CAA News Today
RAND Study on State Arts Agencies
posted by Christopher Howard — November 01, 2006
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.
IMLS Creates Grants Website
posted by CAA — September 16, 2006
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. 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.
IMLS to Give $1.5 Million in Aid
posted by CAA — September 16, 2006
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.
Ideological Exclusion Lawsuit Update
posted by Christopher Howard — September 15, 2006
As reported in the May CAA News, the American Academy of Religion has joined the American Association of University Professors and PEN American Center in a lawsuit to prevent US government officials from barring foreign scholars from the United States solely because of views the scholars express. The suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, follows the continued exclusion of Professor Tariq Ramadan, a leading scholar of Islam, and contends that a provision of the Patriot Act has fostered a policy known as “ideological exclusion.” The lawsuit asks that the provision be declared unconstitutional.
After several months of asking the US District Court, Southern District of New York, for a summary judgment on the Ramadan portion of the suit, the plantiffs found some success: a federal judge ruled that the government must render a decision on Ramadan’s visa application within ninety days. On June 23, 2006, the judge said that the government has already had “more than adequate time for adjudication of Ramadan’s pending visa application” and noted that though the government can exclude an alien from the country for many reasons, it may not invoke national security as a protective shroud to justify the exclusion of aliens on the basis of their political beliefs.
CAA will continue to report on this issue as it develops; see www.collegeart.org/advocacy.
IMLS Creates Grants Website
posted by CAA — September 15, 2006
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. 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.
Digital Database for Europe’s Cultural Heritage
posted by CAA — September 15, 2006
Drawing on a system developed by France’s Ministry of Culture and Communications, the MICHAEL project, which stands for Multilingual Inventory of Cultural Heritage in Europe, has developed an electronic system to access, manage, and update digital records of Europe’s collections, including museum objects, archaeological and tourist sites, music and audiovisual archives, biographical materials, documents, and manuscripts. MICHAEL will provide a multilingual online service allowing users to search and examine cultural collections throughout Europe by linking to existing collections. Eleven countries are participating in MICHAEL. A launch is planned in Italy, the UK, and France in May 2007, and in other participating countries in November 2007. For more information, please visit www.michael-culture.org.
NEA and NEH Turn Forty
posted by CAA — July 16, 2006
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.
NEA Awards Over $63 Million in Grants
posted by CAA — July 16, 2006
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.
NEA Awards $700,000 in Hurricane Relief Grants
posted by CAA — July 16, 2006
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.
NEA Awards $700,000 in Hurricane Relief Grants
posted by admin — July 16, 2006
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.