A Thursday “Shark Tank”-styled live event originally planned by CultureWorks to award funding for local arts organizations and artists has been cancelled and the format adjusted.

“Based on recent community feedback, CultureWorks will not be holding applicant presentations in front of a live audience as originally planned,” the arts advocacy organization announced in a letter to stakeholders on Tuesday afternoon. “Instead, the applicants will have the opportunity to discuss their planned projects with the review panelists directly with no audience.”

Last week, Style Weekly published a story where numerous arts leaders expressed concern, even outrage, over this new final step in CultureWorks’ competitive grant funding for smaller arts groups (with an annual budget of less than $750,000) and artists.

Thursday’s ICA event was originally announced as a public competition that would emulate the ABC TV show, “Shark Tank” — fourteen organizations and artists would compete publicly for $100,000 in available grant funds by making presentations and then taking probing questions by a panel of judges.

“We appreciate this decision by CultureWorks,” says Melissa Vaughn, president of the Virginia Center For the Public Press, which oversees WRIR …the course correction is “heartening for every Richmond-based arts organization.”

“Tone deaf.” “insulting.” distasteful” and “an extra burden” were some of the descriptions used by arts leaders to describe this new live competitive element. One organization, WRIR 97.3 FM, declined to participate in applying for a 2025 grant because of it.

“We appreciate this decision by CultureWorks,” says Melissa Vaughn, president of the Virginia Center For the Public Press, which oversees WRIR. She says that the course correction is “heartening for every Richmond-based arts organization.”

“We continue to value the critical resources they provide, and I encourage all funding organizations to continue making decisions based on equity and need, not external pressures or political consideration,” she adds.

At presstime, CultureWorks officials were not available for further details.

According to Ashley Hawkins, executive director of Studio Two Three, one of this year’s finalists, the event will now take place privately on a Thursday Zoom call. “Applicants will still be able to present their projects with direct questions from the reviewers following that.” The sessions will be one at a time, not in a group.

“It’s great that they got feedback from all of the applicants and decided to pivot to this virtual presentation,” she says. “It’s a good solution that allows the reviewers to still ask questions and get clarity if they need it, without having this public pitch portion.”