Fort Worth Musician Rachel Gollay.
On March 12, as we began announcing closures and cancellations across Texas, Fort Worth Musician Rachel Gollay launched a Gofundme campaign.
“All donations will be equitably divided and transferred among the fifty individuals who requested assistance via a Google form – $200 per applicant,” the campaign announced. “Funds will be withdrawn by me, divided and transferred directly to applicants.” The funds( $10,000 in all) were released to Gollay on March 26, and 42 of the 50 applicants have received payments of $200 each as of this writing, according to Gollay.
“I set up the GoFundMe not long after word came down that SXSW was canceled,” said Gollay in a text message to Glasstire. “Many of the creatives I know also work in the service industry or gig economy so I wanted to expand the eligibility criteria. My hope is that each applicant will have at least a little more breathing room around immediate expenses, whether that’s groceries, bills, defraying the cost of rent — there are so many personal and individual needs that are only exponentially increasing now, so right now it’s feeling like a marathon and not a sprint. But I do hope this particular sprint helps a bit.”
Most of the applicants to Gollay’s fundraiser are fellow musician, bartenders, and restaurant workers, although some have been visual artists and craftworkers as well.
United Way of Tarrant County (UWTC, Which encompasses Fort Worth), Hear Fort Worth, and Film Fort Worth pick up where Gollay left off, with the establishment of the Creative Industry Relief Fund for musicians, artists, performers and filmmakers affected by closures and cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stres Gollay: “I’m really happy that Hear Fort Worth and United Way of Tarrant County have picked up the baton to continue what I started. I and so many others appreciate them stepping up to the plate to help the community in this way.”
The new fund is open to Fort Worth musicians, filmmakers and visual artists in a one-time grant amount of $300 on a first-come, first-served basis. Individual gifts to the fund over $250 will be 100% tax-deductible.
For more about the Relief Fund in Fort Worth, please visit the United Way of Tarrant County’s website here.
For more on Rachel Gollay, please visit her website here.
Glasstire is committed to providing information to artists and arts organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. For artists’ resources during this time, please go to our updating news feed, and our classifieds section of Artists’ Resources.
