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Reading the testimonial section of EASL’s website makes you want to scream. It’s filled with stories that shouldn’t exist: A menacing lump. A flood or fire dissolving someone’s life’s work. An emergency surgery is required, but not afforded.
Yeah, these fears haunt us all, but for visual artists they carry a different weight. They translate to: Unpaid time-off; a mountain of overinflated medical bills; and choosing between basic life needs to afford what should be available to all — food, shelter and you know, Not Dying.
Swooping in to fill that perilous void is EASL, the Emergency Artists’ Support League, a group that sounds like, and behaves like, a team of superheros. (I imagine they operate out of a well-furnished “art cave.”) The volunteer-run group has provided legal advocacy and immediate grant relief to North Texas visual artists in distress for the last 20 years. And guess what? It’s celebrating its birthday with an increase in available grant money. Yep.
Until last week, visual artists applying for aid through EASL could receive up to $4,000 in support. That number has just been raised to $5,000 per grant recipient, with a lifetime maximum of $15,000.
If you’re thinking, “Eh, what’s a grand, really?”, then you’re probably not a working artist. If that’s the case, you can help EASL continue its two decade mission of helping others through donation. Do that here.
