DESIGN: Access to Artistic Excellence

Introduction

Access to Artistic Excellence encourages and supports artistic creativity, preserves our diverse cultural heritage, and makes 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.
• 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. This is achieved in part through the use of Challenge America: Reaching Every Community funds.

Please note: Congress has prohibited the Arts Endowment from making direct grants to individuals except for Literature Fellowships, NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships, NEA National Heritage Fellowships in the Folk & Traditional Arts, and National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honors.

Deadlines

The Access to Artistic Excellence category is the standard means of applying for a grant in Design. Applications will be accepted under two deadlines: March 10, 2008, and August 11, 2008. Funded activities can be loosely divided into two areas: Innovation and Stewardship.

Innovation
March 10, 2008, Application Deadline
January 1, 2009, Earliest Beginning Date for Arts Endowment Period of Support

Innovation refers to activities that are intended to advance, reform, or disseminate the latest techniques of design. These include, among others:

• Competitions.
• Commissions.
• Community workshops surrounding new projects.
• The exhibition of recent work.
• The publication of advancements in design or design theory.
• Conferences, symposia, and other gatherings that promote innovation in design practice.

Stewardship
August 11, 2008, Application Deadline
June 1, 2009, Earliest Beginning Date for Arts Endowment Period of Support

Stewardship refers to projects that protect, share, or celebrate our collective design heritage. These include, among others:

• Historic preservation activities.
• The exhibition and publication of the design of the past.
• Education and outreach that bring established design practices to American communities.
• Conferences, symposia, and other gatherings that promote the heritage and conservation of design.

Two panels meet each year, one in Innovation and one in Stewardship. Each area has its own application deadline as noted above. Given the possibility of overlap between the two areas, some applications may qualify for either deadline and panel.

Application Review

This category uses the agency's traditional method of application review. Applications are submitted to the Design staff and are reviewed by a diverse group of experts in the design field.

Applications are reviewed on the basis of artistic excellence and artistic merit. For more detailed information on how artistic excellence and artistic merit will be evaluated, see the "Review Criteria." You can find additional information in the "Application Review" section of the "Frequently Asked Questions."

Contact

Design Specialist: begleys@arts.gov or 202/682-5796, brennanm@arts.endow.gov or 202/682-5703.

Outcomes

The Arts Endowment has identified five outcomes that it plans to achieve through Access to Artistic Excellence. Each applicant must select the one outcome listed below that is most relevant to its project and indicate this in its application:

1. Artists and arts organizations have opportunities to create, interpret, present, and perform artistic work.

2. Artistic works and cultural traditions are preserved.

3. Organizations enhance their ability to realize their artistic and public service goals.

4. Audiences throughout the nation have opportunities to experience a wide range of art forms and activities.

5. The arts contribute to the strengthening of communities.

If you wish to apply:

CFDA No. 45.024
OMB No. 3135-0112 Expires 11/30/2010
January 2008

National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506