America's Music (NEH)

America’s Music: A Film History of Our Popular Music from Blues to Bluegrass to Broadway is a six-week public program featuring documentary film screenings and scholar-led discussions of twentieth-century American popular music. The six sessions focus on these uniquely American musical genres: blues and gospel, Broadway, jazz, bluegrass and country, rock n’ roll, and mambo and hip hop. The project will provide DVDs of compelling documentary films, discussion guidelines, original essays by eminent scholars, extensive resource guides, and Web support. The project will offer participating organizations training in how to organize, promote, and run the series successfully. All libraries and nonprofit organizations selected to implement the public program will receive grants of $2,500 for project expenses. Fifty organizations (libraries and other eligible nonprofits) will be selected to receive a grant to present this series of community programs on the history of American popular music. The grantee institutions are expected to offer the programs between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2013.

Amount: $2,500

Date due: March 14, 2012

For more information, click here.

MetLife Creative Connections

MetLife Creative Connections provides support for American composers to participate in public activities related to specific performances of their original music. By supporting the composer’s interaction with audiences, performers, arts organizations, and local communities, Metlife Creative Connections aims to increase public awareness and enhance the creative artist’s role in society.

Metlife Creative Connections applications are submitted by a Sponsoring Organization requesting support for one or more composers participating in public activities organized, sponsored, and/or presented by the organization.

Amount: $3,500

Date due: January 7, 2012

For more information, click here.

Chamber Music America Announces Fall Funding Opportunities (Jazz, Classical)

Chamber Music America announces awards for classical and jazz ensembles.

The CMA/ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming recognize ensembles and presenters for their commitment to public programming of recent classical/contemporary and/or jazz music. Awards will be presented at the CMA National Conference in New York City, January 12-15, 2012. Each recipient will receive a $500 award and a plaque. Applicants must be based in the United States or its territories, be either a not-for-profit presenter or an ensemble of two to ten musicians, have been in existence for at least two years, and be a current CMA organization-level member. (Deadline: October 7, 2011.)

The CMA Presenting Jazz program supports concert presenters in engaging U.S.-based jazz ensembles in concert settings. To be eligible, a presenter must be a U.S.-based nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that has presented at least ten public music concerts by professional, touring music ensembles over the past two years and be a CMA organization-level member. The jazz ensemble named in the application must be based in the U.S. or its territories, consist of two to ten members, have performed together as a professional touring jazz ensemble for a minimum of two years, and include improvisation as an integral part of its composition and performance. Core support will range from $5,000 to $10,000. Additional incentives of $1,000 are available for a presenter engaging a CMA New Works/New Jazz Works grantee, and if the CMA New Works/New Jazz Works grantee ensemble performs its CMA commission in its entirety. (Deadline: October 14, 2011.)

The Residency Partnership Program supports ensembles and presenters in reaching audiences for classical/contemporary, jazz, and world chamber music through residency projects. Funding is specifically aimed at activities that take place in community settings. U.S.-based ensembles and not-for-profit presenters may submit an application for a residency. The organizing and ensemble partners must be CMA organization-level members. Typical residency activities include but are not limited to workshops, ensemble coachings, master classes, clinics, lecture-demonstrations, and open rehearsals. Grants provide up to a maximum of $6,000 for a short-term residency and $12,000 for an extended residency. (Deadline: November 18, 2011.)

For more information, click here.

Scholarly Editions and Translations

Scholarly Editions and Translations grants support the preparation of editions and translations of pre-existing texts and documents that are currently inaccessible or available in inadequate editions. These grants support full-time or part-time activities for periods of a minimum of one year up to a maximum of three years. Projects must be undertaken by a team of at least one editor or translator and one other staff member. Grants typically support editions and translations of significant literary, philosophical, and historical materials, but other types of work, such as musical notation, are also eligible.

Amount: $300,000

Date due: December 8, 2011

For more information, click here.

ASCAP Foundation Songwriters & Composers Education grant

The ASCAP Foundation is a publicly supported charitable organization dedicated to supporting American music creators and encouraging their development through music education and talent development programs.

The foundation is accepting Letters of Intent for new 2012 grant funding from organizations engaged in music education and talent development programs for aspiring songwriters and composers.

The foundation does not consider requests for general operating or administrative support or annual giving campaigns, capital purposes, endowments, deficit operations, recordings, marketing efforts, or performance and production funding. The foundation does not purchase advertisements, sponsor events, or donate equipment.

The foundation's average grant is between $1,500 and $3,000 and is made on an annual one-time basis.

Grant applications are by invitation only. Applicants must first submit a LOI and then be invited by the ASCAP Foundation to complete and submit a full grant application.

For examples of the types of projects funded, click here.

For the full Letter of Intent and Grant application instructions, click here.

Due date: LOI, August 1, 2011.

NEH Challenge Grants

NEH challenge grants are capacity-building grants, intended to help institutions and organizations secure long-term improvements in and support for their humanities programs and resources. Grants may be used to establish or enhance endowments or spend-down funds (that is, funds that are invested, with both the income and the principal being expended over a defined period of years) that generate expendable earnings to support ongoing program activities. Grantees may also use funds for one-time capital expenditures (such as construction and renovation, purchase of equipment, and acquisitions) that bring long-term benefits to the institution and to the humanities more broadly.

Amount: Varies

Date due: May 4, 2011

For more information, click here.

French-American Jazz Exchange

A partnership of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the French-American Cultural Exchange, and the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the French-American Jazz Exchange is designed to foster the creative and professional development of jazz artists from France and the United States. FAJE supports projects jointly conceived by French and American professional jazz artists that encourage artistic exploration, foster intercultural dialogue, and contribute to the dynamism of the art form. The program will support activities that may result in the creation of new work, establishment of new creative and professional partnerships, and development of new audiences for the participating artists. Projects may include jazz artists in France and the United States working together or investigating forms other than jazz with artists who work in different music genres.

To be eligible, a project must consist of a lead partner from one country working with a collaborating partner from the other country. Lead and collaborating partners may be either individual artists or ensembles (not to exceed five musicians). Ensembles may represent an established group or musicians brought together specifically for the proposed project. Projects can include artists working together for the first time or those who have a prior working relationship.

Amount: $25,000

Date due: May 31, 2011

For more information, click here.

Etant donnés: The French-American Fund for the Performing Arts Offers Funding for French and American Theater Programs

Etant donnés offers financial support in the form of grants to American nonprofit institutions producing or presenting theater projects (tours, residencies, translations) either of contemporary French playwrights or with French theater professionals (directors, actors, stage-designers, etc.). New productions of classical repertory are only eligible if they involve collaboration with a French director/playwright/other professionals.

Amount: The amount of a grant request cannot exceed 50 percent of the total budget for the project and/or $25,000.

Date due: February 1, 2011

For more information, click here.

Ford Family Foundation Visual Arts Program Funds Opportunity Grants for Oregon Artists

The Oregon Arts Commission has announced an agreement with the Ford Family Foundation Visual Arts Program to manage new Opportunity Grants to be reviewed in conjunction with the commission's Career Opportunity Grants.

The Ford Family Foundation is offering additional resources to Oregon visual artists who face unanticipated circumstances and for whom the grants could help significantly advance the creation, production, or exhibition of their work. The new grants are a component of the foundation's Visual Arts Program, which seeks to accelerate an enhanced quality of artistic endeavor and bodies of work by mid-career Oregon visual artists, and to improve Oregon's visual arts ecology.

Amount: $7,500

Date due: February 14, 2011; May 16, 2011

For more information, click here.