The large-scale, biennial sound/light/ video festival that’s  projected dazzling digital images on Arts District towers and Dallas City Hall is going year-round, and it’s launching a relief fund for North Texas artists in serious need because of the pandemic. This is the 10th anniversary year for Aurora, and the latest iteration of its outdoor, night-time, immersive transformations was to be November 7th. Now it’s moving more into educational programming but still promises to deliver “digital initiatives” – along with those $4000 emergency grants.

The full release:

AURORA ANNOUNCES SHIFT TO YEAR-ROUND PROGRAMMING AND EMERGENCY ARTIST RELIEF FUND

The arts organization at the intersection of art, technology and community reveals plans to expand programming and offer emergency grants for Dallas-area artists

DALLAS, TX – June 26, 2020: In light of the significant impact Covid-19 continues to have worldwide, the artist-run biennial AURORA, a cultural cornerstone in North Texas, is announcing new initiatives to create more opportunities and resources for Dallas’s artistic community and general public. These plans include a foundational transition from a large-scale biennial event—which was originally scheduled for November 7, 2020—to an organization with year-round socially-distanced immersive experiences, digital initiatives and educational programming, and the launch of an emergency artist relief fund.

This new format will bring the artistic community of Dallas together with a wider international audience in new and different ways, marking a major growth point for the organization as it enters its tenth anniversary year. Furthering AURORA’s emphasis on the North Texas community, the 2020–2021 program will not only grant participating artists a more significant platform for presenting their work—it will also allow for a deeper, more enriched engagement with the North Texas community, and expand AURORA’s audience on a global scale.

The emergency artist relief fund will offer $4,000 grants to North Texas–based Artists who are facing financial distress due to the Covid-19 pandemic. To be eligible for a relief grant, applicants must be:

• Artists with a sustained practice based in North Texas;
• Experiencing dire financial distress due to the Covid-19;
• 21 years of age or older;
• Not a full-time employee, board member, director, officer, or immediate family member of anyone involved with the Dallas Foundation or AURORA;
• Not previously awarded a relief grant from this fund.

Interested parties can learn more and apply at dallasaurora.com.

“In times of crisis, an organization can most definitely be challenged with the issues at hand. We have to be able to evolve alongside the changing world around us, and experiment and explore to find the best way forward,” says Joshua King, co-founder of AURORA. “This new potential for a year-round format will further bridge the arts and culture community in Dallas to a broader worldwide audience.”

“As an organization, we remain deeply committed to the artistic community of North Texas and the challenges we all are facing as a result of Covid-19,” says Shane Pennington, co-founder of AURORA. “Our next phase is dedicated to developing new opportunities and sources of support for local artists.”

Got a tip? Email Jerome Weeks at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter @dazeandweex.

Art&Seek is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.