Grants for Community Reading Projects

Posted by on November 3, 2008

Big Read Offers Support for Community Reading Projects

Deadline: February 3, 2009

The Big Read (http://www.neabigread.org/) is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (http://www.nea.gov/) designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. Presented  in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (http://www.imls.gov/) and in cooperation  with Arts Midwest (http://www.artsmidwest.org/), the initiative  brings together partners across the United States to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment.

The Big Read is accepting applications from nonprofit organizations to conduct month-long, community-wide reads between September 2009 and June 2010. Organizations selected to participate in the Big Read will each receive a grant ranging from $2,500 to $20,000, financial support to attend an orientation meeting, educational and promotional materials, an Organizer’s Guide for developing and managing Big Read activities, inclusion of the organization and activities on the Big Read Web site, and the prestige of participating in a highly visible national initiative. Approximately four hundred organizations of varying sizes across the country will be selected for this cycle.

Applicant organizations must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, a division of state, local, or tribal government, or a tax-exempt public library. Eligible applicants include such organizations as literary centers, libraries, museums, colleges and universities, art centers, historical societies, arts councils, tribal governments, humanities councils, literary festivals, and arts organizations. Applicant organizations must partner with a library (if the applicant organization itself is not a library), and must select one of the twenty-seven available book titles or one of the three available poetry books.

Complete program information is available at the Big Read Web site.

RFP Link: http://www.neabigread.org/guidelines.php

For additional RFPs in Arts and Culture, visit: http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/rfp/cat_arts.jhtml