Joshua Feist (he/him) has been working at Arts Midwest since 2008 and is the Grants Officer. Before that, he was a coordinator at the Chesapeake Arts Center in Brooklyn Park, Maryland.
At Arts Midwest, Josh spends his days overseeing grants operations for NEA Big Read, Shakespeare in American Communities, GIG Fund, and all other matters related to making grants to both organizations and individuals. He works with the IT and Finance departments regularly to get grant funds out the door as efficiently as possible. He does this by using skills of database administration, project management, and resource allocation that he gained in his time at Arts Midwest.
A couple of Arts Midwest resources Josh made that he is especially proud of include:
The most common questions Josh gets asked about his work are:
Am I eligible for a grant?
Most likely yes! We give grants to most 501c3 nonprofits as long as they pay artists and engage their communities!
When is the next grant opportunity available?
All our open opportunities are listed here!
What can I use as matching funds for my grant?
Volunteer time, administrative overhead, donations, other grants, ticket sales, and much more!
A little more about Josh:
Josh’s favorite thing Arts Midwest does is NEA Big Read because he’s seen so much creativity with books being read underwater and in orbit. It’s a program that really brings people and communities together through the joy of reading the same book together at the same time.
Josh is excited to contribute to Arts Midwest’s efforts to boost accessibility in all of our work, develop a strategy to support more Indigenous communities with grant funds, and continually improve grantmaking systems.
Josh’s favorite Midwestern artist is Prince. He is creatively energized by practicing photography personally and professionally.
When Josh isn’t working, he can be found fishing, spending quality time with his cat, or partaking in a cocktail on a patio somewhere.
You can connect with him on LinkedIn.
