Emergency arts fund pays out $4 million in Philadelphia region

An emergency relief fund launched during the coronavirus pandemic is paying out $4 million to hundreds of cultural organizations and more than 1,000 individual artists in the Philadelphia region.

The COVID-19 Arts Aid PHL Fund launched in April after many arts organizations were forced to partially or fully shut down. In normal times, about 50% of the revenue keeping the local arts economy going comes from tickets and other audience dollars that dried up when the stay-at-home order took effect in March. That percentage is much higher for theaters, musical groups or others who perform in front of a crowd.