Get Ready Grant Program Overview
The Get Ready Grant program supports individual craft artists who make original three-dimensional objects by hand, including folk and traditional artforms, who reside and work in the US, US Territories, Tribal Nations or Indigenous Communities with grants of $500 to conduct activities that will help safeguard their studios, protect their careers and prepare for emergencies. A full list of eligible grant activities are included below. Individuals who’ve previously received a get ready grant are not eligible to apply.
Individuals who have received funding through the Emergency Relief Grant program are eligible to apply to the Get Ready Grant program. Grant funds must be utilized to complete the proposed project within six months of the grant award. A final grant report is not required in this program.1099’s are not issued for grants awarded.
Meenakshi Jha used her Get Ready Grant to upgrade her home studio with more ergonomic furniture, in addition to a power tool kit and electric scissors. “This grant made my working conditions better and safer.”
Cynthia Alberto received a Get Ready Grant to hire a website designer for her online portfolio, and a 3D rendering artist to help her draw a future project. “The website is a long term investment in my career.”
Program Requirements & Guidelines
Click to expand toggles. All grant information is also available as downloadable PDFs below.
To be eligible for consideration, individuals must meet the following:
- Be an individual craft artist
- Are a minimum age of 18 years or older
- Reside and work in US, US Territories, Tribal Nations or Indigenous Communities for the last two years
- Have a public-facing craft practice
- Have not previously received a get ready grant
- Craft practice does not include hate speech or symbols
CERF+ verifies artists' identification through a third party system called ID Pal to ensure that an individual is who they claim to be by confirming their information against independent, trusted data sources. This process is crucial for preventing fraud, meeting regulatory compliance, and building trust in digital transactions.
Applications are not considered complete until the ID verification has been submitted. If you have questions or experience issues with the process, please email [email protected].
While we acknowledge that there are varying ways that organizations, collectives and artists define, endorse, or acknowledge craft in various ways, for the purpose of this grant program, we define a craft artist as:
An individual who makes original three-dimensional visual art objects by hand. Applicants must create the majority of their artworks themselves, though they can incorporate store-bought elements. The object-making must be the primary, meaningful and/or substantive part of your current artistic practice. We look for objects in which the artist transformed the materials into something new. Visual craft objects can be functional or nonfunctional.
Examples of eligible mediums and materials include:
- Basketry
- Beadwork
- Book Art
- Bones
- Ceramic
- Concrete
- Fiber
- Furniture
- Glass
- Gourds
- Jewelry
- Leather
- Media
- Metal
- Mixed
- Mosaic
- Paper
- Plastic
- Recycled Materials
- Sculpture
- Shells
- Wearable
- Wood
- Textiles
Jewelry: Includes wearable items that are primarily handmade from scratch or using primarily raw materials.
Beadwork: Includes bead stringing, bead weaving, bead looming, bead embroidery, and wire wrapping with beads. This would also include using beads to create jewelry, weavings, and as surface decoration on clothing, sculptures, masks, and other three-dimensional objects.
Musical Instruments/Puppet Making: Performing artists who also make musical instruments or puppets may be eligible if making these objects is a primary part of their practice, and those objects meet CERF+’s other criteria for craft objects.
Fashion/Clothing: Garments of original design that are handmade by the designer or their immediate, local family or circle are often eligible. Clothing-making that involves a great deal of hand embellishment, hand-weaving, unusual cuts, or that preserves a specific cultural tradition tied to cultural bearers typically falls into this category.
Printmaking: We have supported artists who primarily work in handmade printmaking techniques including relief processes (such as woodcut and linoleum blocks), intaglio (etching, engraving, drypoint, aquatint, and mezzotint), and traditional lithography (such as using a stone, metal plate, or polymer plate that is hand-inked for printing). In certain cases, silk screening may also be considered an eligible art form, provided documentation shows the handwork involved in the making process.
Multi-disciplinary or Mixed mediums: We recognize that artists may have multiple artistic practices and often move in various spaces and work with different mediums. To be eligible for support, we look for craft object-making to be a primary, meaningful and/or substantive part of your current practice.
Shared Practices: For artists that work in a shared practice, such as a collective or a partnership, we will consider your practice as eligible if the overall work is focused in a craft medium as described above. Please explain your individual role in the shared practice and highlight objects that especially exhibit your part of the work in your application. If your shared artistic practice experienced an emergency, please submit one application per craft artist.
Our program looks for active and recent engagement or participation in the craft community and/or in the local community. This can include participating in or hosting/leading exhibitions, public cultural events, fairs, or craft shows but can also be:
- Articles, interviews, reviews, or features about the artist in written, video, or audio journalism
- Craft show or gallery representation of the artist on a website, brochure, or catalog
- Participating in an organization, group, shared studio, or residency
- Publications about the artist
- Recognition, awards, and honors
- Online presence
- Your own artistic website
- Being featured on another professional website such as a museum shop
- Social media presence that focuses on your art work, making or practice
- E-commerce
- Analog or Digital Documentation
- Articles or journalism about you and your work
- Brochures, Fliers, Posters, or other Documents from artistic and cultural events
Examples of eligible activities include:
Studio Safeguards
- Safety equipment
- Upgrading studio and/or equipment to improve studio health and safety
- Contractor consulting
- Purchasing safer materials and supplies
- Purchasing a stronger tent, display wall, or weights for participating in outdoor fairs
Emergency/Disaster Readiness
- Emergency tools, supplies and equipment
- Upgrading studio to reduce disaster risk
- Contractor consulting
- Theft protection measures
Business Protection & Support
- Documentation and archiving
- Inventory software
- Business planning for continuity and contingencies
- Creating secure business record-keeping systems
- Tutorials or training in e-commerce
- Professional photography of their craft portfolio
- Employing the services of website designers
- Short-term support for childcare to allow studio work time
Career Protection
- Legacy or estate planning
- Financial planning services
- Documentation or digitization of artwork and/or related records
- Legal counsel
- Enrolling in a professional development course or workshop to enhance career protection
To apply for a Get Ready Grant, select the “Apply Now” button on this page and follow the directions to complete the online application and upload the required supporting documentation.
Incomplete applications will not be considered. If you have any questions or encounter any technical issues please contact [email protected].
Additional Information
Applications are reviewed annually and selections are made using a lottery process. We do not guarantee any applicant a grant.
The Determination Process involves:
- CERF+ Staff reviews the application to ensure it:
- Meets the eligibility standards outlined
- The proposed project is eligible and feasible
- The budget accounts for any additional costs
- A plan is included for sharing the project
- Applicants are notified of the outcome via email provided in the application
- Incomplete applications will not be considered and are automatically disqualified.
- Determinations are typically provided 30 business days following the application close date, however notification timing may vary depending on the volume of applications and the time needed to complete the determination process.
CERF+ regularly reviews guidelines, eligibility and grant award amounts. If you have received help from CERF+ in the past, be aware that the process and grant amount may have changed since that time. Prior funding does not guarantee eligibility for current programs. We are happy to discuss how recent changes may affect your application.
Priority is given to first time applicants and individuals who have not yet received funding through the Get Ready Grant program.
- Two-Dimensional Art:
- Painting, poured paintings, and spray paint art
- Monoprints and monotypes
- Canotype printmaking
- Photography
- Drawing, illustration, and graphic design
- Collage
- Video and digital media
- Digital printmaking
- Illustration including comic strips, graphic novels, and comic book art
- Tattoos
- Jewelry that is primarily assembled from parts that are factory-made or made by third parties with no significant hand alteration and transformation of the items.
- Performing arts practices such as dance, music, and theater.
- Set design, sound design, lighting design, costume design and related building elements.
- Literary arts practices such as fiction/nonfiction, journalism, poetry, screenwriting, playwriting, storytelling, biographies, copywriting, blogging, and academic writing.
- Consumable Items: Food, beverages, soap, candles, oils/essences, flower arrangements, makeup, hairstyling, and nails.
- Objects made from plans, kits and patterns that are manufactured or designed by someone other than the maker.
- Objects made from manufactured or purchased molds and casts.
- Art that is factory-made or made by third parties without significant hand alteration and transformation of the items.
- Clothing design: garments that are factory-made or made by third parties or that are only slightly altered with no handiwork such as embroidery, applique, or beadwork.
- Clothing that is designed by the applicant, but constructed by contractors
- Premade T-shirts or other garments that have been silkscreened or embellished with downloaded or iron-on designs
- Artificial flower arrangements and wreaths that are assembled from store-bought elements.
- Downloaded Visual Art Forms designed by someone other than the applicant such as:
- 3D printing with downloaded models
- Fuse bead/meltable bead art with downloaded patterns such as Perler, Melty, and Hama beads
- Computer-controlled plotting machines such as Cricut and Glowforge with downloaded designs
- Repair, conservation, or restoration of antiques, furniture, cars, or art objects.
- Taxidermy
- Architecture or Home Renovation
- Picture Framing or Canvas Stretching
If you have questions or need additional clarification regarding your individual craft practice email [email protected].
Examples of ineligible activities include:
- Art making projects or related supply expenses
- Studio rent
- Routine/ordinary car maintenance or repairs
Once awarded, grant agreements must be signed and fully executed within 90 days. Failure to do so may result in the termination of your grant award.
Termination of a grant award does not prohibit individuals from reapplying again in the future.
Questions?
Check the FAQs below to see if your question may have already been answered. If you have additional questions, please email us at [email protected]
Frequently Asked Questions
Click to expand toggles.
You can reset your password using this link. Also, we highly recommend writing down your password as not all devices save passwords in a way that works well with our grants system.
If a reset doesn’t work, email [email protected].
No. Get Ready grants from CERF+ are considered non-taxable grants/gifts. The IRS does not require us to provide a Form 1099. We recommend that grant recipients consult with an accountant to ensure you are compliant in reporting taxable income.
No, your income can come from any source. However, we do look for active and recent engagement or participation in the craft community and a public-facing artistic practice as mentioned above.
Applications for the Get Ready Grant program are accepted on an annual basis.
Applications typically open mid-January, with a deadline mid-February and determinations sent out mid-March.
To view specific dates for the upcoming cycle, please review the guidelines linked above.
Common reasons for declined applications include an incomplete application, an ineligible artistic practice, no recent public-facing artistic activity, an ineligible project, or the application was eligible but was not selected through the lottery process.
To request additional information about the denial of your application, please email [email protected].
No, we do not require a final grant report.
If you previously applied but were not awarded a grant, you are eligible to reapply.
If you were previously awarded a Get Ready grant you are not eligible to reapply.
Yes, you can still apply for the Emergency Relief Grant or other CERF+ grants that may be available.
Grantees
Kazuki Takizawa
Glass ArtistA very good friend of mine received emergency funding from CERF+ several years ago when a neighbor’s booth set up at a craft show has…
Red Weldon Sandlin
CeramicistWe never think we will be the ones that may have to ask for help when an unfortunate accident happens that takes us out of…
Carol Keiser
Studio ArtistI am forever grateful that CERF+ was there for me when I needed them with a quick and easy loan that helped me get through…