From what you describe it really sounds like outsider artists aren't welcome and to get the money you have to be socially engaged with the nepotistic "art community". This is highly problematic to me, as I believe that going through creative artistic processes is something everybody benefits from and we shouldn't be reinforcing a dichotomy between artists and non-artists.
I don’t mean to be rude or dismissive here, but I really don’t think you have much information about this at all. We’re talking about hundreds of different organizations with various different metrics for funding.
You’d learn more by actually researching them yourself and not having arguments here.
