Millard Meiss Publication Fund
Meiss Grant Guidelines
Criteria:
Applications for publication grants will be considered only for book-length scholarly manuscripts in the history of art, visual studies, and related subjects that have been accepted by a publisher on their merits, but cannot be published in the most desirable form without a subsidy. Applications are judged in relation to two criteria: 1) the quality of the project, and 2) the need for financial assistance. Although the quality of the manuscript is the sine qua non for a grant, an excellent manuscript may not be funded if it is financially self-supporting.
In general, the purpose of the grant is to support presses in publication of projects of the highest scholarly and intellectual merit which, nevertheless, cannot be anticipated to generate adequate return. The jury is particularly sympathetic to applications that propose enhancing the visual component of the study through the inclusion of color plates or an expanded component of black-and-white illustrations that would, without subsidy, not be possible. Expenses generated by exceptional design requirements (maps, line drawings, charts, and tables) are also suitable for consideration. Permission and rental fees/reproduction rights, especially in cases where they are burdensome, are also appropriate.
Reader's Reports:
Reader's reports should be anonymous to the author but (if possible) signed and dated for the benefit of the jury (to be kept confidential) and they should not be more than three years old. The reports must be substantive, analytical evaluations of the complete manuscript. Mere endorsements are not acceptable. The author's response to the reports should be included with the application so that the current state of the manuscript is made clear. The Meiss Jury does not admit reports written by the author's dissertation adviser or other interested parties, such as a series editor. Note that reader's reports are a significant and influential element of the grant application.
Eligible Applicants:
Applicant presses must be members of the College Art Association. Awards are open to publishers of all nations. Commercial as well as university and museum presses are eligible. While all periods and all areas of art history and visual studies may be considered, eligibility does not embrace excavation or other technical reports, articles, previously published works (including collections of previously published essays), or congress proceedings. Within a calendar year, a press may submit the same manuscript for a Meiss Grant and for other CAA-administered publishing grants, such as the Wyeth or CAA Publication Grant, but the book that wins any CAA publishing grant is ineligible to receive another CAA-administered grant, and will be removed from consideration by juries of subsequent grants for which it may have applied.
Publishers are encouraged to submit no more than 2 or 3 books for consideration in any one grant period, except in extraordinary circumstances.
Schedule:
The jury meets to consider awards twice annually—in the spring and in the fall. To be considered at the spring meeting, completed applications must be received at the office of the College Art Association no later than March 15. (CAA News indicated March 1 which is incorrect.) To be considered at the fall meeting, applications must be received no later than October 1.
Preparing the Budget:
When preparing the budget, the publisher should be as specific as possible about costs and the use to which grant monies will be put. The grant sum is intended to be less than the total cost of production, that is, a substantial portion of production costs must be met by the publisher or be from other sources. The overhead costs of a parent organization, such as a university, or office of a university, may not be included in the budget, and Millard Meiss Publication Fund monies may not be used for such costs. An average Meiss grant is between $4,000 and $10,000, though the jury may award larger or smaller sums.
Questions:
Director of Publications, College Art Association, 275 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10001; ph: 212-691-1051, ext. 208 or 217.