News comes from Minnesota Citizens for the Arts that the State Arts Board has started distributing money earmarked through the Cultural Legacy Amendment. Here's an excerpt from an email sent out by Sheila Smith, MCA's executive director:

"This week the Minnesota State Arts Board made decisions about nearly $7M in grants from the Arts and Culture Heritage Fund. We knew there would be a huge demand for the arts via grants from the Legacy amendment, but this is amazing. They received so many applications that only 40% of requests could get a grant. Staff and Board commented that they had received many more good applications than could be funded. Clearly, this is an argument that a larger percentage of the new amendment-created Arts and Culture Heritage Fund should be going to the Minnesota State Arts Board and Regional Arts Council (RAC) system. You may recall that we had a big fight on our hands last year to make sure that the new funding from the amendment actually went to the arts via the MSAB and RACs. The State Arts Board will be posting the new grants on their website in a week or so. www.arts.state.mn.us

For information about Legacy grants from the RACs, check their websites. The Regional Arts Councils too are seeing an unprecedented demand for funding. Some estimates are that overall, 3000-4000 grants will be made in the arts statewide between the MSAB and 11 RACs."