Accepting Applications Now Through June 30
The Bristol Roots Project, formally known as the Greater Bristol Folk Arts & Culture Team, announces two funding opportunities totaling $52,000 for folk and traditional artists and cultural organizations in the greater Bristol region in Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee in 2025–2026. This second round of funding is made possible through an initiative by Mid Atlantic Arts through the Central Appalachia Living Traditions (CALT) program.
About Bristol Roots Project
The Bristol Roots Project is a collective of three regional cultural organizations: the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, serving as the community anchor venue, the Virginia Folklife Program of Virginia Humanities, and Create Appalachia. By providing targeted resources and support to area organizations, artists, artisans, and collectives, this project seeks to dramatically increase the sustainability and visibility of traditional practice, cultural knowledge, and vitality in the Greater Bristol community. These competitive funding opportunities will be available through an open application process.
This initiative offers two categories of funding opportunities. The Tradition Bearer Fellowship will support individual grantees in their creative practices by providing financial support, professional development, and public presentation opportunities. This fellowship is for traditional artists and practitioners at all levels from emerging to experienced. Eight $4,000 fellowships will be awarded, representing a $32,000 direct investment in area individuals. Fellowships will help sustain local traditional arts while raising broad awareness of the quality and value of the region’s traditional culture. Additional funds will be allocated to professional development and showcase opportunities.
Previous fellows in 2023–2024 include awards to broom maker John Ingles Alexander (Grayson Co., VA.), luthier Jackson Cunningham (Grayson Co., VA.), clothing maker Stephen Curd (Washington Co., VA.), musician Pierceton Hobbs (Dickenson Co., VA.), dulcimer player Roxanne McDaniel (Washington Co., TN.), photographer Anna Mullins (Dickenson Co., VA.), broom maker Erin Simmons (Wythe Co., VA.), and luthier KT Vandyke (Bristol, VA.).
The Cultural Caretakers Grant will be available to organizations, venues, and cultural sites, focused on small-scale, largely volunteer-run entities that have difficulty accessing typical sources of public and private funding. Four qualifying community organizations or venues with significant capacity-building or general operating needs will be granted with awards of $5,000 each, representing a $20,000 investment in community cultural infrastructure. Previously awarded grants included The Appalachian African American Cultural Center, The Carter Family Fold, Exchange Place, and Mount Pleasant Preservation Society.
Tradition bearers and cultural sites in eligible counties are encouraged to apply, though the majority of awardees will be from Virginia, aligning with Mid Atlantic Art’s funding priorities. Eligible cities and counties include:
- Southwest Virginia: Bland, Bristol, Buchanan, Carroll, Dickenson, Galax, Grayson, Lee, Norton, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise, Wythe
- Northeast Tennessee: Sullivan, Washington, Carter, Johnson, Hawkins, Unicoi
Applications are being opened and accepted on the Birthplace of Country Music website from April 1 to June 30, 2025, with funding decisions announced in August 2025. The award period for all grantees will be for one year, and will include a special recognition of grantees at the 2026 Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion festival in September. Previously awarded grantees will be eligible to reapply in future funding cycles.
The Bristol Roots Project team member includes:
- Katy Clune, Virginia Folklife Program of Virginia Humanities
- Katie Hoffman, Create Appalachia
- Toni Doman, Bristol Roots Project Manager
- Dr. René Rodgers, Birthplace of Country Music Museum
For more information on this year’s funding opportunities, please visit: www.birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/museum/special-projects/bristol-roots-project
or reach out directly via email to: BristolRootsProject@birthplaceofcountrymusic.org
About Central Appalachian Living Traditions
Central Appalachia Living Traditions through Mid Atlantic Arts promotes the understanding and recognition of folk arts and culture in the Appalachian counties of Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia through a three-part program that invests in folk arts communities while seeding new folk and traditional arts experiences and honoring under-recognized practitioners of traditions across the region.
About Bristol Roots
In 2021 Bristol was identified as the CALT anchor community for Virginia, and in 2022 Mid Atlantic Arts worked with the Birthplace of Country Music Museum to invite 13 independent artists and representatives from local cultural organizations to collaboratively design a $75,000 grant to support folk arts and culture in the region. With another round of funding secured in area arts and cultural living traditions in 2025–2026, the Bristol Roots Project team will continue the original Greater Bristol Folk Arts & Culture Team’s goal to promote and support folk arts and culture in the greater Bristol community by providing targeted resources and support to area organizations, artists, and artist collectives with the goal of dramatically impacting the sustainability and awareness of traditional practice, cultural knowledge, and improving economic development and regional vitality. The second round of funding seeks to deliver the same goals. To date, the federal suspension of all federal grants has not impacted this funding opportunity, and the program will move forward as anticipated.
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