Creation and Presentation Program

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​FY26 Application Calendar

​​​Description​

​​​​​​Creation and Presentation Program (CPP) grants provide artistic program and operational support to established nonprofit arts organizations whose primary mission is to create or present ongoing art​s​ programming that makes a significant local, regional, or statewide impact on the cultural life of Wisconsin, and that furthers the Arts Board's community development and arts education goals (see the Arts Board's 

strategic plan​).

The program supports 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organizations with strong operations - including stable management, ongoing assessment and evaluation, high artistic quality, and programming appropriate to the communities they serve. These grants also fund overall operating support for eligible arts programs of tribal governments and universities. In these cases, the organizations will use either government or university nonprofit status.​

This is a multi-year grant program wherein applicants will submit a Full Year application in their designated year and submit Interim Year applications in the other three years of the cycle. This allows us to collect information needed for accountability, but in a way that reduces the amount of work required of the applicant, and spreads that work over a four-year period. The Full Year application takes organizational size and capacity into account, even while it continues to be a rigorous tool upon which applicants can draw for applications to other funders. The Interim Year application provides an artistic and organizational health “check-in." In both Full and Interim Years, the application form and narrative continue to be based on past performance rather than future projection.​

​How to Apply

Requests for grants must be submitted through the Wisconsin Arts Board online application system​.

All applicants are now required to have a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) from SAM.gov. This is a requirement from the National Endowment for the Arts, which provides 50% of the Arts Board's funding. For information on how to obtain your UEI, please refer to the UEI document in the Resources for Applicants section below.​

For those applicants who don’t have the technology or don’t have access to the technology to complete the application online, you must contact the Wisconsin Arts Board at 608-266-0190 or via E-mail​.​

Resources for Applicants