Arts News

National Endowment for the Arts Announces Second Round of Grants for FY 2009. Arts Endowment to invest more than $83 million to support arts and arts education projects nationwide.
National Endowment of the Arts
Washington, D.C. -- “The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) recently announced its second round of funding for fiscal year 2009 in the categories of Access to Artistic Excellence, Learning in the Arts, Arts on Radio and Television, American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius, and Partnership Agreements (State and Regional). In this round of funding, the Arts Endowment will distribute $83,472,100 to support 1,075 projects by nonprofit national, regional, state, and local organizations nationwide.

Eight Wisconsin Organizations Were Recognized for a Total of $958,100

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
Madison, WI - $15,000
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Inc.
Milwaukee, WI - $40,000
Sheboygan Arts Foundation, Inc.
Sheboygan, WI - $30,000
Sheboygan Arts Foundation, Inc.
Sheboygan, WI - $10,000
University of Wisconsin at Madison
Madison, WI - $15,000
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI - $15,000
Wisconsin Arts Board
Madison, WI - $818,100
Woodland Pattern, Inc.
Milwaukee, WI - $15,000

Congratulations to Wisconsin's 2008 NEA Challenge America Fast Track grant recipients
The National Endowment for the Arts is pleased to announce 151 Challenge America Fast Track grants totaling $1,510,000 in awards to organizations throughout the United States. These grants offer support for projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations. Below is a list of awards to organizations in Wisconsin. A full listing of awards made in the Challenge America Fast Track and Access to Artistic Excellence may be found on the NEA Web site at http://www.arts.gov/grants/recent/index.html

Forgotten Wisdom, Inc.
Bayfeld, WI
$10,000
To support the production of Unsung Stories of the Civil War, a narrated program of original music composed by Artistic Director Bruce Burnside. The Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra will perform a new orchestral arrangement of the work.
Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, Inc.
Green Bay, WI
$10,000
To support a concert featuring soprano Erica Strauss performing arias from Antonin Dvorak's Rusalka. Strauss will also lead a master class for local college students.
Madison Opera, Inc.
Madison, WI
$10,000
To support Opera in the Park, a free, outdoor concert event at Garner Park. Past soloists have included Melody Moore, Kendall Gladen, Bryan Hymel, and Luis Ledesma. The Madison Opera Chorus and Madison Symphony Orchestra will also perform.
Milwaukee Public Theatre
Milwaukee, WI
$10,000
To support artist residencies by members of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre of Minneapolis. The guest artists will work with local artists in preparation for the Rhythm Rainbow Community Festival.

Past NEA Grants to Wisconsin

Americans for the Arts

Americans for the Arts News

Advancing a Cultural Climate - National Arts Policy Roundtable recommendations available online
Americans for the Arts
“The 2008 National Arts Policy Roundtable, an annual forum of Americans for the Arts and the Sundance Preserve, examined important and timely opportunities for the arts to promote civic engagement toward building healthy communities and a healthy democracy. The Roundtable convened 29 leaders from business, government, philanthropy, education, and the arts, including Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton and George Tzougros, Executive Director for Wisconsin Arts Board. Policy recommendations—designed to ensure a vital civic role for the arts in regard to cross-sector alliances, policies and investment, research and evaluation, and messaging and case-making—have been released on the Americans for the Arts website in the form of a 27-page report about the roundtable.”

RESOURCES

Links for Flood Damage Victims

Wisconsin Statewide Theatre Directory
Published by Liberal Studies and the Arts, this directory is an invaluable reference to theatre leaders and organizations throughout Wisconsin. Each of the more than 1,000 entries includes the theatre company name, contact person, address and phone number. The directory also lists all high school theatre teachers and college theatre faculty.

Wisconsin Children’s Performers Directory
This Performer Directory was created by the Department of Public Instruction as a service to public libraries and other organizations that want to hire quality performers for their children’s programs. The listing is intended to help identify potential performers and to assist libraries and organizations in contacting these groups and individuals.

Arts Wisconsin’s ArtsJobs site
Arts Wisconsin is your connection to jobs in the arts across Wisconsin and globally.

Americans for the Arts Job Bank
“Americans for the Arts Job Bank is the premier electronic recruitment resource for the industry. Here, employers and recruiters can access the most qualified talent pool with relevant work experience to fulfill staffing needs.”

Marquette launches new legal assistance program for nonprofits
“Marquette University Law School has established a new program to provide pro bono legal assistance to Milwaukee's nonprofit organizations. The Milwaukee Legal Initiative for Nonprofit Corporations (M-LINC) is the only source of its kind in the state, connecting attorneys and law students willing to donate their time and expertise with charities unable to afford legal help. M-LINC facilitates pro bono legal services for eligible nonprofit corporations and hosts educational programs on nonprofit legal issues. In addition, M-LINC hosts a clinical program each semester that brings together the expertise of students and faculty from Marquette's Law School, College of Business Administration, College of Professional Studies and J. William and Mary Diederich College of Communication to benefit the multi-faceted needs of a nonprofit client. Attorneys and law firms throughout the state have signed on to assist with clients as needed. Law students from Marquette participate in administering the pro bono legal services program, helping staff a legal assistance phone line, assisting volunteer attorneys with research on pro bono cases and working in the nonprofit clinic, all under the direction of attorney Karin Werner and an advisory council. M-LINC has secured funding through 2010 with a lead grant from the Helen Bader Foundation and additional assistance from the Pro Bono Initiative Fund of the State Bar of Wisconsin. Nonprofit corporations may inquire about pro bono legal services by calling M-LINC at (414) 288-6331 or at (888) 530-5462.”

Access to Health Insurance / Resources for Care
The AHIRC database was created in 1998 by The Actors’ Fund of America, with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, as a health insurance resource for artists and people in the entertainment industry. Since then, with support from The Commonwealth Fund, it has expanded to include resources for the self-employed, low-income workers, the under-insured, the uninsured who require medical care and many other groups.

The Law Portal
Overviews of the range of issues of importance; laws and regulations that affect how art is made; the legal context for presenting art in public; things to think about when art is put up for sale or barter; laws and regulations that affect how artists live; legal basics, and how to make or change the law.

Lessons Learned: A Planning Toolsite
This comprehensive guide to planning, created by the National Endowment for the Arts, can be used as a linear map to define a complex and lengthy planning process, or in a more modular fashion to examine the various practices of planning and decide the most useful entry point for you and/or your organization. The contributing consultants work with arts organizations in all disciplines throughout the US. Their combined knowledge and experience in planning results from their work in the field as consultants, arts administrators, writers, teachers, practicing artists, board members and theoreticians.

NEA Office for AccessAbility
The National Endowment for the Arts’ Office for AccessAbility is the advocacy-technical assistance arm of the Arts Endowment to make the arts accessible for people with disabilities, older adults, veterans, and people living in institutions. The website offers publications & checklists, laws and compliance standards, leadership initiatives, resource lists and links, funding opportunities, and more.

NYFA CURRENT
Since 1992, NYFA Current (previously known as Arts Wire Current) has provided the national arts community with news and analysis of the important issues of the day.

Artscan--Arts in Education Policy Database
Education Commission of the States
"ECS has developed Artscan to support the analysis of state-level policies related to the arts in education. From this database, you can generate profiles of the state policies for arts education in individual states, create comparisons of specific types of arts education state policies across several states and view compiled reports on state policies for the arts education. Artscan will be updated as state policy information becomes available."

Media Paints Arts Education in Fading Light
Education Commission of the States
"How does the national press portray arts education? Find out in this new media analysis released by ECS."

State Superintendents Are Powerful Advocates for the Arts in Education
Education Commission of the States, Americans for the Arts
“In the latest of a series of Education Commission of the States interviews, state superintendents Libby Burmaster of Wisconsin, Sandy Garrett of Oklahoma and Tom Horne of Arizona talk about their efforts to make support for the arts education a higher priority at the state and local levels.”

Making Student Achievement (PDF)
EdSource Report, Americans for the Arts
“A new report identifies four specific practices most strongly correlated with higher achievement: 1) prioritizing student achievement; 2) implementing a coherent, standards-based instructional program; 3) using assessment data to improve student achievement and instruction; and 4) ensuring the availability of instructional resources. The remaining three domains examined—involving and supporting parents, encouraging teacher collaboration and professional development, and enforcing high expectations for student behavior—had much weaker but still positive correlations with school performance.”

New Arts Education Report (PDF)
Education Commission of the States
“With the leadership of its 2004 chairman, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, The Education Commission of the States (ECS) has published a 'Findings & Recommendations' to conclude a two-year initiative on arts education. This report offers a summary of state arts education policies; examines policymakers' perspectives on the arts in education and the tools they need to promote the arts in education; reviews existing research on the benefits of learning in and through the arts; and identifies areas in which additional research is needed. The report closes with suggestions for future action on the part of ECS.” posted 8/1/06

National Parent Teacher Association joins fight for arts education funding (PDF)
Parent Teacher Association, Americans for the Arts
“Following a speech by Americans for the Arts President and CEO Robert L. Lynch at the National Parent Teacher Association's (PTA) convention, the PTA sent a letter to Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Ranking Member Tom Harkin (D-IA) that calls for full funding of the Arts in Education program at the U.S. Department of Education. The letter represents a request from nearly six million parents, teachers, students, and child advocates.” posted 9/19/06

Federal Resources for Education Excellence (FREE)
US Department of Education
“The U.S. Department of Education is pleased to announce the newly remodeled and updated Federal Resources for Education Excellence (FREE) website. It now provides richer, more expansive resources to teachers and students alike. There are over 1500 resources to take advantage of at FREE, ranging from primary historical documents, lesson plans, science visualizations, math simulations and online challenges, paintings, photos, mapping tools, and more. This easily accessible information is provided by federal organizations and agencies such as the Library of Congress, National Archives, NEH, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian, NSF, and NASA.” posted 2/13/07

Act like a business? Why aim so low?
The Artful Manager, ArtsJournal.com
"In his recent monograph, Good to Great and the Social Sectors, Jim Collins makes a rather bold statement: 'We must reject the idea -- well-intentioned, but dead wrong -- that the primary path to greatness in the social sectors is to become "more like a business."' His point is that most businesses are poorly run, and that many business practices correlate with mediocrity, not greatness. So, to him, telling nonprofit organizations to 'run like a business' is like telling artists to lower their standards, or telling a visionary leader to 'aim low.'" posted 8/1/06

Foundation Yearbook: Facts and Figures on Private and Community Foundations Foundation Center
"Foundation Yearbook: Facts and Figures on Private and Community Foundations documents changes in the actual number, giving, and assets of all active U.S. foundations from 1975 through 2004 and includes estimates of foundation giving through 2005. The report provides an overview of the state of foundation giving in the current year and beyond; comparisons of foundation activities by foundation size; and breakdowns of foundation resources by geographic location and grantmaker type." posted 8/1/06

NPT Research: Donors Want Accountability Slightly More Than Connection
Nonprofit Times
"The perception that an organization is well managed and its money well spent drives long-term giving, more so even than the personal connection to an organization or cause. According to exclusive national polling conducted for The NonProfit Times by Opinion Research Corporation, it is more likely that a donor will give for five years or more if, one, the organization is perceived to be well managed, and two, that the person strongly believes in the cause. The study found these are more important for giving for five years or more than personal experience with the cause, that a family member will benefit, or because a person volunteers." posted 8/1/06

Donor Perceptions. Donors don’t like slick, or do they?
The Nonprofit Times
“How slick is that direct mail? Donors strongly dislike nonprofits using big-business marketing and sales techniques. They are turned off by glossy brochures, unsolicited 'gifts,' and telemarketing. These are some of the results in a report called, The Charitable Impulse, by Public Agenda, a New York City nonpartisan research organization. The study was designed to explore perceptions held by typical donors.” posted 10/4/06

Opportunities

NEH Guidelines Available
National Endowment for the Humanities
Deadlines: Various

IMLS Guidelines Available
Institute for Museum and Library Services
Deadlines: Various

Classics for Kids Foundation Grants Program
Classics for Kids Foundation
Deadline: N/A

The Melody Program of the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation
Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation
Deadline: N/A

Association of Performing Arts Presenters Announces Cultural Exchange Fund Application Schedule
Philanthropy News Digest RFP
“Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, the Cultural Exchange Fund is a travel subsidy program that assists U.S.-based presenters working to build partnerships and collaborations with international touring artists, companies, and their collaborators to promote the display of work by artists from around the world in its own cultural context. In promoting cross-cultural arts programming, Arts Presenters strongly encourages travel to the following locations (including but not limited to): the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Africa.”

New Calls to Artists Posted at ArtCalendar.com
ArtCalendar
“We've just posted several new calls to artists at ArtCalendar.com, listings that didn't make it into the last issue of the magazine before our press deadline. You'll find grants, public art calls, juried shows, galleries reviewing portfolios, festivals and more. Be sure to check the site weekly for new opportunities. Good luck!”

Job Opening: Arts/Industry Coordinator
John Michael Kohler Arts Center
The John Michael Kohler Arts Center, located in Sheboygan, WI, is seeking an Arts/Industry Coordinator for the administration of the Arts/Industry Program. Arts/Industry provides residencies for artists in two studios located in the Kohler Co. factory—one in the pottery and the other in the foundry. The program focuses on making industrial technologies and facilities available to artists. The Arts/Industry Coordinator is responsible for all aspects of the program, including the development and oversight of the residencies, workshops, tours, and other related educational programming, as well as related publications. Qualifications: BA or BFA and a minimum of 3 years of arts administration or related experience required. Computer proficiency, excellent communication, and supervisory skills recommended. An understanding of the creative process with emphasis on clay and metal preferred. Send cover letter, resume, and references to: John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Human Resources, 608 New York Avenue, Sheboygan, WI 53081. Email atritz@jmkac.org. EEO

Wisconsin Academy: Cash prizes, publication, and more with the Wisconsin People & Ideas / Wisconsin Book Festival poetry and short story contests
December 15, 2009
“Held in conjunction with the Wisconsin Book Festival, these juried short story and poetry contests are the largest of their kind in the state, offering an opportunity for publication and cash prizes. Both the poetry and short contests are open to all Wisconsin residents, and submissions will be accepted until December 15, 2009, at 5:00 pm. Prizes include up to $500 cash, publication in Wisconsin People & Ideas, a one-week stay at Edenfred (a creative arts residency in Madison), and more. The top three winners in both the poetry and short story contest are also invited to read their work at the Wisconsin Book Festival in 2010. Visit our contest web page for complete contest rules and submission guidelines. The Wisconsin People & Ideas / Wisconsin Book Festival 2010 poetry and short story contests are supported by the Wisconsin Humanities Council, Wisconsin Public Televison, and Avol's Bookstore.”

Wisconsin Film Festival 2010 Submission Guidelines
Wisconsin Film Festival
“The Wisconsin Film Festival welcomes narrative, documentary, experimental, and animated films or videos of any length. Although these guidelines refer a lot about Wisconsin filmmakers, the Festival is open to films from around the world. The largest number of films are submitted in the Open Reel category. There are three categories:

Wisconsin’s Own Student Shorts (films under 60 minutes by Wisconsin college students or Wisconsin residents attending college in another state)
Deadline: Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wisconsin’s Own (films of any length from filmmakers with “Wisconsin ties”) Deadline: Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Open Reel (general submissions of any length, open worldwide)
Deadline: Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Note: The Wisconsin Film Festival does not use third-party submission services like Withoutabox. If you would like to share your film with us, please follow the guidelines listed here and on the submission form.

Surdna Foundation Accepting Applications for Arts Teachers Fellowship Program
Philanthropy News Digest, The Foundation Center
Deadline: November 16 (intent to apply)
“The Surdna Foundation has announced the tenth year of a national initiative to support the artistic revitalization of outstanding arts teachers in public arts high schools. Through the Surdna Arts Teachers Fellowship Program, fellows will design individualized courses of study that provide both immersion in their own creative work and the opportunity to interact with other professional artists in their fields.”

Association of Performing Arts Presenters Accepting Applications for Cultural Exchange Fund Travel Grants
Philanthropy News Digest, The Foundation Center
Deadline: November 16
“The Association of Performing Arts Presenters has added a new funding round to the 2009-10 Cultural Exchange Fund travel subsidy program supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The new funding round will provide for travel taking place between December 2009 and June 2010. The Cultural Exchange Fund is designed to assist U.S.-based presenters in building partnerships and collaborations with international touring artists, companies, and their collaborators and in seeing the work of artists from around the world in its cultural context. In promoting cross-cultural arts programming, Arts Presenters strongly encourages travel to the following locations, including but not limited to, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and Africa.”

Wisconsin Humanities Council offers research grants for scholars
Wisconsin Humanities Council, Portalwisconsin.org
Deadlines: January 1, March 1, May 1, July 1, September 1, and November 1 of each year

National Museum of the American Indian Offers the Visiting Indigenous Professional Program
Philanthropy News Digest
Deadline: September 15 and March 15 annually
“The program will provide hands-on training in various disciplines at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., to individuals working in Native museums and cultural centers....”

Updated: November 10, 2009