City of Atlanta.

“In the past 10 years, the City of Atlanta has increased the annual investment to artists and organizations that work each day to improve the quality of life in our city through the arts,” said Camille Russell Love, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs.

During fiscal year 2021, the City of Atlanta through the Contracts for Arts Services program will provide municipal support for the arts totaling more than $1,700,000 to 13 individual artists, 75 arts organizations, and 14 community and neighborhood organizations in the city of Atlanta. 

In addition to the Contracts for Arts Services awards, the City of Atlanta through the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs has supported artists and the non-profit arts sector at this vital time through the following:

• $159,800 – to 35 choreographers, 18 literary artists, 11 photographers, 25 musicians, and 32 visual artists
• $127,000 – to 64 small mid-sized arts organizations through the second round of power2give/Atlanta crowdfunding campaigns

Since inception, power2give/Atlanta has generated more than $2.6 million for Atlanta’s arts community and has helped fund over 330 projects. With City funding constraints stemming from COVID-19, Fractured Atlas has made the decision to retire the power2give crowdfunding platform.

In spite of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the City’s finances, the City of Atlanta remains committed to supporting local artists and non-profit organizations as evidenced by the City’s continued financial support.