Starting this summer, artists can apply for no-strings-attached grants in St. Louis.

This an effort to keep artists in the Midwest city and is offered by the Regional Arts Commission.  Ten grants  from the $20,000 will be awarded starting in September.  Other cities provide similar funding, by the way, such as Cleveland, Chicago, Portland and Seattle.

The grants are among the largest offered by a regional arts agency in the U.S. Artists from all fields — visual arts, dance, theater, film, poetry–can apply.

St. Louis realizes that artists mean economic development for neighborhoods.  Since most artists work multiple jobs and make less than $25,000 annually, grants allow time to create work.