Creative Industries Division Grant Opportunities

New Mexico statute identifies “creative industry” as a business, organization, or person engaged in creative enterprises in the following industry areas:

• Performing, Visual, & Literary Arts
• Entertainment, Media, Information & Broadcasting
• Applied Arts & Design (including Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Museum & Gallery professions)
• Promotion, Marketing, Graphics & Industrial Design
• Technology & computer system design, software design, coding & digital media
• Crafts & Artisan Professions (including metal, wood, glass, ceramics, paper, printing, textile, and culinary arts)

“Creative Industry” does not mean a business, organization, or person engaged in creative enterprises involving film. Film means “filming activity supported by the New Mexico film division of the department”(New Mexico Film Office).

See Creative Industry Cluster details and corresponding NAICS Codes on page 206 of the 2024 Creative Industries Division Study.

Creative Industries Division Grants are awarded to legal entities, not individuals. Legal entities include state, counties, municipalities or other political subdivisions of the state, Indian nations, tribes or pueblos, and for-profit and nonprofit organizations.

Sole-proprietorships and individuals are not eligible for any grants.

Individual grants may have varying applicant pools, but they are still restricted to this broader group as per statutory requirements.

Grantee recipients are responsible for any applicable state and federal taxes, including Gross Receipts Tax, and will receive a 1099 from the state. Tax-exempt entities are excluded.

Final scores are based on the scoring rubric provided in the respective grant application.

Each grant program is scored competitively by scoring committees that include division and department staff, division ambassadors and potentially others, all of whom are required to sign a conflict-of-interest agreement.

In accordance with statute, at least fifty percent (50%) of all funds awarded from the Creative Industries Fund shall be awarded to projects or programs located in rural or underserved communities, as defined by the division.

Funding will be awarded on a competitive basis to projects or programs that demonstrate the potential to stimulate community or economic development through creative industries and demonstrate or support one or more of the following statutory requirements.

• Broad local support, including in-kind or financial support from local governments and surrounding communities or neighborhoods
• Assistance to small businesses with fewer than ten employees
• Expansion of existing creative industries
• The promotion of inclusion and diversity

Questions related to grants can be asked & answered during the grant overview webinar, usually the Friday of the week of a grant announcement.

Questions permitted during grant cycles, outside of the overview webinar, will only be considered if they are related to application accessibility or other technical questions not associated with the content of perspective responses, applications or proposals.

Division staff cannot aid anyone directly in the application process of an active grant or answer questions about the content of prospective responses, applications or proposals.

 Other questions related to grants must be submitted before or after the grant period or during a grant overview webinar at info@edd.newmexico.gov.

It can take at least 8-16 weeks or more to process grants and disperse payments, depending on the communication with the division and the internal state processes to evaluate, check and confirm information.

Sometimes processing time can take longer than expected if the internal finance team, or other state agency is backlogged with other applications and review of documentation.

The agency runs numerous grant programs that must be approved by other agencies, including the Department of Finance Authority and Taxation and Revenue.

Grant recipient response times and incomplete tax information can also cause processing setbacks.

W-9’s, which are required, can take several weeks to process through respective agencies.

All grant applications close at 6 pm Mountain Time on the specified date.

If you are having technical difficulties with your application, please reach out to us at least 8 hours before the application closes so we can address any issues while staff are available.

If applications are received after the posted date and “end of day” time (6 pm MT), the application is deemed invalid and will not be evaluated.

Applicants may apply for separate, distinct programs in the division, as long as the project scopes do not interfere or overlap in intent, budget, funds, execution or uses.

Grant awardees may NOT apply for an additional grant from the same program if they are still within a project period for the initial grant, i.e. awardees who received funding in 2025, who do not submit a final report until June 30, 2026, cannot apply for additional funding from the same program before June 30, 2026, or before the final report due date.

Some of our grants include infrastructure and will have different improvement funding. Allowable uses for individual programs will be articulated in the respective grant application.

All organizations must have a  three-year minimum history of operations, programming and/or services at the time of application. Please review grant-specific guidelines for additional information.

1. Read the guidelines for each individual grant in full before beginning an application.
2. Give yourself plenty of time to prepare and submit an application.
3. Be specific and be clear. Successful proposals address the grant program requirements and goals.
4. Be authentic. Celebrate what makes your proposal unique. Avoid jargon and unedited AI-generated responses in your narrative.
5. Prepare your responses in a word processing application (MS Word or Google Docs) before inputting your narrative into the online grants management system.
6. Check the online application for specific instructions about uploads and documentation that are not detailed in the guidelines.

The division does not support businesses, organizations, or people engaged in enterprises involving film. Film refers to any  “filming activity supported by the New Mexico film division of the department,” (the New Mexico Film Office).

Any business receiving/reporting a tax incentive in the most recent tax year to Taxation and Revenue and/or the NM Film Office is not eligible for division programs.

All projects/program participants must make a sincere effort to include participants rooted in a wide swath of creative industries and not overly favor certain specific industries.