Advocacy

A new RAND report, entitled “The Arts and State Governments: At Arm’s Length or Arm in Arm?”, recommends that state arts agencies seeking increased state government support for the arts should strengthen their relationships with elected officials and raise their organizations’ profile with the public. State arts agencies are government organizations created in the US in the 1960s and after; they support the arts through grants to artists and nonprofit arts organizations.

The report, commissioned by the Wallace Foundation, suggests that strategies that reach out to the public and to government officials can be effective in positioning the arts higher on the list of government priorities. It also shows that state arts agencies have contributed to a nationwide flourishing of professional artists and art organizations and have helped local communities gain control over most public arts funding decisions.

“The Arts and State Governments” can be ordered from RAND’s Distribution Services at 877-584-8642; order@rand.org; www.rand.org.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced a new Digital Humanities Initiative that will support projects that use digital technology to transform scholarly research. The NEH is especially interested in projects that use digital technologies and methods to enhance public understanding of a specific topic or issue; study the impact of digital technology on the humanities; and digitize important materials and make them more accessible to the public. Visit www.neh.gov/grants/digitalhumanities.html for details, and see page 22 for information about the NEH’s special session at CAA’s Annual Conference.

A new charity, United States Artists, has announced a plan to provide support to US artists. Fifty artists working in a wide variety of disciplines and at various career stages will receive $50,000 each, no strings attached. The first recipients will be announced December 4. To learn more, visit www.unitedstatesartists.org.

A new RAND report, entitled “The Arts and State Governments: At Arm’s Length or Arm in Arm?”, recommends that state arts agencies seeking increased state government support for the arts should strengthen their relationships with elected officials and raise their organizations’ profile with the public. State arts agencies are government organizations created in the US in the 1960s and after; they support the arts through grants to artists and nonprofit arts organizations.

The report, commissioned by the Wallace Foundation, suggests that strategies that reach out to the public and to government officials can be effective in positioning the arts higher on the list of government priorities. It also shows that state arts agencies have contributed to a nationwide flourishing of professional artists and art organizations and have helped local communities gain control over most public arts funding decisions.

“The Arts and State Governments” can be ordered from RAND’s Distribution Services at 877-584-8642; order@rand.org; www.rand.org.

The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced that all fiscal year 2007 grant applications are available on a new website, Grants.gov. The federal government developed this website for organizations to find and apply online for competitive grant opportunities from all twenty-six federal grant-making agencies. Instructions for applying for IMLS grants through Grants.gov are available at www.imls.gov/grantsgov. Beginning October 1, all applicants for the 21st Century Museum Professionals (deadline: March 15, 2007) and National Leadership Grants (deadline: February 1, 2007) are required to apply through Grants.gov.

On June 1, 2006, First Lady Laura Bush announced that an additional $1.5 million of Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funds will be directed to help beleaguered museums and libraries located in federally declared disaster areas. See the full press release at www.imls.gov/news/2006/ 060106.shtm.

The Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) announced that all fiscal year 2007 grant applications are available on a new website, Grants.gov. The federal government developed this website for organizations to find and apply online for competitive grant opportunities from all twenty-six federal grant-making agencies. Instructions for applying for IMLS grants through Grants.gov are available at www.imls.gov/grantsgov. Beginning October 1, all applicants for the 21st Century Museum Professionals (deadline: March 15, 2007) and National Leadership Grants (deadline: February 1, 2007) are required to apply through Grants.gov.

On September 29, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act into law. The act called for the creation of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts as separate, independent agencies. For more information on this history, please visit www.neh.gov/nehat40/founding/legislation.html.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will award more than $63 million in grants to arts organizations nationwide in its second major round of funding for fiscal year 2006. The NEA will provide a total of $21,509,500 to 970 nonprofit arts organizations through its categories of Access to Artistic Excellence, Learning in the Arts, Arts on Radio and Television, and Folk Arts Infrastructure. In addition, the endowment will distribute $42,230,200 to state and jurisdictional arts agencies and regional arts agencies in keeping with its mandate to allocate 40 percent of its grant-making budget to these partners.

To read the full press release, please visit www.nea.gov/news/news06/Announce4-06.html.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has given $700,000 in grants to support arts organizations in the Gulf Coast region that were affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year. These grants include $500,000 in support of individual organizations and state and local arts agencies in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Texas. Additionally, the NEA is funding $200,000 for regional participation in the Mayors’ Institute on City Design and Your Town, two of the country’s most established city planning and design programs.

To read more, go to www.nea.gov/ news/news06/HurricaneRelief.html.