Art Grants

New Hanover Community Endowment officials plan to launch an enhanced arts and culture grants program for 2026.

In 2025 as a pilot program, the Arts Council of Wilmington and New Hanover County was selected as the endowment’s first nonprofit sub-granting partner, distributing $172,000 in grants to more than thirty local arts organizations (including to the Carolina Beach Mural Project shown below). Next year, the arts council will receive a $50,000 grant to support its work and administer a $500,000 arts and culture grants program.

“These types of grants provide vital resources for local artists and organizations to expand programs, engage the community, and inspire creativity across New Hanover County,” says the arts council’s president and CEO RHONDA BELLAMY.

The new program and accompanying grant follows the endowment’s recent announcement of sixteen new grants worth over $20.3 million, bringing the fund’s 2025 total to 159 awards and over $45.7 million, as of mid-October.

Of that $20.3 million, $2.7 million will go to New Hanover County Schools “to pilot a targeted staffing initiative to close achievement gaps, support positive behavior, increase student engagement, improve graduation rates, and create positive learning environments,” officials say.

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