Cuyahoga Arts & Culture (CAC) is seeking panelists to review applications for 2025 grants. Panel reviews will take place online in September 2024.

As the local public funder for arts and culture in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, CAC strives to uphold its values of stewardship and trust in all of its work, especially in its panel review process.

Each fall, CAC convenes a panel of diverse arts and cultural professionals from outside the region. Panelists are carefully vetted by staff and charged with evaluating applications at an online live public panel meeting or through an online written review process.

CAC will hold one grant panel in 2024:

• 2025 Project Support: Grants up to $20,000 for 501c3 nonprofit organizations presenting arts and cultural projects in Cuyahoga County in 2024. 

We are currently accepting self-nominations and reviewing candidates to join us for our 2025 Panel Review, taking place this fall. Panelists play a pivotal role in Cuyahoga Arts & Culture’s grantmaking, serving as an extension of the CAC team through the panel review process.  Submission does not guarantee placement on a panel. Panelists will receive a $200 honorarium for their complete participation in the panel review process.

About the Panel
Panel reviews take place through a livestreamed virtual meeting or an online written review. For live meetings, panelists discuss each application, assessing it using CAC’s funding criteria. CAC staff serve as the panel chairs to guide and moderate the panel discussion and administer the panel process. The results of these panels are made available on CAC’s website and shared with applicants.

 Panelist Duties

• Attend a 1-hour virtual training for your assigned panel around CAC’s funding criteria and scoring process.
  • Project Support Written Panelists – Tuesday, August 27, 2024 at 12pm ET
  • Project Support Live Panelists – Wednesday, August 28, 2024 at 12pm ET
• Review applications: this work is done remotely, on your own time.
  • Most panelists will review between 15-20 applications.
  • Reviewing and preparing comments/score typically takes up 5-10 hours.
• Submit scores:
  • Project Support Written Panelists will submit final scores and comments by Sunday, September 15, 2024 (no live panel meeting).
  • Project Support Live Panelists will submit initial scores by Sunday, September 15, 2024, with scores finalized at the conclusion of the live meeting.
• Live Virtual Panel Meetings are a half-day obligation.
  • Project Support Live Meetings – Monday, September 16, 2024; Tuesday, September 17, 2024; or Wednesday, September 18, 2024
  • (panelists will be assigned either a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday panel)

“I know this work isn't easy and I appreciate how you refine the application and processes each year to better meet your goals and hold organizations accountable for how they are working with their communities. In my experience as a panelist, I have always appreciated [CAC’s] professionalism, your steadfast commitment to your mission to serve your community through arts and culture, and how you operate as a team.” – Past CAC Panelist 

Interested in serving as a panelist for CAC? Please complete the panelist interest form..