State Partnership Grant Program Description

Most of the fifty state and six jurisdictional arts agencies were created in response to the national example and financial incentive provided by the Arts Endowment. For more than 40 years the Arts Endowment’s support for SAAs has helped to attract state funding that for most agencies now far exceeds the federal support. State government support is vital to the arts in America.

As recipients of funding from the Arts Endowment, state arts agencies are responsible for meeting standards of accountability that call for:

• Inclusive planning.
• Responsive plans.
• Evaluation of performance in relation to plans.
• Fair decision-making.
• Leadership in arts education, access to artistic excellence, and partnerships for the arts.
• Reporting on funded activities, in accordance with the National Standard for Arts Information Exchange.

As the partner agencies of the Arts Endowment, state arts agencies greatly extend the Arts Endowment’s reach and impact, translating national leadership into local benefit. As they carry out their state plans, they work cooperatively with the Arts Endowment to carry out common goals. The SAAs and the Arts Endowment consult regularly on how they can best work together to address these goals.

What is included

Through State Partnership Agreements, the Arts Endowment supports state arts agencies in four ways:

1. State Arts Plan Component

   This component provides funds that agencies can use to address priorities that are identified at the state level. Activities supported with these funds also contribute to the fulfillment of one or more of the Arts Endowment’s goals. Activity for Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest also is included here.

2. Arts Education Component

   This component provides support for those elements of the plan that address arts education. Funds support efforts to achieve one or more of the following goals:

   • To help ensure that the arts are basic to the education of children and youth in grades pre-K through 12.
   • To expand opportunities for children and youth to participate in and to increase their understanding of or skills in the arts.
   • To provide professional development opportunities for artists, arts professionals, and teachers.

   Each state arts agency should address these goals through strategies and partnerships that are based on national, state, or local arts education standards, as appropriate, and the particular needs, opportunities, and resources of the state. See "Additional Information on Arts Education."

3. Arts in Underserved Communities Component

   This component provides support for those elements of a state’s plan that foster the arts in rural, inner-city, and other underserved communities. Funds may assist in the areas of local cultural development, folk & traditional arts, developing arts organizations, rural initiatives, arts programs for disadvantaged youth, presentation of great American works of art to new audiences, and other programs that extend the arts to underserved populations.

   For the purposes of these guidelines, an underserved community is one in which individuals lack access to arts programs due to geography, economic conditions, ethnic background, or disability. Within this broad definition, SAAs may identify their own underserved constituencies.

4. Folk & Traditional Arts Infrastructure Component (optional)

Through this component, state arts agencies request funds for projects that strengthen a state or region’s infrastructure of support for the folk & traditional arts, thereby helping to preserve our nation’s diverse cultural heritage. For the purposes of these guidelines, the term infrastructure refers to stable, professionally directed programs that are responsive to a diverse folk & traditional arts heritage. This component builds on the Arts Endowment’s commitment of more than 25 years to the development of a network of support for the folk & traditional arts.

Projects might include but are not limited to:

• Professional folk arts positions in support of the folk & traditional arts. Such positions should have the potential to become self-sustaining within three years.
• The creation of long-term organizational and community partnerships that are based in the folk & traditional arts.
• Discovery research to identify and document underserved folk & traditional artists and arts.
• Apprenticeship programs.
• Technical assistance to traditional artists and folk arts organizations.
• Festivals, exhibitions, new technology, and other presentations of folk & traditional artists and their work.

New, expanded, or existing projects are eligible. Each state or region is limited to one Infrastructure request. That request may come from the state arts agency through this component or from the regional arts organization as part of its Partnership Agreement. Applications from organizations other than state or regional arts agencies must be submitted under the Access to Artistic Excellence category of the Grants for Arts Projects guidelines.

All organizations that request Folk & Traditional Arts Infrastructure component funds must submit a Statement of Intent to Apply on or before August 15, 2008. Send an e-mail of no more than one page to mathisa@arts.gov and bergeyb@arts.gov that includes the state(s) that will be involved in the project and the name, telephone number, and e-mail address of a contact person. Detailed project descriptions are not needed.

Through these components, state arts agencies also address NEA priorities in the following areas:

• Challenge America: To provide access to the arts for all Americans.

• American Masterpieces: To ensure that Americans -- in every state in the nation and in communities of all sizes -- are provided opportunities to celebrate the greatest American works across all the arts.

Deadline Dates

All state arts agencies that request Folk & Traditional Arts Infrastructure component funds must submit a Statement of Intent to Apply on or before August 15, 2008.

All state arts agencies must 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 October 3, 2008. The Arts Endowment will not accept late applications. Please be aware that the Grants.gov Customer Service hours are 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Eastern Time, Monday to Friday.

Awards will support activities that are scheduled to begin on July 1, 2009, or any time thereafter.

Award Information

Matching Requirement

State Partnership Agreement awards must be matched at least 1 to 1.

How Award Amounts Are Determined

A. State Arts Plan Component

1. Each state arts agency with an approved state plan will be allotted at least $200,000 out of the amount legally designated for awards to the SAAs. If funds are insufficient to make allotments of $200,000 to each state, then those funds which are available will be divided among the states in equal amounts.

2. After the initial allotment to each state arts agency, up to one quarter of the legally designated amount will be apportioned in line with Arts Endowment policy.

3. Any funds that remain from the designated amount will then be divided equally among the fifty states and two jurisdictions with populations of more than 200,000.

4. Funds available for the Poetry Out Loud initiative will be allotted equally among those agencies in the fifty states and the participating jurisdictions. These funds are in addition to the other State Arts Plan funds noted above.

B. Arts Education Component

This component utilizes funds that are available to assist the SAAs in achieving their arts education goals. The Arts Endowment will use a formula to apportion funds, up to $50,000 per state, to agencies with plans that meet the review criteria as they relate to arts education. The NEA will award additional funds to those agencies that are found to have the strongest plans and accomplishments in relation to the review criteria. The maximum arts education funding that any agency can receive for a one-year period is $100,000.

C. Arts in Underserved Communities Component

This component utilizes a portion of the funds that are set aside by statute for awards to the SAAs for projects in rural, inner-city, or other artistically underserved areas. The Arts Endowment will use a formula to apportion some of these underserved set-aside funds to agencies with plans that meet the review criteria. The NEA will award additional funds to those agencies that are found to have the strongest plans and accomplishments in relation to the review criteria.

D. Folk & Traditional Arts Infrastructure Component (optional)

Funds for this component are awarded among those agencies that 1) request such funding, and 2) are found to have the strongest plans and accomplishments in relation to the review criteria. Funding to any state arts agency generally will range from $10,000 to $50,000. In the past few years, grants have averaged less than $25,000.

Applicant Eligibility

Eligibility is limited to the designated fifty state and six jurisdictional arts agencies. In order to enter into a Partnership Agreement with the National Endowment for the Arts, a state arts agency must:

• Meet the the Arts Endowment's "Legal Requirements" at the time of application.
• Be designated and financially supported by its state government.
• Maintain sound fiscal and administrative procedures.
• Base program funding decisions on criteria that take into account artistic excellence and merit.
• Have its own board, council, or commission.
• Have completed a comprehensive planning process, including public meetings on its state plan, and compiled a list of responses to recommendations from those meetings.
• Have submitted acceptable Final Report packages by the due date(s) for all Arts Endowment award(s) previously received.

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