Challenge America Fast-Track
Grant: Challenge America Fast-Track
Agency: National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
Deadline: The deadline was May 23, 2013.
Description: The goal of this program is to support small and mid-sized organizations for projects that extend the arts to underserved populations -- those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics or disability. Grants are available for professional arts programming and for projects that emphasize the potential of the arts in community development.
This category supports focused, distinct projects that take place over limited periods of time and involve limited geographic areas. Each applicant must present a simple, straightforward project that reflects only one of the following outcomes:
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Engagement: Public engagement with diverse and excellent art. Examples of acceptable Engagement projects include:
- An arts event or events that will feature one or more guest artists.
- The unified promotion of community-wide arts activities and resources to enhance cultural tourism or activities in cultural districts.
- The development of professionally directed public art projects, specifically visual arts projects, that are developed through community engagement.
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Livability: The strengthening of communities through the arts. The anticipated long-term results for Livability projects are measurable community benefits, such as growth in overall levels of social and civic engagement. An acceptable Livability project is:
- Design activities for new or existing cultural facilities or civic spaces, as well as the engagement of professional design services such as streetscapes, wayfinding signage or landscape architecture. Activities may also include all design stages for the renovation, restoration or adaptive reuse of existing structures to be used as cultural facilities.
Applicants will be asked to select the outcome that is most relevant to their project.
Partnerships can be valuable to the success of these projects. While not required, applicants are encouraged to consider partnerships among organizations, both in and outside of the arts, as appropriate to their project.
Fit for public broadcasting: This program requires that organizations extend the arts to underserved populations, either through Engagement or Livability projects. Both outcome categories require the applicant to be engaged in a local community. Public broadcasting stations are well-connected to their communities and will make strong applicants to this program. NEA allows and encourages partnerships for this program, so stations that do not want to apply individually should consider partnering with another community or arts organization.
Eligibility: Nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3), U.S. organizations; units of state or local government or federally recognized tribal communities or tribes may apply. Applicants may be arts organizations, local arts agencies, arts service organizations, local education agencies and other organizations that can help advance the goals of the Arts Endowment. Applicants must have a three-year history of programming prior to the application deadline and must have submitted acceptable Final Report packages by the due date(s) for all Arts Endowment grant(s) previously received.
An organization that has received Challenge America Fast-Track grants for three years in a row (2011, 2012 and 2013) is not eligible to apply under this program.
All applicants must have a DUNS number and be registered with the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) and maintain an active CCR registration until the application process is complete, and should a grant be made, throughout the life of the award.
Anticipated funding: Grants are for $10,000 each. All grants require a nonfederal match of at least one to one.
How to apply: Applications for this program must be submitted via Grants.gov. Online submission requires registration, a process that usually takes three to five business days but can take as long as four weeks. Be sure to visit Grants.gov and begin registering well in advance of the grant deadline.
Resources:
Program Notice
FY 2012 Recipients
