American Masterpieces: Visual Arts Touring

CFDA No. 45.024
2008NEA01AMVAT
7444800

Grant Program Description

American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius is a major initiative to acquaint Americans with the best of their cultural and artistic legacy. Through American Masterpieces, the National Endowment for the Arts will sponsor performances, exhibitions, tours, and educational programs across all art forms that will reach large and small communities in all 50 states.

This component of American Masterpieces will celebrate the extraordinary and rich evolution of the visual arts in the United States. Through the creation and touring of major exhibitions, art of the highest quality will be experienced by Americans in communities across the nation.

Exhibitions may focus on schools, movements, traditions, subject areas, and themes that include but are not limited to:

• The Hudson River School
• American Impressionism
• Native American Art
• American Masterworks from Unique Collections including private collections
• Aspects of American Art Post-1945 to the Present
• Art of the W.P.A.
• Latino Art
• The Portrait in America
• American Naïve Art
• African American Art
• American Photographers and Photography
• American Decorative Arts
• The Art of the American West
• Industrial Design
• Architecture
• Costume and Textiles
• Folk Arts

The tour of an existing exhibition is eligible.

Exhibitions must be:

• Scaled so they can be shown in small and mid-sized exhibiting institutions.
• Shown for a period of 8-12 weeks at 2-5 venues which may include the organizing institution. The number of venues should be appropriate to the nature of the works on view.
• Accompanied by related educational and interpretive components including brochures and catalogues. Educational material for children and youth must ensure the application of national or state arts education standards.

Substantial efforts should be made to reach underserved communities.

Award Information

Grant Amounts and Matching Funds

The Arts Endowment anticipates awarding fewer than 10 grants, generally ranging from $30,000 to $300,000. All grants require a nonfederal match of at least 1 to 1.

Period of Support

The Arts Endowment’s support of a project may start on or after May 1, 2009. An exhibition must open by May 1, 2011. A grant period of up to four years is allowed.

No pre-award costs are allowable in the Project Budget. Project costs that are incurred before May 1, 2009, will be removed from the Project Budget.

Applicant Eligibility

Nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3), U.S. organizations; units of state or local government; or federally recognized tribal communities or tribes may apply. To be eligible, the applicant organization must:

• Meet the Arts Endowment's "Legal Requirements," including nonprofit, tax-exempt status, as detailed in the FY 2009 Grants for Arts Projects guidelines, at the time of application.
• Have a three-year history of programming prior to the application deadline.
• Have submitted acceptable Final Report packages by the due date(s) for all Arts Endowment award(s) previously received.

For touring exhibitions that involve collections from multiple organizations, one organization that meets the eligibility requirements above must act as the official applicant, submit the application, and assume full responsibility for the grant.

Organizations are limited to one American Masterpieces: Visual Arts Touring application per year.

An application in response to this announcement does not preclude an organization from applying under other Arts Endowment funding opportunities including Grants for Arts Projects. In each case, the request must be for a distinctly different project.

The designated fifty state and six jurisdictional arts agencies (SAAs) and their regional arts organizations (RAOs) are not eligible to apply under the American Masterpieces: Visual Arts Touring guidelines.

How to Prepare and Submit an Application

Organizations are required to submit their applications electronically through Grants.gov, the federal government's online application system. The Grants.gov system must receive your application no later than 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time, on September 19, 2008.

We strongly recommend that you submit at least one week in advance of the deadline to give yourself ample time to resolve any problems that you might encounter. You take a significant risk by waiting until the day of the deadline to submit your application.

Supporting material that must be mailed directly to the Arts Endowment must be postmarked (or show other proof of mailing) no later than September 22, 2008.

The Arts Endowment has created an easy-to-follow checklist for registering. Step-by-step instructions for registering also are available at Get Registered. If you have problems registering, call the Grants.gov help desk at 1-800-518-4726, e-mail support@grants.gov, or consult the information posted on the Grants.gov Web site at Applicant Help. The Grants.gov Customer Service hours are 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Eastern Time, Monday to Friday.

If you have already registered with Grants.gov, renew/verify your registration with Grants.gov and make sure that all of your information is current before you apply.

If you are unable to submit your application electronically, you may request a waiver from this requirement. A waiver will be granted for the following reasons only:

• Internet access is not available within a 30-mile radius of your organization's business office.

• Disability prevents the submission of an electronic application.

Your waiver request must be in writing and must explain which of the two grounds for an exception prevents you from submitting your application electronically. Include accurate contact information (including phone number) so that we may notify you of the status of your request.

Your waiver request must be received (not postmarked) at the Arts Endowment at least three weeks before the application deadline, or no later than 5:30 p.m., Eastern Time, on August 29, 2008. You may fax your request to 202/682-5660 or send it to:

Deputy Chairman for Grants and Awards
Grants.gov Waiver Request
Room 710
National Endowment for the Arts
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20506-0001

The National Endowment for the Arts continues to experience lengthy delays in the delivery of First-Class mail. Please consider faxing your waiver request or using a commercial delivery service, particularly if you are sending your request close to the receipt deadline.

In the event a waiver is granted, your complete paper application package must be postmarked (or show other proof of mailing) no later than September 19, 2008.

IMPORTANT: You must have Adobe Reader (version 8.1.1 or higher), a small, free software program, installed on your computer before you download your application package from Grants.gov. Earlier versions of Adobe Reader or other Adobe products will lead to errors and prevent you from submitting your application through Grants.gov. If more than one computer will be involved in the preparation of the application package, ensure that the same version of Adobe Reader is used.

To verify that you have a compatible version of Adobe Reader installed, click on the test application package link below:

Adobe Reader Version Test Application Package

If you do not already have Adobe Reader (version 8.1.1 or higher) installed on your computer, please download and follow the installation instructions.

Access the application package on Grants.gov by clicking on the link below:

Then follow the link to "How to Prepare and Submit an Application." These instructions will guide you to submit material that corresponds to the requirements for Museums applicants to the Access to Artistic Excellence category in the FY 2009 Grants for Arts Projects guidelines.

Keep the following in mind when you prepare documents for the Attachments Form:

• In your Details of the Project Narrative (Attachment 2): Include information about the exhibition, its content, the institutions or communities to which it may travel, and how it would meet the goals of the Visual Arts Touring component of the American Masterpieces initiative.

In addition to the material that you submit electronically, you will be instructed to submit certain items directly to the Arts Endowment. Be sure to include:

• Visual documentation. You must submit digital images as work samples; do not submit slides or photocopies.

Go to "How to Prepare and Submit an Application" for further instructions.

Application Review

The following criteria are considered during the review of applications:

The artistic excellence of the project, which includes the:

• Quality of the artists, arts organizations, and works of art that the project will involve, as appropriate.
• Artistic significance of the exhibition.

The artistic merit of the project, which includes the:

• Potential impact on the artistic and/or cultural heritage of the nation, region, or field.
• Extent to which the project broadens access to the arts and/or presents art that otherwise would not be available.
• Potential to enhance the educational experiences of the audience or participants.
• Appropriateness of the project to the organization's mission, audience, and community.
• Plans for documentation, evaluation, and dissemination, as appropriate, of the project.
• Likelihood that the project will achieve the identified outcome(s) and the feasibility of the proposed performance measurements. *
• Ability to carry out the project including the appropriateness of the budget, the quality and clarity of the project goals and design, the resources involved, and the qualifications of the project's personnel.
• Where appropriate, the potential to reach underserved populations such as those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability.

* The Arts Endowment, along with other federal agencies, collects information on the projects it funds in order to track the results -- or outcomes -- of its activities. This information is compiled and reported to Congress and the public. The outcome the Arts Endowment intends to achieve through the American Masterpieces: Visual Arts Touring initiative is: Audiences throughout the nation have opportunities to experience a wide range of art forms and activities. Within the context of this outcome, we ask all applicants to define what they would like to achieve, how they will assess the degree to which it is achieved, and, upon completion of the project, what they have learned from their successes and failures.

All applications are reviewed by an advisory panel. Panel recommendations are forwarded to the National Council on the Arts, which then makes recommendations to the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. The Chairman reviews the Council's recommendations and makes the final decision on all grant awards. Pending the availability of funding, it is anticipated that applicants will be notified of award or rejection in April 2009.

Award Administration

Crediting Requirement

Grantees must clearly acknowledge support from the National Endowment for the Arts in their programs and related promotional material including publications and Web sites. Organizations that receive grants will be provided with specific requirements for acknowledgment of the American Masterpieces initiative. Grantees also should make certain that the touring venues give appropriate credit to the Arts Endowment's American Masterpieces initiative.

Administrative Requirements

Before submitting an application, organizations should review the Grants for Arts Projects guidelines and General Terms & Conditions for detailed information on legal requirements and other administrative matters that pertain to this announcement.

Agency Contacts

If you have questions, please contact:

David Bancroft
Specialist, Museums
202/682-5576 or bancroftd@arts.gov

Wendy Clark
Specialist, Visual Arts
202/682-5555 or clarkw@arts.gov

Robert Frankel
Director, Museums & Visual Arts
202/682-5573 or frankelr@arts.gov

Reporting Burden

The public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated at an average of 32 hours per response including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. The Arts Endowment welcomes any suggestions that you might have on improving the guidelines and making them as easy to use as possible. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: Office of Guidelines & Panel Operations, Room 620, National Endowment for the Arts, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20506-0001. Note: Applicants are not required to respond to the collection of information unless it displays a currently valid U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number.

June 2008

OMB No. 3135-0112 Expires 11/30/2010

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

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