Our Town Grant Program: Creative Placemaking

Posted by on November 26, 2012

National Endowment for the Arts Invites Creative Placemaking Proposals for Our Town Grant Program
Deadline: January 14, 2013

The National Endowment for the Arts has published guidelines and the application for the next funding round of Our Town, the agency’s primary creative placemaking grants program.

Through the program, the endowment will provide a limited number of grants for creative placemaking projects that contribute toward the livability of communities of all sizes in the United States and help transform them into lively, beautiful, and sustainable places with the arts at their core.

The program seeks to invest in creative and innovative projects in which communities, together with their arts and design organizations and artists, seek to improve their quality of life; encourage greater creative activity; foster stronger community identity and a sense of place; and revitalize economic development. Projects may include arts engagement, cultural planning, and design activities.

All Our Town applications must reflect a partnership that will provide leadership for the project. These partnerships must involve two primary partners — a nonprofit organization and a local government entity. One of the two primary partners must be a cultural (arts or design) organization. Additional partners are encouraged and may include an appropriate variety of entities such as state-level government agencies, foundations, arts organizations and artists, nonprofit organizations, design professionals and design centers, educational institutions, real estate developers, business leaders, and community organizations, as well as public and governmental entities.

Grants will range from $25,000 to $200,000.

Complete program guidelines, an FAQ, and information on previously funded projects are available at the NEA Web site.

http://arts.gov/grants/apply/OurTown/index.html