Individual Artists Fellowship
AboutA program of the California Arts Council, administered on the Central Coast by Arts Council Santa Cruz County in partnership with SLO County Arts Council, San Benito County Arts Council, Arts Council for Monterey County, Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture, and Ventura County Arts Council. The fellowship provides unrestricted funding to artists and culture bearers across all disciplines, supporting the continued development of creative work.
Fellowship Funding Levels
The California Arts Council’s Individual Artists Fellowship is designed to meet artists where they are in their creative journey. Three different fellowship levels have been created to provide support for each career stage:
Emerging Artist Fellows
$5,000
Emerging artists are those in the beginning stages of making their work public and engaging the larger community in their practice. Individuals at this career stage may have had a few public showings of their work, but do not yet have ongoing resources or support.
Established Artist Fellows
$10,000
Artists in the Established tier regularly make their work public and engage the larger community in their practice. Individuals in this tier can give multiple examples of artistic and/or cultural works that have made a significant social impact. A substantial portion of their income may come from their art.
Legacy Artist Fellows
$50,000
Artists in the Legacy tier can point to a significant body of work produced over a substantial period of time that has engaged their communities and made a significant social impact. Artists in this tier may be able to point to Emerging and Established Artists that they have mentored or otherwise positively influenced, and may have received national recognition for their work.
2026 - 2027 Program
Visit the Arts Council Santa Cruz website to learn more about this program, review key dates, access the application, and understand artist eligibility and fellowship requirements. Applications are due June 1st.
SLO COUNTY OFFICE HOURS
Questions about the program or your application materials? Drop in office hours are available for artists in SLO County!
April 15 - June 1 | Fridays from 2-4pm
Click to Join
Note: No office hours will be held on Friday, May 8th
Call for Panelists!
Help serve on the Individual Artist Fellowship panel! The 2026 applicant review process will take place between June 10th and July 31st. If you are interested in becoming a panelist or just want to learn more about this opportunity, please contact SLO County Arts Executive Director Jordan Chesnut by email at the link below.
Meet the 2023-2024 Individual Artist Fellows from SLO County
-
Established Artist
Shell Beach artist, Colleen Gnos, is best known for for her ocean and agriculture inspired murals, gold-scaled mermaids painted on surfboards, and her idyllic scenes of surfers and breaking waves. In the last few decades, Colleen has completed public art projects, created art for dozens of wine labels, and has shown her paintings across the USA and Italy.
-
Emerging Artist
Born in Rome, Joanna Fusco is an artist and a writer. One of ten stewards living in an intentional community on California's central coast, her recent work explores the idea of manifest destiny in the American west and its natural friction with the current sentimental and fleeting possibility of modern home ownership. “Unsupervised” is the Substack newsletter where she writes that comes out three times a month, it is also a 2023 featured publication.
Blog Post: Joanna Fusco
February 4, 2026
A little over two years ago, I received a $5,000 grant from the California Council of the Arts through the Individual Artists Fellowship. At the time, my creative practice was active and growing, but physically scattered—spread across borrowed spaces, the kitchen table, and my bedroom. The IAF grant was a turning point because it allowed me to invest not just in my work, but in the conditions that make sustained creative work possible.
With the grant funds, I was able to build out a portion of what is now my studio and commercial space, ROCK SHOP, on California’s Central Coast. This investment helped transform a raw, empty space into a functional studio where I can paint, design, package and store work, and sometimes open my doors to the public. This physical stability has fundamentally changed how I work. Instead of constantly adapting to impermanent setups, I have established routines, scaled my output thoughtfully, and I now take creative risks with more confidence.
I also feel like a part of the community, because I am! ROCK SHOP has since become more than a personal studio—it’s a community-facing space. I now host open studio hours, workshops, and events. The work I produce there reaches audiences through exhibitions, print sales, and collaborations, but it also creates a visible, accessible arts presence in a small coastal town where that kind of space can be rare.
The IAF grant affirmed that investing in infrastructure is a valid and meaningful form of artistic support. It helped me move from a survival-based creative mode into one focused on longevity, generosity, and growth. That shift continues to shape my practice every day.
71 California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship Grants Awarded in Central California in 2023.
2023 California Arts Council (CAC) Individual Artist Fellowships totaling $660,000 have been awarded to 71 artists in the seventeen county central California region, ranging from Fresno through Santa Clara to Santa Barbara and nearly everywhere in between. The program is designed to recognize, uplift, and celebrate the excellence of California artists practicing any art form. In doing so, the CAC is showcasing the centrality of artists’ leadership in guiding the evolution of our traditional and contemporary cultures. The fellows were selected from 512 artists that applied within the region.
Fellowships will support artists of all disciplines at key career stages: Emerging, Established, and Legacy.