The Individual Artist Fellowship is a highly competitive $7,500 award given to working, professional Kentucky artists who have achieved a high level of excellence and creativity in their work. Fellowships are based on the quality of the work samples submitted by the artist. The FY2027 Fellowship is open to literary artists of fiction, creative nonfiction, playwriting/screenwriting, and poetry. Deadline: March 15  

The Emerging Artist Award is a competitive $1,000 award given to Kentucky artists in the early stages of their careers (typically within the first 10 years of professional artistic work). Applicants must demonstrate a high level of excellence, creativity, and artistic achievement in their work and a commitment to their creative practice. The FY2027 Emerging Artist Award program is open for applications in the following literary and arts subdisciplines: fiction, creative nonfiction, play/screenwriting, and poetry. Deadline: March 15  

The Kentucky Touring Grant is a 1:1 matching grant of up to $5,000 that helps make quality public performances available to the people of the commonwealth. The grant provides presenters with funding to present and promote performances of dance, music, theatre, and storytelling using critically reviewed performers accepted into the Performing Artists Directory. Deadline: March 31 

The Folk and Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant provides $4,000 for a Kentucky mentor traditional artist to teach skills, practices and culture to a less experienced artist from the same community during the course of a year. Deadline: March 31

The Creative Chapters Library Program grant supports hands-on, sequential lifelong learning opportunities in Kentucky public libraries by funding residencies with artists from the Kentucky Arts Council Teaching Artists Directory. Librarians and artists work in partnership to design and implement the residencies. Deadline: April 30