AGENCY: National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)

PROGRAM: Grants for Arts Projects

OBJECTIVES: The National Endowment for the Arts provides support to organizations in the following categories:

(1) Access to Artistic Excellence -- Awards in this category encourage and support artistic creativity, preserve our diverse cultural heritage, and make the arts more widely available in communities throughout the country. While projects in this category may focus on just one of these areas, the Arts Endowment recognizes that many of the most effective projects encompass both artistic excellence and enhanced access. Support is available to organizations for projects that do one or more of the following: provide opportunities for artists to create, refine, perform, and exhibit their work; present artistic works of all cultures and periods; preserve significant works of art and cultural traditions; enable arts organizations and artists to expand and diversify their audiences; provide opportunities for individuals to experience and participate in a wide range of art forms and activities; enhance the effectiveness of arts organizations and artists; and employ the arts in strengthening communities. The Arts Endowment is particularly interested in projects that extend the arts to underserved populations -- those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability.

(2) Challenge America: Reaching Every Community Fast-Track Review Grants – Awards in this category offer support primarily to small and mid-sized organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations -- those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability. Age alone (e.g., youth, seniors) does not qualify a group as underserved; at least one of the underserved characteristics noted here also must be present. This category, as an essential component of the Arts Endowment's goal of providing wide access to artistic excellence, supports local projects that can have significant effects within communities. Grants are available for professional arts programming and for projects that emphasize the potential of the arts in community development. Partnerships can be valuable to the success of these projects. While not required, applicants are encouraged to consider partnerships among organizations, both in and outside of the arts, as appropriate to their project. Each applicant must present a simple, straightforward project that reflects only one of the following project types: (a) an arts event that will feature one or more guest artists, (b) professionally directed public art projects such as murals, sculptures, or environmental art that are developed through community engagement; (c) civic design activities that involve the renovation, restoration, or adaptive reuse of cultural facilities or spaces; or (d) the unified promotion of community-wide arts activities and resources to enhance cultural tourism or activities in cultural districts.

(3) Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth – Awards in this category support projects that help children and youth acquire knowledge and understanding of and skills in the arts. Projects must provide participatory learning and engage students with skilled artists, teachers, and excellent art. Funded projects apply national or state arts education standards. All projects submitted to the Learning in the Arts category must include experience, study, performance, and assessment. The Arts Endowment strongly endorses the arts as a core academic subject area. Organizations must provide curriculum frameworks and carefully designed evaluations to assess every child's progress in achieving proficiency in the arts. In this category, the Arts Endowment hopes to call attention to projects that recognize and cultivate best practices in the field of arts education for children and youth. Projects may take place in school-based or community-based settings and should focus on children and youth in the general age range of 5 through 18 years.

ELIGIBILITY RESTRICTIONS: An organization may submit only one application to one of the Grants for Arts Projects categories outlined above. For most organizations, these categories represent the full range of funding options for the entire year. Applicants should examine the goal and purposes of their project as well as the review criteria of these three categories, and apply to the one category that is most relevant. The Arts Endowment will not transfer applications between categories. The following are exceptions to the limitation:

Access to Artistic Excellence and Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth categories:

A parent organization that comprises separately identifiable and independent components (e.g., a university campus that has a presenting organization and a radio station) may submit an application for each such component. In addition, a parent organization also may submit one application on its own behalf for a distinctly different project. The parent organization must meet the eligibility requirements for all applicants. An independent component must be a unit that is both programmatically and administratively distinct from the parent organization, have its own staff and budget, and generally have an independent board that has substantial responsibility for oversight and management. To qualify as independent, a component should be equivalent to a stand-alone institution with a separate mission. Academic departments of colleges and universities and programs or projects of organizations do not qualify as independent components.

In addition to submitting an application on its own behalf, an eligible organization may serve either as the lead applicant or as the primary consortium partner in one consortium application for a distinctly different project. If an organization chooses not to submit an application on its own behalf, it may serve either as the lead applicant or as the primary consortium partner in two consortium applications for two distinctly different projects. Organizations that are considering serving as the lead applicant of a consortium are strongly advised to consult with Arts Endowment staff before preparing an application.

Challenge America Fast-Track Review Grants: For this category, exceptions to the one-application rule are made only for parent organizations that have separately identifiable and independent components; this includes city or county governments. A second application from an organization as a lead applicant for a consortium or as a primary consortium partner is not eligible. If an organization applies to the Challenge America Fast-Track Review Grants category, it may not submit another application to the Access to Artistic Excellence or Learning in the Arts categories.

DEADLINES:

Internal BU Deadline: February 13, 2009

Access to Artistic Excellence: March 12, 2009 or August 13, 2009 (please see complete program guidelines for information on the appropriate deadline for each artistic discipline or field)

Challenge America Fast-Track Review Grants: May 28, 2009

Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth: June 11, 2009

FUNDING INFORMATION: Access to Artistic Excellence awards will be made in amounts ranging from $5,000 to $150,000. Challenge America Fast-Track Review Grants will be made for $10,000. Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth awards will be made in amounts ranging from $5,000 to $150,000. All grants require a nonfederal match of at least 1 to 1. For example, if an organization receives a $10,000 grant, the total eligible project costs must be at least $20,000 and the organization must provide at least $10,000 toward the project from nonfederal sources.

AGENCY CONTACT: Please visit the NEA website at http://www.nea.gov/grants/apply/index.html for contact information for the appropriate program officer.

INTERNAL REVIEW PROCESS: To screen proposals for this competition, an internal deadline has been established.  Principal Investigators (PIs) interested in submitting an application should provide the following proposal information to their Associate Dean by Friday, February 13, 2009 for internal review purposes:

1.  Project description (maximum length 4 pages) should include items a – d:

For Access to Artistic Excellence and Challenge America Fast Track Review Grants:

(a) describe the artists, arts organizations, works of art, or services that the project will involve, as appropriate;
(b) address the project’s potential impact on the artistic and/or cultural heritage of the nation, region, or field, as well as the project’s potential impact on artists and the artistic community;
(c) address the potential of the project to broaden access to, expand and diversify the audiences for, or strengthen communities through the arts; and
(d) outline plans for documentation, evaluation, and dissemination, as appropriate, of the project.

For Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth Grants:

(a) describe the quality of the arts learning experience, including the demonstrated potential to increase or strengthen both participants' knowledge and understanding of the arts and skills in the arts;
(b) address the professional quality of the artists, arts educators, or works of art that are to be involved, as appropriate;
(c) describe opportunities for direct participation in and experience with the arts, opportunities for the study of works of art or the acquisition of artistic skills, and plans for assessment according to national or state arts education standards, as appropriate; and
(d) outline plans for documentation, evaluation, and dissemination, as appropriate, of the project.
 
2. Budget and budget justification (two pages). Itemize all cost-sharing commitments being requested from the University.

3. Biographical sketches: include brief biographical sketches for the key personnel involved in the project.

4. Review comments from any previous NEA Grants to Arts Organization submission.

Following the Dean’s assessment of the internal application, it will be forwarded to Associate Provost Joan Kirkendall for review and then to the Office of the VP for Research for final selection.  PIs will be informed if their proposal is selected for submission and advised of institutional cost-sharing commitments in time to complete and process their proposal for final review.