Washington, DC--The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) applauds the ten design teams selected in the first stage of REBUILD BY DESIGN, a multi-stage, regional design competition that will develop innovative projects to protect and enhance communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy. An initiative of the President's Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, chaired by Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, REBUILD BY DESIGN is the most recent example of a partnership between the NEA and another federal agency. These collaborations provide arts opportunities in varied realms of citizens' lives; leverage the respective agencies' knowledge, networks, and resources; and offer better tools to engage societal challenges and better programs for the American people. The NEA serves as a special partner in REBUILD BY DESIGN, providing critical expertise and guidance. Through its grant programs such as Our Town and leadership initiatives like the Mayors' Institute on City Design, the NEA Design Program has a long history of support for the role of design in improving communities, as well as experience in guiding design competitions and expertise in managing selection panels.  The NEA Design Program closely advised the Hurricane Sandy Taskforce on the selection process for the ten teams, including advising in writing the competition brief, and in chairing the panel that made the final recommendations. The NEA will continue to partner in the process as it develops. "The selection of these teams demonstrates that some of the best design minds in the world are stepping up to assist in making our country more resilient to disaster," said NEA Director of Design Programs Jason Schupbach. "REBUILD BY DESIGN is an ambitious design competition that will not only assist the Sandy region but will provide innovative examples of resilient design solutions for all, and the NEA is honored to assist the process." NEA partnerships with other federal departments include:

• In August 2010, HUD's Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities and the NEA co-convened the nonprofit arts community around funding opportunities through two HUD programs: Community Challenge Grants Program and Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program (SCRP). This was the first time that a HUD funding program contained language encouraging arts organizations to participate in the consortia submitting applications. As a result, four grants from the Community Challenge program had arts organizations among its partners including the City of Providence, Rhode Island. In addition, four grants awarded through the Regional Planning program featured arts organizations, including the City of Tampa, Florida.

• Department of Agriculture and the Citizens' Institute on Rural Design (CIRD):The department officially joined CIRD as a project partner in 2012 to help rural communities with populations of 50,000 or fewer enhance their quality of life and economic vitality through facilitated design workshops. The department's Office of Rural Development is engaging its nationwide network of local offices to support the institute.

• Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and the NEA announced in October 2012 that for the first time, the American creative sector will be measured on a macroeconomic level. The BEA and the NEA will develop an Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account to identify and calculate the arts and culture sector's contributions to the Gross Domestic Product.

• Department of Defense and the NEA/Walter Reed Healing Arts Partnership: NEA's critically acclaimed Operation Homecoming writing program is now part of a formal medical protocol to help heal service members at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Blue Star Museums is another joint program with the Department of Defense, now in its fourth year. Blue Star Museums offers free admission to active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

• Department of Health and Human Services and the Arts and Human Development Taskforce: A task force of 13 federal agencies and departments has convened regularly since November 2011 to encourage more and better research on how the arts help people reach their full potential at all stages of life. The task force is a result of The Arts and Human Development: Framing a National Research Agenda for the Arts, Lifelong Learning, and Individual Well-Being.

• Department of Justice's Federal Bureau of Prisons and artist residency programs at federal correctional institutions. Jointly funded by the NEA and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, this partnership offers opportunities for artists to develop their art (artists have studio space in the institutions), and provides arts programs for incarcerated individuals who would not otherwise have opportunities to experience the arts.