Hundreds of Minnesota artists will receive monthly $500 stimulus checks with no strings attached by the end of March.
Springboard for the Arts is expanding its Guaranteed Minimum Income for Artists (GMI) program in St. Paul and Otter Tail County, providing cash payments to 75 urban and rural artists for the next 18 months to spend on whatever they wish.
Minnesota Stimulus Checks
Around the country, local governments and charity organizations are experimenting with cash handouts to combat poverty and income disparity. Minneapolis and St. Paul are two cities that are conducting widespread Universal Basic Income experiments.
The program’s extension into Otter Tail County, which contains the city of Fergus Falls, will be the country’s first GMI pilot for rural-based artists, according to rural program director Michele Anderson.
Springboard for the Arts is expanding its Guaranteed Minimum Income for Artists (GMI) program in St. Paul and Otter Tail County, providing cash payments to 75 local and rural artists for the next 18 months.
The launch next month follows the success of the nonprofit’s original GMI trial, which funded 25 St. Paul artists living in communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19 in April 2021.
Read more: Universal Basic Income: Modern America’s largest free cash experiment
Who Is Eligible For $500 Monthly Payment?
According to a press release issued by authorities, this pilot program is meant to have a local influence on the lives of artists, cultural carriers, and creative professions.
The monies are completely free to utilize, and no job conditions must be satisfied. There will be no applications for this program because the 75 participants will be chosen at random from a group of eligible artists in the area.
They will select people who have already received monies from the Springboard’s Coronavirus Personal Emergency Relief Fund and other government help.
The 75 artists will be chosen in the following order: 50 will be chosen from St. Paul’s Frogtown and Rondon areas, and 25 will be chosen from Otter Tail County.
Read more: How to get your Social Security payment worth $1,827 today?