Due to the Response to Coronavirus (COVID-19) Events May be Cancelled. Please Refer to the Official Organization’s Website for More Details.
Jazz Road Tours is designed to increase jazz artists’ abilities to book and promote their own tours while being adequately compensated. In addition, Jazz Road Tours intend to connect jazz artists with new listeners in new places. Artists will receive support for tours that represent new opportunities for the applicant, with an emphasis on including areas/communities with limited recent exposure to live jazz performance.
Jazz Road Tours will support approximately 50 tours annually to artists with grants of up to $15,000, most of which must be matched by the collective tour presenters.
Artists may submit applications for small (three-to-six site) tours comprised of an array of venue types that collectively will allow the grantee to develop new audiences while bringing jazz to new communities. Jazz Road Tours will support artists who supplement traditional jazz engagements with dates and activities through alternative spaces and ways of programming the music. Tours including non-traditional jazz venues along with anchor presenters whose jazz presenting history and commitment will provide greater stability and higher visibility for the touring artist/ensemble, will be considered most competitive. Jazz Road also will prioritize applications that include venues that are based in rural areas or reach typically underserved communities.
Applicants may already have communities and venues in mind to which they want to tour. Some may not, or won’t be familiar with enough presenters in a region to build a full tour. Applicants are encouraged to contact the RAO serving the artist’s home state in advance to learn more about statewide or regional presenters when developing tours, as necessary. Each RAO can assist artists who inquire about potential venues as they develop their tour(s), be they established jazz presenters or newer to the artform. Please view the About section to determine which states are served by each RAO.
Jazz Road advisors and panelists will recognize the complete history and aesthetic range of excellence within jazz music, and will not attempt to define jazz in these guidelines.
Jazz Road Tour grants will range from $5,000 – $15,000 and will cover a portion of the total eligible tour expenses. Grant funds awarded to artists will support two types of expenses. First, expenses directly related to the jazz tour including artist fees, travel, housing, and meals, to a maximum of $12,500, which require a 1:1 match by the collective tour presenters. Second, additional support may be requested by the artist specifically for administrative costs related to tour coordination and promotion, up to a maximum of $2,500, which does not require matching presenter funds.
Anchor presenters (traditional venues which consistently program jazz) within the tour are expected to pay artist fees directly and, generally, work with the artist to identify other tour sites in their area. All presenters must pay artists, or artists must receive in-kind contributions toward eligible project expenses as defined in the Eligibility section. Artists will work with presenters to establish equitable artist fees and will determine how the grant amount is applied to the tour budget, as evidenced in the application. It is not likely that Jazz Road funds can accommodate cross-country touring, but will support smaller tour travel expenses, including airfare across states and regions.
Only individual artists (as an individual, an artist-led nonprofit organization, or an artist-led corporation) may apply to this program. An eligible artist is:
The following artists’ expenses are eligible for grant support:
The following types of organizations are eligible to be included in Jazz Road Tours applications:
South Arts has developed a Letter of Intent form for applicants that requests specific information; please download the form here and use Adobe Acrobat to complete it for each venue.
Jazz Road Tours expects that for any given tour, certain presenters/venues can commit to paying the total artist fees/hotel/travel/per diem—or a high percentage—and others may only have capacity to commit in-kind contributions of other expenses.
We recognize that many of the numbers requested below may be estimates and could change prior to the engagement.
Section 1: This section collects pertinent information about the tour engagement. Enter the Artist/Band Name, Town, State, Date/Time of Show(s), Presenter Name, and Presenter Address.
In the “artist fee” section, enter the full amount the artist would expect to be paid for this engagement, even if that full amount is not being paid by the presenter. Enter the appropriate expenses for travel, hotel, and per diem.
The “total artist expense” will calculate the sum of these number automatically.
Section 2: Describe any community engagement or audience development activities anticipated during this engagement, if applicable.
Section 3: Using the appropriate choice for this engagement, indicate how much (if any) of the artist fee from Section 1 the presenter is anticipated to contribute to this engagement. The presenter’s contribution to the artist fees will be calculated automatically.
Note: this amount is considered part of the “presenter match.”
Section 4: Enter the amounts that the presenter is anticipated to contribute toward the artist’s hotel, travel, and per diem/meals; this may be either a financial expense and/or in-kind. The presenter’s contribution to these tour expenses will be calculated automatically.
Note: this amount is considered part of the “presenter match.”
Section 5: Enter the amounts that the presenter is anticipated to pay towards promotion/marketing, equipment/backline, and direct event staffing/operations. The presenter’s expenses will be calculated automatically.
Note: this amount is considered part of the “presenter match.”
Section 6A: The maximum possible requested amount for this engagement toward eligible artist expenses will be calculated automatically. This is determined by subtracting the totals from Sections 3 and 4 from Section 1.
Section 6B: The presenter match will be calculated automatically, and is the sum of Sections 3, 4, and 5.
Jazz Road Tours supports total requests of up to $15,000; this includes up to $12,500 in eligible artist tour expenses outlined in the guidelines, which requires a collective 1:1 match by the presenters on the tour. An additional request of up to $2,500 for administrative costs related to tour coordination and promotion is available, which does not require a match.
The applicant’s request of up to $12,500 in eligible tour expenses and the collective match can be calculated through the content entered into each Letter of Intent. The total tour expenses must be equal to or greater than the collective presenter match (this may be calculated by adding the totals of Section 6B from all Letters of Intent), and equal to or less than the maximum potential artist expense request (this may be calculated by adding the totals of Section 6A from all the Letters of Intent); this total may also not exceed $12,500.
Applications for Jazz Road Tours will be reviewed by panels comprised of experts in the jazz field from across the U.S.
Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
Incomplete applications will not be considered for review.
South Arts contracts with the applicant artist or his/her business entity on behalf of his/her ensemble. The applicant must provide government-required documentation showing his/her U.S. citizenship or Permanent Resident status. Grant funds are taxable income; grantees must comply with all applicable city, state, and federal laws, ordinances, codes, and regulations affecting the project. The grantee is solely responsible for the management of the tour and disbursement and reporting of the grant income.
Applications must be completed and submitted through the GoSmart online system by the published deadline. Applications submitted after the deadline will not be considered for review. No hard copies of the application will be accepted for consideration.
South Arts uses the GoSmart online application system for Jazz Road. To access the online application, please visit https://southarts.gosmart.org/