Who says bloggers — and all journalists, for that matter — have no conscience?
After twice complaining here about the National Endowment for the Arts this week (and once about Albany), I was about to turn off the computer and get ready to leave for the weekend — in fact, by the time you read this I will have left for the weekend — when the press release that arrived in my mailbox this afternoon began to nag at me. Why? Because it’s about a good thing the NEA is doing. It’s only fair for me to give it a little publicity.
NEA chief Rocco Landesman is making good, I think, on his desire to get more arts funding from other agencies. I confess I haven’t gone into the details on this, but today he and HUD secretary Shaun Donovan invited arts groups to participate in a webinar next Wednesday to hear about “two new, innovative community development funding opportunities.”
Last week, HUD and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released two Notices of Funding Availability…$100 million in grants available through HUD’s Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program, and up to $75 million in grants available through a joint HUD and DOT Sustainable Communities Challenge Grant Program….[in both] arts organizations are eligible to partner with state and local governments, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), transit agencies, philanthropic and non-profit organizations and other eligible applicants to develop consortia grant proposals.
The webinar takes place at 3 p.m. on July 7, on the HUD website.
If, as the press release says, “This is the first time that HUD and the NEA have co-convened the arts and creative sector on a national level around funding opportunities,” then I give Landesman credit.
More details are here. Fingers crossed that red tape or other restrictions don’t bolix it for arts groups.