MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama State Council on the Arts has awarded more than $3.9 million in grants to 201 organizations and educational institutions across 36 counties, supporting theater productions, festivals, concerts, exhibitions and after-school arts programs in communities throughout the state.
The $3,909,400 in grant funding, approved for fiscal 2027, was announced Wednesday after the council’s 15-member board voted to approve the awards at its quarterly meeting held last week in Florence and Sheffield.
The grants are funded through an annual appropriation from the Alabama Legislature and additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
“This funding cycle represents one of the largest single rounds of grantmaking the council has undertaken in recent years,” according to the Alabama Political Reporter, which first reported the announcement. The grants will support programs taking place during the 2027 fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2027.
Grant categories include Operating Support, Statewide Partnerships, Statewide Coordination, Project Grants, Administrative Project Grants and Curriculum-Based Project Grants.
Among the largest awards, the Birmingham Museum of Art received $120,000 in operating support, while Red Mountain Theatre in Birmingham received $110,000. The Alabama Dance Council and the Alabama Writers’ Forum each received $110,000 in statewide partnership funding, and the Alabama Arts Alliance received $100,000.
Amp Up Arts, a statewide coordination initiative, received $125,000, with additional funding directed to collaborative sites in Tuscaloosa, Huntsville, Mobile and Troy.
Other notable grants included $95,000 to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, $75,000 to the Mobile Museum of Art, $68,000 to the Huntsville Museum of Art and $53,000 to the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra.
During the Florence and Sheffield meeting, the council also met with officials from Shoals-area arts initiatives, including grant recipient Amp Up Arts, which operates a collaborative site in the region.
The Alabama State Council on the Arts, established in 1967, is the state’s official arts agency. Headquartered in Montgomery, it is governed by a 15-member council appointed by the governor and led by Executive Director Dr. Elliot Knight.
Since its inception, the council has awarded nearly 20,000 grants totaling $135 million, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama. In 2025 alone, the agency awarded 570 grants totaling more than $8 million to over 350 organizations, educational institutions, municipalities and arts programming groups.
The council’s fiscal 2027 budget reached $9.1 million, supported primarily by the Alabama Education Trust Fund, with additional funding from the NEA partnership grant and a state tax check-off program that allows taxpayers to donate to the Arts Development Fund.
Applications are reviewed by a panel of peers from the artistic and creative sector, the full 15-member council, council staff and the council’s Grants Review Committee.
The council’s next grant cycle, for Creative Places Arts Facilities, will be open for applications from Oct. 1 through Dec. 1, 2026. Earlier this year, the council awarded $2.7 million through the same program to support construction, renovation and enhancement of arts facilities across the state.
In June, the council also awarded $172,500 in fellowship grants to 23 individual artists and arts educators for fiscal 2027, increasing individual fellowship awards from $5,000 to $7,500 to provide more robust support for Alabama’s creative community.
Funded programs in this latest round span a wide range of disciplines, including local and school theater productions, ballet and dance programs, symphony and orchestra concerts, music education, art exhibitions, mural festivals, film screenings, literary and storytelling programs, folk arts and cultural heritage festivals, jazz and blues programs, and arts programs for children with autism.
For more information and a full list of grant recipients, visit arts.alabama.gov.