Cultural Collaborations

The Alaska State Council on the Arts, with funding from the Rasmuson Foundation has three grant programs to encourage genuine collaborations among schools, youth-serving organizations, artists, and arts organizations to provide student access to high-quality arts activities. Grants may be used to establish, expand, or enhance arts and cultural programs for young people either in school or out of school.

A school or organization may receive only one Cultural Collaboration grant per year (state fiscal year of July 1-June30) so please read the guidelines carefully and apply for the grant which would best serve your needs. Please feel free to contact the Arts in Education Program Director, Ruth Glenn at laura.forbes@alaska.gov or call 907-269-6682, toll free in Alaska 1-888-278-7424.

To access the grant instructions and applications, please click on the grant name or the link to the right.

Rock Band early morning guitar class at Glacier Valley Elementary School, 2011.

Project Grants Project Grants are matching awards of up to $6,000 in support of high-quality arts and cultural programs for youth that emphasize skill acquisition and direct participation in settings outside of the school day/year. Eligible programs provide regularly scheduled sessions over an extended period of time. Nonprofit organizations, schools or school districts are eligible to apply.

Applicants may apply for funding for the same project for up to three consecutive years, demonstrating in successive years that the project is pursuing other funding sources. It is expected that the request amount will decrease over the three-year period. In the initial application state that the project is expected to be a three year project and outline the successive year’s plans. A new application will need to be made for each of the three years stating which year the project is in.

Deadlines: June 1 and December 1

Examples:

• A PTA works with a school to provide an after school music program for 4th-6th graders
• A neighborhood community center hires a visual artist to create a summer mural painting program that young people design and create.
• A theatre company partners with a youth detention center to work with teens to create and stage a play about their lives.
• A community library hires a writer to offer an after-school writing lab for kids.
• A village corporation hires a media artist to work with students and elders to record the history of the village.

Closed until July 1, 2013

Access Grants, bringing ARTS to KIDS, are awards of up to $1,000 to support high-quality, less than two weeks arts and cultural activities for grades K-12 at a school site during the school day. Nonprofit organizations, schools or school districts are eligible to apply.

Deadlines: at least 30 working days prior to the activity start.

Examples:

• Visit by an author who works with the English classes on writing and gives a reading from their work;
• A musical trio who gives an assembly and works with three different classes on rhythm;
• A movement artist who comes to a school for a four day residency working with K-3th graders;
• A dance group who gives an assembly and works for three more days in various classes.

Excursion Grants Closed until July 1, 2013 Excusion Grants, bringing Kids to Arts, are awards of up to $600 ($1,000 for eligible Title I schools,) to support transportation and admission costs incurred in attending arts and cultural events. Only public or nonprofit schools in Alaska may apply. A school may only receive one Excursion grant but may apply for several activities in one grant. The activity should provide a connection to current curriculum. If a trip is to a multi-discipline museum (arts, history, and/or science) the grant can only be used for admission to the arts and/or history portion of the museum.

Begich Middle School Special Ed students attend an Alaska Junior Theatre show, 2011

Examples:

• Shaw Elementary takes its 3rd graders to the Anchorage Museum for a visit to the Smithsonian Collection and the Science center. The grant will only fund the Smithsonian portion of the activity.

• All Talkeetna and Trapper Creek Elementary school students visit the Alaska Native Heritage Center with pre visit discussions about the various Native cultures in their area;

• Copper River School District applies for all 6th graders to attend a performance of the Nutcracker Ballet in Anchorage;

• Creekside Elementary takes its 3rd graders to the Native Heritage Center; its 5th graders to the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra Young People’s concert and its 6th graders to an Alaska Junior Theatre performance.

• Haines high school students attend a Perseverance Theatre production in Juneau.

Arts Educator Fellowships

Arts Educators Fellowships are awards of up to $3,000 to support the artistic professional development for teachers who are responsible for teaching visual or performing arts in public or private schools. Grants support explorations, classes, workshops, etc. in the art discipline in which the applicant teaches. The emphasis of the workshops should be on artistic development not teaching skills. Applicants are eligible for one grant every three years.

Deadlines: March 15

Examples:

• A Visual Arts Teacher applies for a grant to take a wood carving workshop in Seattle;
• A Music Teacher applies for a grant to attend a month long jazz symposium in Austin;
• A Music Teacher applies for a grant in order to not work during the summer so that s/he can work on a new composition;
• A teacher working in the bush is both a math and photography teacher. S/He applies for a grant to take a photography workshop to learn how to better use a digital printing program.
• An elementary school teacher who has been working on integrating movement into the classroom applies to take summer dance classes to improve their dance ability.