National Endowment for the Arts to Present Guidelines Webinar for Challenge America Fast-Track on April 2, 2014

NEA's Challenge America Fast-Track Director Michael Killoren will present a webinar on Wednesday, April 2, 2014 from 3:00 - 4:00 PM ET to help potential applicants navigate the application materials and process. There will be an overview presentation of CAFT guidelines, followed by a Q & A.  The Challenge America Fast-Track (CAFT) category of funding supports primarily small and mid-sized organizations for projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations—those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability. The Challenge America Fast Track deadline is May 8, 2014. How to join the webinar Please register in advance on the NEA's webinar page at here. You can listen using your computer's speakers or dial-in to 1-877-685-5350 and use participant code: 739587. Attendees will be muted but able to type in questions and comments through a Q & A text box. An archive of the webinar will be available shortly after the webinar on the webinar section of the NEA's website. More information on Challenge America Fast-Track Challenge America Fast-Track grants:

• Extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations.
• Are limited to 4 specific types of projects: arts event featuring a guest artist(s), public art, unified promotion, and design.
• Are for a fixed amount of $10,000 and require a minimum $10,000 match.
• Receive an expedited application review.

Recent CAFT grants Columbia Film Society, aka The Nickelodeon Theatre Columbia, SC To support the Blacks in Cinema: Past, Present, and Future Film Festival. Project activity includes screening of films historically significant to the African-American community, guest speakers, and educational programming, as well as screening documentary films created by local participants in a media literacy and media production training program. Douglas Manship Senior Theatre Complex Housing Baton Rouge, LA To support an interactive workshop by jazz musician Jonathan Batiste for children living in the local detention center and in foster care. Jazz musician Jonathan Batiste, along with his band Stay Human, visit the detention center to perform an interactive workshop for children living in the center as well as those recently been placed in foster care. Omaha Performing Arts Society Omaha, NE To support performances and related outreach by Ronald K. Brown's Evidence Dance Company and the Martha Graham Dance Company. Free outreach activities include master classes for the public and several Title I schools, concert lectures, and a storytelling-through-movement workshop led by Ronald K. Brown. SAY Sí San Antonio, TX To support the SAY Si Media Arts Studio. A documentary filmmaker offers a series of media arts workshops, intended to serve economically disadvantaged, predominantly Hispanic youth. The workshops, covering topics such as cinematography, lighting, sound-mixing, and editing, as well as other stylistic and artistic concepts, allow underserved students to create short documentaries.  For sample application narratives, go to the Freedom of Information Act Reading Room.