American Masterpieces: Chamber Music

CFDA No. 45.024
2009NEA01AMCM
7314800

Potential applicants are strongly advised to consult with the Music staff before preparing an application.

Grant Program Description

American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius is a major initiative to acquaint Americans with the best of their cultural and artistic legacy. Through American Masterpieces, the National Endowment for the Arts will sponsor performances, exhibitions, tours, and educational programs across all art forms that will reach large and small communities in all 50 states.

This component of American Masterpieces will celebrate the extraordinary and rich evolution of chamber music in the United States. Through performances and related educational activities, American chamber music of the highest quality will be experienced by Americans in communities across the nation.

Grants are available for chamber music performances in conjunction with educational activities that will highlight specific repertoire by American composers and enable ensembles to engage with communities in a variety of settings. The Arts Endowment is particularly interested in projects that have at least one performance and two educational activities.

The Arts Endowment plans to support a range of projects that reflect the breadth of chamber music. For the purposes of this initiative, chamber music generally is defined as one player to a part, performed without a conductor, with between two and ten players; duos must perform as an ensemble of equal partners. Chamber music encompasses music for traditional ensembles such as string quartets and trios, as well as compositions for mixed ensembles, traditional and indigenous instruments, and jazz. Projects may include recordings and broadcasts. Commissions and premiere performances are not eligible.

Projects must be accompanied by related educational, interpretive, or contextual components. These may include discussions, master classes, seminars, exhibitions, program material, or cooperative learning projects with educational or community institutions. Curriculum-based educational components for children and youth must ensure the application of national or state arts education standards.

Projects may be initiated by eligible organizations of all sizes, genres, and aesthetics such as:

• Ensembles.
• Presenters.
• Festivals.
• Colleges and universities.

Award Information

Grant Amounts and Matching Funds

Grants generally will range from $5,000 to $75,000 and require a nonfederal match of at least 1 to 1.

Period of Support

The Arts Endowment's support of a project may start on or after May 1, 2009. The performances and educational activities should take place by September 30, 2010.

No pre-award costs are allowable in the Project Budget. Project costs that are incurred before May 1, 2009, will be removed from the Project Budget.

Applicant 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. To be eligible, the applicant organization must:

• Meet the Arts Endowment's "Legal Requirements," including nonprofit, tax-exempt status, as detailed in the FY 2009 Grants for Arts Projects guidelines, at the time of application.
• Have a three-year history of programming that includes the production or presentation of chamber music performances and educational activities prior to the application deadline.
• Have submitted acceptable Final Report packages by the due date(s) for all Arts Endowment award(s) previously received.

For projects that involve multiple organizations, one organization that meets the eligibility requirements above must act as the official applicant, submit the application, and assume full responsibility for the grant.

Organizations are limited to one American Masterpieces: Chamber Music application per year.

An application in response to this announcement does not preclude an organization from applying under other Arts Endowment funding opportunities including Grants for Arts Projects. In each case, the request must be for a distinctly different project. There also should be no overlapping project costs with other federally sponsored projects such as NEA Jazz Masters Live.

The designated fifty state and six jurisdictional arts agencies (SAAs) and their regional arts organizations (RAOs) are not eligible to apply under the American Masterpieces: Chamber Music guidelines.

How to Prepare and Submit an Application

Organizations are required to submit their applications electronically through Grants.gov, the federal government's online application system. The Grants.gov system must receive your application no later than 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time, on October 10, 2008.

We strongly recommend that you submit at least one week in advance of the deadline to give yourself ample time to resolve any problems that you might encounter. You take a significant risk by waiting until the day of the deadline to submit your application.

Supporting material that must be mailed directly to the Arts Endowment must be postmarked (or show other proof of mailing) no later than October 14, 2008.

The Arts Endowment has created an easy-to-follow checklist for registering. Step-by-step instructions for registering also are available at Get Registered. If you have problems registering, call the Grants.gov help desk at 1-800-518-4726, e-mail support@grants.gov, or consult the information posted on the Grants.gov Web site at Applicant Help. The Grants.gov Customer Service hours are 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Eastern Time, Monday to Friday.

If you have already registered with Grants.gov, renew/verify your registration with Grants.gov and make sure that all of your information is current before you apply.

If you are unable to submit your application electronically, you may request a waiver from this requirement. A waiver will be granted for the following reasons only:

• Internet access is not available within a 30-mile radius of your organization's business office.

• Disability prevents the submission of an electronic application.

Your waiver request must be in writing and must explain which of the two grounds for an exception prevents you from submitting your application electronically. Include accurate contact information (including phone number) so that we may notify you of the status of your request.

Your waiver request must be received (not postmarked) at the Arts Endowment at least three weeks before the application deadline, or no later than 5:30 p.m., Eastern Time, on September 19, 2008. You may fax your request to 202/682-5660 or send it to:

Deputy Chairman for Grants and Awards
Grants.gov Waiver Request
Room 710
National Endowment for the Arts
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20506-0001

The National Endowment for the Arts continues to experience lengthy delays in the delivery of First-Class mail. Please consider faxing your waiver request or using a commercial delivery service, particularly if you are sending your request close to the receipt deadline.

In the event a waiver is granted, your complete paper application package must be postmarked (or show other proof of mailing) no later than October 10, 2008.

IMPORTANT: You must have Adobe Reader (version 8.1.1 or higher), a small, free software program, installed on your computer before you download your application package from Grants.gov. Earlier versions of Adobe Reader or other Adobe products will lead to errors and prevent you from submitting your application through Grants.gov. If more than one computer will be involved in the preparation of the application package, ensure that the same version of Adobe Reader is used.

To verify that you have a compatible version of Adobe Reader installed, click on the test application package link below:

Adobe Reader Version Test Application Package

If you do not already have Adobe Reader (version 8.1.1 or higher) installed on your computer, please download and follow the installation instructions.

Access the application package on Grants.gov by clicking on the link below:

Then follow the link to "How to Prepare and Submit an Application." These instructions will guide you to submit material that corresponds to the requirements for Music applicants to the Access to Artistic Excellence category in the FY 2009 Grants for Arts Projects guidelines.

Keep the following in mind when you prepare documents for the Attachments Form:

• In your Details of the Project Narrative (Attachment 2): Provide a listing of the specific American chamber repertoire to be highlighted. If exact work(s) are not known, provide a list of the composer(s) whose works are to be featured.

• In your Programmatic Activities listing (Attachment 9): Provide examples from the past three seasons of your chamber music performance and educational activities as well as your standard repertoire and performance information. To accommodate this additional information, you may submit up to six pages for your Programmatic Activities listing.

Go to "How to Prepare and Submit an Application" for further instructions.

Application Review

The following criteria are considered during the review of applications:

The artistic excellence of the project, which includes the:

• Quality of the artists, arts organizations, and works of art that the project will involve, as appropriate.
• Artistic significance of the project.

The artistic merit of the project, which includes the:

• Potential impact on the artistic and/or cultural heritage of the nation, region, or field.
• Extent to which the project broadens access to the arts and/or presents art that otherwise would not be available.
• Potential to enhance the educational experiences of the audience or participants.
• Appropriateness of the project to the organization's mission, audience, and community.
• Plans for documentation, evaluation, and dissemination, as appropriate, of the project.
• Likelihood that the project will achieve the identified outcome(s) and the feasibility of the proposed performance measurements. *
• Ability to carry out the project including the appropriateness of the budget, the quality and clarity of the project goals and design, the resources involved, and the qualifications of the project's personnel.
• Where appropriate, the potential to reach underserved populations such as those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability.

* The Arts Endowment, along with other federal agencies, collects information on the projects it funds in order to track the results -- or outcomes -- of its activities. This information is compiled and reported to Congress and the public. The outcome the Arts Endowment intends to achieve through the American Masterpieces: Chamber Music initiative is: Audiences throughout the nation have opportunities to experience a wide range of art forms and activities. Within the context of this outcome, we ask all applicants to define what they would like to achieve, how they will assess the degree to which it is achieved, and, upon completion of the project, what they have learned from their successes and failures.

All applications are reviewed by an advisory panel. Panel recommendations are forwarded to the National Council on the Arts, which then makes recommendations to the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. The Chairman reviews the Council's recommendations and makes the final decision on all grant awards. Pending the availability of funding, it is anticipated that applicants will be notified of award or rejection in April 2009.

Award Administration

Crediting Requirement

Grantees must clearly acknowledge support from the National Endowment for the Arts in their programs and related promotional material including publications and Web sites. Organizations that receive grants will be provided with specific requirements for acknowledgment of the American Masterpieces initiative. Grantees also should make certain that the venues give appropriate credit to the Arts Endowment's American Masterpieces initiative.

Administrative Requirements

Before submitting an application, organizations should review the Grants for Arts Projects guidelines and General Terms & Conditions for detailed information on legal requirements and other administrative matters that pertain to this announcement.

Agency Contacts

If you have questions, please contact:

Organizations with names that begin A through L:
Court Burns
202/682-5590 or burnsc@arts.gov

Organizations with names that begin M through Z:
Anya Nykyforiak
202/682-5487 or nykyfora@arts.gov

Reporting Burden

The public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated at an average of 32 hours per response including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. The Arts Endowment welcomes any suggestions that you might have on improving the guidelines and making them as easy to use as possible. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: Office of Guidelines & Panel Operations, Room 620, National Endowment for the Arts, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20506-0001. Note: Applicants are not required to respond to the collection of information unless it displays a currently valid U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number.

June 2008

OMB No. 3135-0112 Expires 11/30/2010

National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506

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