Panelists

YOU are a great candidate to be a panelist at MRAC if you:

• are an artist, are employed or volunteer in the arts, or are an arts enthusiast
• live in the 7-county Twin Cities Metro area
• are at least 18 years old and
• are dedicated to advancing equitable grantmaking across the Twin Cities Metro region

Those who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), a person with a disability, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual/Agender, Two-Spirit (LGBTQIA2+), and/or live outside of Hennepin and Ramsey counties are highly encouraged to apply. We are happy to make accessibility accommodations to have you serve as a panelist if you have a disability.

We build very diverse panels and therefore seek individuals from a range of artistic disciplines, experiences in community, metro geographies, ages, genders, races, abilities, and ethnicities.

If you are involved with a group that applies to MRAC we would consider you a great panelist, but we also seek individuals who are not directly seeking MRAC funding.

Panelists receive thorough training and in exchange for serving on a panel receive a stipend and if applicable, caregiver reimbursement. We sincerely thank you for your time and effort to review the grant proposals.

By serving you can expect to:

• have a greater understanding about what makes a strong grant application
• meet interesting people who also have an investment in the arts of our community
• learn about a variety of arts groups, organizations, and projects
• be empowered and prepared for this role through our trainings and support
• be respected for your role in this important process

Over 90% of our panelists who serve ask to return again!

It can easily be 25 hours of your time to serve as a grant review panelist. We acknowledge that this is a big time commitment and ask you to serve once per year at the most, but there is no requirement for serving more than once.

There is a 2 hour online training orientation where you learn about the grant criteria and how you are to assess your assigned applications.

Approximately 25 applications are assigned to be reviewed on your own time in preparation for your panel day. We estimate that it takes 30 minutes to assess each one of these approximately 5 page applications. Panelists are given approximately 4 weeks to review these applications and submit ratings and comments via an online grant portal.

If you are new to the MRAC panel and would like to be considered to serve as a panelist, please submit your information via this online form.

If you are a returning MRAC panelist, please email mrac@mrac.org.

Panels are held throughout the year. You may hear from us quickly or it may take a while depending on when you inquire and when it aligns with our needs.

Thank you so much for your interest in serving the arts community as a MRAC grant review panelist!