Kansas City Ballet | Klein Perspectives  | photo, Brett Pruitt & East Market Studios

Supporting the Arts for All Missouri

The Missouri Arts Council is the state agency dedicated—as public leader, partner, and catalyst—to broadening the growth, availability, and appreciation of the arts in Missouri and fostering the diversity, vitality, and excellence of Missouri’s communities, economy, and cultural heritage. The grants we award make possible quality arts programming to communities both large and small throughout the state. We provide grants to arts projects that meet our strategic goals:

In addition to funding, we provide technical assistance in community development, fundraising, marketing, grant writing, arts education, artistic disciplines (visual arts, music, literature, theater, dance, festivals, and film/media) and more.

We allocate funding to arts organizations based on the recommendations of volunteer advisory panels that review the applications from the organizations seeking grants. The panels consider the applicants’ artistic quality, community outreach and support, and management ability.

Our Commitment to Cultural Equity

A core value of the Missouri Arts Council is to celebrate Missouri’s cultural richness and diversity. All Missourians deserve to benefit from public investments in the arts. To support a full creative life for all, the Missouri Arts Council commits to championing policies and practices of cultural equity that empower an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible state.
Missouri Arts Council board, December 2018, revised June 2020

The Missouri Arts Council board consists of volunteer citizens from across the state who provide direction in policy making and programmatic oversight. The board meets three times a year to review panel recommendations, develop statewide programs and initiatives, and consider arts-related issues that affect the state.

The Missouri Arts Council Trust (commonly known as the Missouri Cultural Trust), founded by the state legislature in 1993, provides a vehicle for the state to fund the Missouri Arts Council with general appropriations. The Trust also provides the matching funds for the federal money received from the National Endowment for the Arts. Subject to appropriation, the Trust is funded by the income tax on non-resident professional athletes and entertainers (A&E tax). The Trust is governed by the members of the Missouri Arts Council board and five elected officials: the State Treasurer, two members of the Missouri Senate, and two members of the Missouri House of Representatives.

Join our board
If you, or someone you know, would like to be considered for an appointment by the Governor to the Missouri Arts Council board, please complete this  online form.

FRAUD ALERT

Several artists have received messages via Instagram, Facebook, and other apps from persons claiming to be associated with the Missouri Arts Council (sometimes described as “Ministry of Arts and Culture Missouri”) who say they want to buy the artist’s work. THIS IS A SCAM. No one other than the people listed on this page as a member of the Council or Staff is any kind of representative of the Missouri Arts Council.

WHAT ARTISTS CAN DO: Although the Missouri Arts Council cannot take direct action because our own apps have not been hijacked and we did not receive the communications, there are actions that artists can take. The State of Missouri Office of Cybersecurity recommends that artists make the reports themselves to  P3 Global Intel and to the apps. Directions for reporting messages received via Instagram are at  Abuse and Spam and via Facebook Messenger at  Reporting Conversations.

Michael Donovan

Executive Director

314-340-4740
michael.donovan@ltgov.mo.gov

• Partnerships  

Rick Duplissie

Deputy Director

314-340-7539
roderick.duplissie@ltgov.mo.gov

Julie Hale

Program Specialist

314-340-6853
julie.hale@ltgov.mo.gov

• Arts Councils
• Dance
• Multidiscipline
• Theater

Karon Majeel Hatchett

Community Development Specialist

314-340-6858
karon.hatchett@ltgov.mo.gov

• Arts Councils
• Creative Communities
• Creative Districts
• Creative Placemaking

Keiko C. Ishida

Program Specialist

314-340-6859
keiko.ishida@ltgov.mo.gov

• Electronic Media Arts
• Established Institutions
• Grant Guidelines, Forms, and Documentation
• Literature
• Mid-Sized Arts Organizations
• Visual Arts

Barbara MacRobie

Public Information Coordinator

314-340-6852
barbara.macrobie@ltgov.mo.gov

• Website
• Featured Artists
• Social Media
• Email Communications
• News Media

Donald Rice

Program Specialist

314-340-6854
donald.rice@ltgov.mo.gov

• Express Community Touring
• Express Project
• Festivals
• Missouri Touring Performers Directory
• Music
• Organizations of Color

Jim Riordan

Accountant

314-340-6856
jim.riordan@ltgov.mo.gov

Jenni Ryan

Arts Education Specialist

314-340-6857
jenni.ryan@ltgov.mo.gov

• Arts Education Grants for PK-12 Schools and Nonprofit Organizations
– Big Yellow School Bus
– Improving Arts Education
– Professional Development
– School Touring

Virginia Sanders

Special Initiatives Coordinator

314-340-6851
virginia.sanders@ltgov.mo.gov

• Accessibility/504
• Arts and Aging
• Arts and the Military
• Council and Trust Boards
• Missouri Arts Awards
• Missouri Poet Laureate
• Poetry Out Loud

Joan White

Grants Manager

314-340-6855
joan.white@ltgov.mo.gov

The Missouri Arts Council’s folk arts program is administered under the auspices of the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri–Columbia.