Intro to Grant Writing Basics

Learn how to apply for grants for creatives! Savannah Imani Wade, founder of OARA, offers an informative and accessible workshop about navigating the world of grants. Learn the essentials of applications, writing compelling proposals, and strategies for standing out in your submissions. Grants are critical to a successful long term creative practice and projects. Together we will deconstruct the grant process to be accessible and easier to approach! OARA is a volunteer-run and operated community-centric collaborative. OARA supports the growth of emerging creatives by promoting financial liberation, holistic development, and community-supported sustainability for local Baltimore artists.

Teacher Bio

Savannah Imani Wade (they/she) is an interdisciplinary artist, organizer, grant consultant, and Creative Director of OARA based in Baltimore, MD. Wade holds a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art and has performed in Pulitzer Prize winning operas, Bread & Puppet Theater, The Kennedy Center, and more. Wade makes work incorporating mask-work, puppetry, illustration, painting, and performance as a methodology of remembering the forgotten spiritual traditions of their lineage. Their practice draws on the commonalities and contradictions of their Black Southern Christian, Mexican-American, and White heritages as a solid and expanding foundation to their work. In 2023 Wade founded OARA (Our Art Room Agency), an artist collective focused on advancing the financial liberation, holistic development, and community-supported sustainability for emerging artists. The urgency for artists to create self-sustaining systems becomes even more clear. OARA rises to this challenge, offering infrastructure and programming that not only supports artists—but positions them as architects of alternative economies.