Continuing their crusade to cultivate artistic communities in Tampa, Hampton Arts Management has developed a series of microfunding initiatives to provide new ways of financing local arts projects.

The Think Small to Think Big Arts Microgrant Program provides grants of up to $500 to innovative and ambitious artists and organizations. The ultimate goal of the program is to increase the number contemporary artistic projects and endeavors in Tampa.

The first round of grant recipients includes artists and projects from realms of music, theater and visual arts.

Aided by Think Small to Think Big, Hampton and the Antiwarpt music festival are throwing a free Antiwarpt Preview Party. The event will be held on Friday, July 29, at the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club. The lineup is packed with a number of regional and area acts, including John Gold, Living Arches, Greenland is Melting and Sleepy Vikings (antiwarpt.com).

Megan Hildebrandt, a Tampa-based artist who is currently working on her MFA in Studio Art at the University of South Florida, will receive funding for a graphic novel she is working on, Tunnel Visions. The 25-year-old is diagnosed with and treated for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Hildebrandt’s paintings and the graphic novel chronicle her experiences living with the disease. In early 2012, her work will be featured in an exhibition at the USF Contemporary Art Museum.

Hampton is also funding the commission of an original musical score by composer Devin Rice for the Moving Current Dance Collection. Rice is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, composer and singer-songwriter who has been composing and recording for over 30 years. The piece will accompany new choreography performed by Moving Current.

Playwright Christen Petitt has been involved in Tampa’s theater community for over a decade. Her new one-act comedy, Sexy, Sexy Murder is a recipient of microfunding. The comedy follows the Secret Queen of Tampa and her minions, Ninja Bitch Lady Assassins, on a tour of Tampa’s events, people and landmarks. Performances are July 29-31 at the Shimberg Playhouse (jobsitetheatre.org).

The Arts Microgrant program continues to accept applications on a rolling deadline on the first of each month in an effort to make Tampa a prime destination for artistic experimentation, exhibition and creativity.

Applications are available at thinksmalltothinkbig.org.

This article appears in Jun 30 – Jul 6, 2011.