NEA Grants for Arts 2021
Slots: 1 slot annually, despite having 2 award cycles, unless you qualify as an independent component (see ‘Independent Component’ section below).
Internal Deadline: Monday, January 25th, 2021, 5pm PT
LOI: February 11, 2021, 8:59pm PT
External Deadline: February 24, 2021 at 8:59pm PT
Award Type: Grant
Anticipated Amount: Grants range from $10,000 to $100,000.
Process for Limited Submissions: PIs must submit their application through the Office of Research Initiatives & Facilities (ORIF) Application Portal: https://research.usc.edu/usc-grants/. Any limited submission that is not Camille Dreyfus, NSF-MRI, or the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation Inventor Fellows can select the ‘Limited Submission’ up top to submit.
Materials to submit – unless otherwise noted in the Office of Research Initiatives & Facilities (ORIF) write-ups below – include:
(1) Single Page Proposal Summary (0.5” margins; single-spaced; font type: Arial, Helvetica, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 1-page limit will be excluded from review.
(2) CV – (5 pages maximum)
This portal requires information about the PIs and Co-PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#, Gender, and Ethnicity. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.
Materials to submit:
- Single Page Proposal Summary (0.5” margins; single-spaced; font type: Arial, Helvetica, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 1-page limit will be excluded from review.
- CV – (5 pages maximum)
Link to Award: https://www.arts.gov/grants/grants-for-arts-projects/program-description
Who May Serve as PI: To be eligible, the applicant organization must:
- Meet the National Endowment for the Arts’ “Legal Requirements” including nonprofit, tax-exempt status at the time of application. (All organizations must apply directly on their own behalf. Applications through a fiscal sponsor/agent are not allowed. See more information on fiscal sponsors/agents.)
- Have completed a three-year history of arts programming prior to the application deadline. For the purpose of defining eligibility, “three-year history” refers to when an organization began its programming and not when it incorporated or received nonprofit, tax-exempt status.
- Have submitted acceptable Final Report packages by the due date(s) for all National Endowment for the Arts grant(s) previously received.
Purpose:
Grants for Arts Projects is the National Endowment for the Arts’ principal grants program for organizations based in the United States. Through project-based funding, the program supports public engagement with, and access to, various forms of art across the nation, the creation of excellent art, learning in the arts at all stages of life, and the integration of the arts into the fabric of community life.
Disciplines include: Artist Communities, Arts Education, Dance, Design, Folk & Traditional Arts, Literary Arts (see note below), Local Arts Agencies, Media Arts, Museums, Music, Musical Theater, Opera, Presenting & Multidisciplinary Work, Theater, Visual Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts supports two general project types under Grants for Arts Projects Literary Arts:
- Literary publishing projects (February Grants for Arts Projects Deadline)
- Audience and professional development projects (July Grants for Arts Projects Deadline)
Apply under the project type and associated deadline that most closely corresponds to the primary focus of your proposed project. Generally, an organization is limited to one application per year in the Grants for Arts Projects category.
Independent Component: A parent organization that comprises separately identifiable and independent components (e.g., a university campus that has a presenting organization and a radio station) may submit an application for each such component. In addition, a parent organization also may submit one application on its own behalf for a project that is different from any project submitted in an application by its independent component(s).
An independent component must be a unit that is both programmatically and administratively distinct from the parent organization, have its own staff and budget, and generally have an independent board that has substantial responsibility for oversight and management. To qualify as independent, a component should be equivalent to a stand-alone institution with a separate mission.
The following do not qualify as independent components:
- Academic departments of colleges and universities.
- Programs and projects of organizations.
For example:
- An art museum on a university campus serves the general public and does not grant degrees. The museum board, not the university trustees, manages the museum’s budget, staff, and programming. In this example, the art museum essentially is a stand-alone organization and qualifies as an independent component.
- A symphony association sponsors a youth orchestra in addition to its professional orchestra. Some symphony musicians serve as faculty for the youth orchestra; there is some overlap of membership between the symphony trustees and the youth orchestra’s advisory board; and the executive director for the symphony association serves as CEO for both the professional and youth orchestras. In this case, while the youth orchestra may be an important program of the symphony association, it is not equivalent to a separate institution and therefore does not qualify as an independent component.
Budgetary Requirements: Our grants cannot exceed 50% of the total cost of the project. All grants require a nonfederal cost share/match of at least 1 to 1. For example, if an organization receives a $10,000 grant, the total eligible project costs must be at least $20,000 and the organization must provide at least $10,000 toward the project from nonfederal sources.
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.