Independent Arts News Reporting National Endowment for the Arts Announces GRANT Guidelines for Our Town - A Program to Strengthen Communities
Reported Tuesday, May 21, 2024.
Pictured Above: Boston Public School (BPS) Arts Expansion Photo Credit: Annielly Camargo NEA website.
NEWSROOM POST: NATIONAL
The NEA grants are cost share/matching grants ranging from $25,000 to $150,000, with funding starting July 1, 2025 for 1–2 year projects. The application is submitted in two parts; the Part 1 deadline is August 1, 2024; Part 2 is open August 8 – 15.
National – The National Endowment for the Arts announces the guidelines and application instructions for Our Town are now available online. Through project-based funding for cross-sector partnership work, the program supports activities that integrate arts, culture, and design into local efforts that strengthen communities.
Successful Our Town projects advance local economic, physical, or social outcomes, contribute to long-term systems change within communities, and bring new attention to or elevate key community assets and opportunities, local histories, and a community’s unique civic infrastructure. NEA wantS to honor a wide range of traditions shaped by the lived experience of a community’s residents, including music, dance, design, crafts, fashion, cuisine, and oral expression.
For FY2025, NEA is continuing to encourage projects that work at the intersection of arts and transportation/infrastructure, health, and/or climate. Projects may address one or some of these topics, or can engage other areas of cross-sector work.
These are cost share/matching grants ranging from $25,000 to $150,000, with funding starting July 1, 2025 for 1–2 year projects. The application is submitted in two parts; the Part 1 deadline is August 1, 2024; Part 2 is open August 8-15. You can learn more from the guidelines on the NEA website. Please note that application materials are also available in Spanish.
The FY2025 guidelines and instructions have been reformatted for greater accessibility. The main Our Town section includes links to downloadable pdfs for grant program details(containing detailed descriptions of the program, eligibility requirements, award information, a list of unallowable activities, and more) and application instructions (including all of the application questions and full instructions for both parts of the application).
Also, check out the Applicant Resources section to register for upcoming webinars and Q&A sessions, and for more information about the NEA’s approach to creative placemaking, past Our Town projects, and other resources and tools.
An Our Towns informative webinar will be available on June 13th at 2pm. Register HERE
