Maine Arts Commission Announces Additional Recovery Act Funds for Arts Organizations

The Maine Arts Commission announced today that 12 nonprofit cultural organizations from Maine will receive a share of $130,100 in the second and final round of the Maine Arts Recovery program. This grant has benefitted 25 arts organizations in 19 Maine communities as widespread as Bethel, Eastport, Houlton, Lille, Portland, and Rockport.

Twelve organizations will receive up to $12,802.50 each in federal funding through the second round of the Maine Arts Recovery program administered by the Maine Arts Commission. This is in addition to the 13 organizations that received their share of $125,000 in the first round of funding earlier this year.

The full story can be found within the press section of the New MaineArts.com.

Three Agency Grant Deadlines Approach

The Maine Arts Commission has three grant deadlines coming up in the next six weeks. The first of these is the second round of the Maine Arts Recovery Program which provides up to $10,000 in funds to subsidize the preservation of jobs within nonprofit arts organizations. These stimulus dollars intend to help arts organizations as well as Maine’s creative workers in all genres of the arts. The deadline for this grant is September 11.
The guidelines for this grant adhere to the policy set by our federal partners at the National Endowment for the Arts. Although funding is designated for nonprofit arts organizations, you may note that the guidelines do include the employment or commissioning of creative workers to make work in support of an organization’s mission when the initiative can show that it is in long-term planning stages.

The other available grant deadlines approaching boast the easiest application process that the agency offers.

The Good Idea Grant (GIG) family offers funding for good ideas, and aims to move funding to artists in a way that supports these good ideas as quickly as possible. Both the GIG programs have their deadline on September 18, with approvals expected on October 23.

The GIG Contemporary supports and fosters the growth of Maine’s artists. The parameters of the grant are purposefully broad and encourage applicants with any “good idea” that furthers an individual artist’s creative endeavor(s).

The GIG Arts Visibility just joined the GIG family with a successful first round in March. Artists and organizations who are interested in this grant have found the successful stories that were covered in the latest Maine Arts Magazine to be most useful. This grant, in simple terms, assists Maine’s artists and arts organizations by providing the means with which to increase the visibility of specific artistic projects. This includes any "good idea" that supports an individual artist or organization through increased visibility.

In order to keep the GIG process simple, applicants are asked to complete a one or two page narrative in response to two or three simple questions. Work samples and resumes are requested to allow panelists to judge quality. Panels consist of expects in the field, and Maine Arts Commission staff members have no input on the process other than answering technical questions and working technology.

Arts Organizations Receive Recovery Act Funding

The Maine Arts Commission is pleased to announce that 19 non profit cultural organizations from Maine will receive a share of $325,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. Thirteen organizations will receive up to $10,000 each in federal funding through the Maine Arts Recovery program that is administered by the Maine Arts Commission. A further six organizations are set to receive between $25,000 and $50,000 each from the National Endowment for the Arts as part of their ARRA Direct Grants program. The funding will be used for the retention or reinstatement of critical staffing positions that have been jeopardized by the current economic climate.

There is approximately $120,000 in Recovery Act funding still available from the Maine Arts Commission, through a September deadline. If your local arts organization could use this funding, please let them know of this opportunity.