“The Creative Reset,” a campaign launched by the newly established Office of Arts, Culture, Music, and Entertainment, comes to a close this Sunday, July 13. Public feedback on the program can be submitted on its public input site until that date.
ACME Assistant Director Morgan Messick provided an update on the initiative, meant to improve public arts funding programs via community insight, at the July 7 Music Commission meeting. Though still evolving, she highlighted the following funding guidelines, which the office hopes to enact in Fiscal Year 2026:
The city has reimagined three of its biggest arts grants, Thrive, Elevate, and Nexus. Whereas previous scoring metrics included cultural erasure/displacement, institutional marginalization, commitment to equity, barriers to access, need for investment, artist pay, community partnerships, historical underrepresentation, leadership composition, historical erasure, and economically disadvantaged status, ACME has eased up on this diversity-focused language, instead proposing scoring for all three programs that focuses on creative work, ability to deliver, and public connection.
The city’s new definition of the Thrive grant states that it “offers focused investment to sustain and grow local arts nonprofit organizations deeply rooted in and reflective of Austin’s diverse cultures.” Awards previously ranged from $85,000 to $150,000 per year in two year cycles, but are now split up into $125,000 per year grants for nonprofits with a creative space and $75,000 per year for those without, with a new rule that grants be capped at 50% of the organization’s operating budget.
The revamped Elevate grant, which assists with creative, administrative, and operational costs, is now only open to federal- or state-designated nonprofits instead of individual artists and artist groups. Award amounts have been reduced from a maximum of $85,000 to between $30,000 and $60,000 based on operating budgets.
The Nexus program, which offers funding on a project-by-project basis, now targets the individual artists and artist groups shut out by Elevate. Awards were previously $5,000 across the board, but now offer $20,000 to those with at least two years of experience and either $2,500 or $5,000 to those with one year of experience.
Thrive, Nexus, and Elevate’s focus on supporting emerging artists and organizations inadvertently shut out more established Austin creative players, like Zilker Theatre Productions, Hyde Park Theatre, the Vortex, and Big Medium – which closed earlier this year – from funding, organizations have complained.
ACME has now made commercial live music venues, performance venues, theatres, museums, galleries, or multi-use spaces eligible for the Creative Space Assistance Program, which will award $60,000 to be used on one or more of the following categories: Rent stipends, property taxes, general liability insurance, and other space-related needs. Applicants will be scored according to compelling need; urgency; co-location with other creative spaces; and community benefit as demonstrated through mission, programs, events, and relationships.
Eligibility has not changed for the Austin Live Music Fund, but scoring metrics have shifted. For musicians and promoters, an emphasis on artist accomplishments like industry recognition awards, stream counts, and high show attendance has been added. Participation in Austin’s music economy, like paying at least the City of Austin pay rate and hiring local creatives and creative spaces, earns points – as do accessibility features for audiences with disabilities and marketing strategies and collaborations that “promote Austin as a global cultural and tourist destination for music.” Award amounts for musicians and promoters have shifted dramatically from either $15,000 or $30,000 to $5,000 or $20,000.
Live music venues gain points through a similar lineup of local business-oriented benchmarks and cultural tourism ideals. Venues earning more than 50% of their gross income through music events, as well as those that host regular all-ages shows and/or benefit or charity events, will score highly. Collaboration with major events, hotels, restaurants, and transportation providers to create tourist experiences also earns applicants points in the current guidelines. Award amounts stay largely the same: venues with operating budgets under $100,000 will receive $30,000, and those with budgets over $100,000 will receive $70,000 (previously $60,000).
Hole in the Wall general manager Clayton England, who joined the Music Commission in March, expressed concerns over new grant-scoring criteria for venues seeking money from the Live Music Fund at the July meeting.
“Live music venues – every single one of them – are very unique and [have] different models. It’s an amalgamation of sociodemographics, geodemographics, who has the money, who’s investing, what partnerships they have as far as promotional agencies are concerned,” England said. He argued that making more than 50% of gross income from music events and hiring at least 40% local musicians – a holdover from previous scoring criteria – might “sound really good in practice,” but might not be feasible for every venue’s specific business model.
ACME has also restructured its Austin Live Music Fund grant program to avoid noncompliance issues that arose in Fiscal Year 2023. That year, the fund awarded 367 grants to musicians, promoters, venues, and other industry professionals – 56 of which remain in a limbo of noncompliance. Recipients are required to file an interim report accounting for the expenditure of the first 50% of their award money before receiving the next 40%, and a final report on how that money was spent is necessary before the final 10% is awarded. Thirty-three of the noncompliant awardees filed their interim report, while the remaining 23 have not filed any reports.
Last month, the Austin Monitor quoted Messick attributing the problem to musicians’ poorly maintained email inboxes and lack of institutional knowledge. This month, ACME Music and Entertainment Division Manager Erica Shamaly took responsibility for system-wide issues with the grant program’s pilot year. Notably, the fund experienced technical difficulties with their reporting system, she said, necessitating a mid-year switch. Through one-on-one work with grantees, staff noted other oversights. In response, they shifted their grant-awarding criteria to accommodate flexible events and projects helmed by individual musicians or small staff. The Long Center, The A&R Foundation, and other educational partnerships aim to help the Austin Live Music Fund supply awardees with knowledgeable resources, she said.
Shamaly said the program continues to work toward compliance for Fiscal Year 2023’s 56 absentee reporters, hoping to account for the $394,500 given to those projects. They have not yet established a deadline for compliance. Grantees still in noncompliance once a deadline has been instated will not be eligible for future city funding.
“We’re whittling that number every day, but we understand the reasons why we have that number,” Shamaly said. “It’s been a learning experience.”
This article appears in July 4 • 2025.