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Food, art and community will come together next month as an innovative grassroots arts funding program takes root in Jersey City. The idea for the first-ever Art Eat-Up, which is being put together by Pro Arts Jersey City, came from Brooklyn’s FEAST, a recurring public dinner designed to use grassroots financial support to fund new and emerging artists.

“We heard about what they were doing and thought it was awesome,” says Pro Arts director Rebecca Feranec. When Pro Arts reached out to the FEAST organizers about bringing the idea across two rivers, they were cool with it, and the Art Eat-Up was born.

Here’s how it works. Pro Arts accepts proposals from artists; it will then put the first ten of those proposals “on display” at the Eat-Up (later entries will be carried to later Eat-Ups). The artist will make a presentation and be allowed to “campaign” before and during the event. Meanwhile, anyone who has chipped in a small dollar figure at the door (the suggested donation is $20) will get to cast a ballot for his or her favorite project, all while enjoying a home-cooked meal, some wine or beer, and — Feranec hopes — some live music. The ballots will then be counted, and the proposal receiving the most votes will be awarded the money raised through that suggested donation, minus minimal Pro Arts expenses and, if the turnout is high enough, a small portion to runners-up.

“We haven’t had anything like this in the area,” Feranec says. “It’s really grassroots; it’s all about community.” She points out that Pro Arts’ involvement is going to be minimal — in part to foster the grassroots nature of the event, and in part to give winning artists as much money as possible.

“The more expenses we have, the more that takes away from the artist’s grant amount,” she says. With a volunteer army cooking the meal and running the show, Pro Arts’ expenses will be mainly contained to the actual food it purchases. But that doesn’t mean Ramen for all.

“It’s going to be a good meal,” Feranec says. “When we talked to FEAST, they were adamant that we don’t serve Ragu … and we agree.” She says that they hope to source as much of the food locally as possible, though that may prove more difficult in this winter installment than in later Eat-Ups. Although a chef is still in the process of designing the event menu, Feranec says it will be all vegetarian, and an appearance by butternut squash is highly likely.

As for the artists proposals, Feranec stresses that the grant is pretty free and open, with no massive applications or strict rules. As long as the artist explains in the application how they will use the grant, “the money raised could go to canvases or their rent while they’re making [a work],” or anything else, she notes. One restriction is that the grant covers proposals, and can’t be used to recoup expenses for projects that have already been made.

The Eat-Up is also designed to engage the city’s artists in a more community-oriented fashion.

“Artists can get the word out about new projects before they are even made,” Feranec says. “It’s just cool to get artists in touch with other artists to talk about what they’re making — to take it out of the gallery, and look at the creative process instead of the finished product.”

Pro Arts hopes to host Eat-Ups three or four times a year going forward, but that will of course depend on how well the inaugural event is received. Feranec says that right now they’re “hoping between 50 and 100 people show up,” but she’d be thrilled to have even more.

The first-ever Art Eat-Up will be held on Saturday, March 13, from 6 to 9 pm, at Villa Borinquen’s 1st Floor event space (396 Manila Ave.). The deadline for proposals is March 1; guidelines can be found here.