CAA News Today
NEH Digital Humanities Initiative
posted Nov 16, 2006
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.
Museums for America Grants
posted Nov 16, 2006
In July, the Institute of Museum and Library Services announced Museums for America grant recipients for 2006. A total of 177 museums will share almost $17 million in federal funding, which much be matched by another $30 million. Museums for America grants help museums to support lifelong learning, sustain cultural heritage, and serve as centers for community engagement. For the complete list of recipients, go to www.imls.gov/news/2006/071806_list.shtm.
Cultural Preservation Grants
posted Nov 16, 2006
The Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, funded through the US State Department, has announced its 2006 awards. The awards covers eighty-seven projects from around the world, including the restoration of two mosques in Tanzania and the conservation of some two thousand items of ancient jewelry reflecting the history of Kyrgyzstan. Congress established the Ambassador’s Fund in 2001, directing the State Department to set aside $1 million to assist countries in preserving their cultural heritage. The program’s funding level has increased each year and is now at $3 million. Since its inception, the program has awarded 379 preservation grants in 108 countries.
New Charity Awards $50,000 Artists’ Grants
posted Nov 16, 2006
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.
RAND Study on State Arts Agencies
posted Nov 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 Sep 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 Sep 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 Sep 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 Sep 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 Sep 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.