Since November 2018, the YoungArts Microgrants program distributes thousands of dollars monthly to support YoungArts winners with expenses related to professional or artistic development, including travel expenses to a residency, registration fees for a conference or class, the purchase of equipment, studio rental fees, and more. Since 2020, we have also offered emergency Microgrants to any artist experiencing loss of income.
Whether you were a YoungArts winner in 1981 or 2026, both creative and emergency microgrants are open to award winners who have registered and completed a profile on YoungArts Post. Learn more about Microgrants here.
Read on to meet several Microgrant recipients and learn about their projects.
Carlos Cepeda Gómez (2020 Design)
Carlos Cepeda Gómez is an architect and visual artist from Venezuela based between Miami, FL and St. Louis, MO. Carlos received a $400 YoungArts Microgrant to complete his Waterfront Alliance’s Water Edge Design Guidelines certification. Check out the video below to learn more about Carlos’s work.
“YoungArts has been really fundamental because it sort of brings architecture outside of this context of engineering, and I think the arts are really important to actually create spaces [that] people want to be in.”
Ignacio Rosado (2025 Classical Music)
Ignacio Rosado is a composer based in New York, NY studying Screen Scoring at New York University. Ignacio received a YoungArts Microgrant to partially cover the cost of a Lumatone, capable of polyphonic playing, which is important in assessing vertical sonorities and which will give him tactile access to microtonality. Through his work, Ignacio is exploring questions about the performance of microtonal music on standard Western classical music instruments, as well as questions about the nature of microtonal music, its potential and its relationship to established Western music practices.
Watch Ignacio’s composition from 2025 National YoungArts Week, performed by musicians from Nu Deco Ensemble below.
“My grasp on the concepts behind microtonal theory and experimentation with different systems would be significantly more possible with the help of this instrument, one that would importantly allow me tactile access to microtonality.“
Julian Aaronson (2023 Film)
Julian Aaronson is a writer and director based in New York, NY. His work focuses on translating his deep anxiety and insecurities about sexuality, gender and everyday life to the screen. At New York University, Julian wrote his first Horror screenplay, Envi, which was selected as a finalist for Final Draft’s Big Break Screenwriting Contest. Julian received a YoungArts Microgrant to help pay for Emmy winner Dan Rebert to make the toothless prosthetic for Envi, which is now in post-production.
“Even now, as a young adult, I still resonate with Envi’s struggle to fit in and often find myself questioning how to stay connected with my middle school self. Nothing has helped me come closer to answering this question than making this film. This has been the most cathartic project that I have ever worked on. I hope I can give this same release to the people who have connected with Envi’s adolescent anxieties.“