Two arts resource initiatives worth noting this morning. One seeks to restore and sustain the arts workforce (at least among former NEA grantees). The other seeks to support and engage brain cells for the bumpy road ahead.
First, the stimulus money flowing to and through the National Endowment for the Arts now has an application process, thanks to this page on the NEA web site. The money is specifically targeted to workforce retention or development, and only available to recent grantees. Says the web page:
One-time grants to eligible nonprofit organizations including arts
organizations, local arts agencies, statewide assemblies of local arts
agencies, arts service organizations, units of state or local
government, and a wide range of other organizations for projects that
focus on the preservation of jobs in the arts. All applicants must be
previous NEA award recipients from the past four years.
If you’re a recent NEA grant recipient, and you can connect the dots to justify workforce expenditure, it might be time to sharpen your grantwriting pencil. Also, whether you’ve received an NEA grant or not, be sure to check in with your state arts agency, as 40 percent of the $50 million allocated to the NEA in the stimulus bill is flowing directly to the states (detailed on the NASAA web site).
On the brain-stimulus front, National Arts Strategies is now offering full-tuition fellowships for their Business of Arts and Culture seminars scattered around the country. The seminars were already highly subsidized for participants, but NAS decided to commit even more support funding in the face of tough economic times.
UPDATE: The Performing Arts Alliance flagged two other important resources related to the Federal stimulus spending. The Corporation for National and Community Service is hosting a series of conference calls beginning March 5, describing their own guidelines for distributing funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. And the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has posted details on Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) that might be available for cultural services and arts-related community development projects.
