Grants available to develop "tourism assets" in the Lander area

If an arts organization isn't a "tourism asset" we don't know what is:

Lander's Tourism Asset Development (TAD) Program offers assistance through the Lander Area Chamber of Commerce from lodging tax proceeds from the Wind River Visitor’s Council.

All applicants are subject to guidelines for requesting Tourism Asset Development funds from the Lander Area Chamber of Commerce.  All requests require appropriate application materials and recommendation of the TAD committee and approval of the Lander Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.  Eligible candidates include groups that are able to demonstrate that their programming has a direct benefit to the tourism industry specifically in the Lander area.  The purpose of the TAD Grant program is to attract potential visitors from outside of the Lander area.

Those eligible to apply for the TAD program are non-governmental tourist-related organizations, non-profit organization, Civic organizations or tourism related organizations for the purpose of developing tourism assets in the Lander area.  Eligible expenditures include but are not limited to print media, website, radio, television.  Other expenditures may be eligible dependent upon approval of the Lander Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

TAD grants may be awarded for applications in any amount up to $1,000.

Applications must be submitted to the Lander Area Chamber of Commerce by February 1, 2013 for projects to be completed in 2013.

Call the Lander Area Chamber of Commerce at 307-332-3892.

Deadline is Jan. 15 for Historic Architecture Assistance Fund

This info comes to us from the November issue of the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund newsletter:

The Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund is pleased to help the Historic Architecture Assistance Fund (HAAF). HAAF will provide the services of architects and engineers to the owners of historic buildings to address issues involved with the rehabilitation and use of such properties. The next deadline for applications is January 15, 2013.

The fund cannot support the entire architectural or engineering services needed for a complete rehabilitation project. Typical projects that can be funded include a building assessment, structural analysis, analysis of building code and ADA requirements, and façade and signage schematic design.

The HAAF is available to a variety of property owners. The fund is meant to support private and not-for-profit property owners, who are not eligible for many grant programs. Government entities can also apply for the funds. The HAAF was established to provide assistance to properties that are historic, which is generally understood to be over 50 years of age. Any proposed work that the HAAF would contribute to with assessment and design work must maintain or restore the historic integrity of the property. The fund is not intended to provide assistance with remodeling projects that would change the character of the historic building or address common utility system questions. The HAAF is best used to address conditions and materials that provide challenges for rehabilitation projects, such as potentially compromised structural systems, exterior wall materials, windows, ADA and code compliance, and the loss of historic components.

It should be understood that all properties will be treated as historic; that is, eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, and proposed work will meet the Secretary of Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. Applications may be submitted to either the Wyoming Main Street Program, the Alliance for Historic Wyoming, or the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO).

For application forms, visit SHPO’s website. Contact information:

Wyoming Main Street
Britta Fuller
214 West 15th Street
Cheyenne, WY 82002
307-777-2934
Britta.fuller@wyo.gov

Alliance for Historic Wyoming
Hilery Lindmier
P.O. Box 51201
Casper, WY 82605
307-333-3508
execdirector@historicwyoming.org

State Historic Preservation Office
Brian Beadles
2301 Central Avenue
Cheyenne, WY 82002
307-777-8594
Brian.beadles@wyo.gov

Donations to Carbon County Library book sale will be matched by Wyoming State Legislature

Click to enlarge

Chattanooga public art project open to all U.S. artists

THE BRIGHT SCHOOL CENTENNIAL PUBLIC ART PROJECT

Deadline: May 17. Public Art Chattanooga and the Bright School in Chattanooga, TN, are looking for artists or artist groups to create a permanent piece for the entrance of the school. This call is open to all applicants in the United States over the age of 18. Project proposals must maintain the ability to withstand weather and public interaction with the piece.

FMI: www.publicartchattanooga.com/about/callstoartists.htm

Correction: Cheyenne Family YMCA silent auction will be held in May

Wyomingarts previously published news about the Cheyenne Family YMCA silent art auction deadline being April 30. Here's the correction:

Works by local artists Marlin Glasner, Tom Shaffer, Aaron Curry, Win Ratz, Joyce & Casey Stone will be up for bids at a silent auction held during May by the Cheyenne Family YMCA. The artwork may be viewed beginning May 1 in the swimming pool lobby. Proceeds go to the YMCA's Community Support Campaign. Hours 5 a.m.-9 p.m., M-F; Saturday 7 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday noon-4 p.m. FMI: 307-634-9622.

Updated list of sponsors for CLICK! conference

We now have an updated list of sponsors for the 2012 CLICK! conference (in alphabetical order, with links):

Pinedale Fine Arts Council

Pipeline Art Project

University of Wyoming Art Museum

Works of Wyoming

Wyoming Arts Council

Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund

More may be added later...

Align Nonprofit Leadership Institute offers classes for nonprofit arts organizations

Managers and staffers of arts nonprofit orgs may want to look at Align’s classes. Wyoming Department of Workforce Services offers grant funds to defray costs:

Align’s Nonprofit Leadership Institute (NLI) is the region’s leading training series for non-profit management. This series of hands-on classes builds leadership and management skills for the current and future generation of nonprofit leaders. Core topics range from financial and personnel management to high level leadership skills. Participants earn a certificate for each class and gain practical experience to strengthen their organization. Bring any or all of the NLI classes to your community or organization. Call us for details on scheduling and pricing.

Grant funds for tuition may be available to Wyoming organizations from the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services. For more information, call 307–772-9100 or email info@TheAlignTeam.org

L.A.’s Artist Bailout: Like bringing Kickstarter to life for one night, plus pie

Cool new way to fund small, innovative community-based arts organization:

Last summer, Nina Becker (above, right) converted her van into a "gigantic pinhole camera." Now she needs $1,000 to use the "VanCam" for five photography workshops with students in Los Angeles. "We wanted to teach kids about photography on a scale that related to their own bodies," she explained to a crowd of 100 potential micro-investors gathered at Human Resources, a gallery in L.A.'s Chinatown, to consider her pitch over slices of sweet potato-bacon and coconut cream pies.  

Becker's organization, The Mobile Pinhole Project, was one of seven local arts groups seeking funding at the third installment of an event series called Artist Bailout, which looks to "democratically fund new work by emerging artists." Attendees donated $10, or more if they were willing, in exchange for dinner and a ballot (GOOD matched donations with a $1,000 check). At the end of the night, participants cast votes for their two favorite organizations. 

When all the votes were tallied, The Mobile Pinhole Project came out on top, along with Knowledges, a curatorial collective that's planning a weekend-long exhibition in June at Mount Wilson Observatory, a neglected telescope in the San Gabriel Mountains. The winning groups received $1,000 each, with $100 going to each of five runners-up. 

With funding for local arts and community programs drying up because of the economic downturn, the Artist Bailout provides an alternative for artists whose work lies outside traditional funding mechanisms, and gets art lovers invested in their communities. Think of it as bringing Kickstarter to life for a night, plus pie. Elana Mann, one of the event's organizers, said she thought Saturday "went amazingly well... We were hoping to at least make $1,000, so we're thrilled," she said, while handing rolls of 20-dollar bills to presenters claiming their prizes. Past Artist Bailouts have funded projects like Stair Street Ghosts, a walking tour of L.A.'s historic Mt. Angelus neighborhood, known for its staircase sidewalks that typically remain closed to the public. 

With $1,000 in the bank after Saturday night's success, Knowledges cofounders Christina Ondrus and Elleni Sclavenitis only need about $500 more to realize their event. They plan to host installations and film screenings by 40 artists whose work or aesthetic is inspired by astronomy. Ondrus and Sclavenitis hope the event will be the first of many site-specific exhibitions around Los Angeles. "Art doesn't happen in a vacuum," said Ondrus. "It happens somewhere. Not just in a gallery or a closed space." 

From GOOD Magazine. Photo by Zak Stone

Support Rock Springs Main Street at "Top Hats and Tiaras" on New Year's Eve

Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund grant applications now available

From Renee Bovee, coordinator of the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund:

The 2012 Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund Grant Application is now available! The next deadline for WCTF applications is May 1, 2012, for projects/events/activities which occur from July 1, 2012 onward. If you have an idea which you would like to bounce around, please contact the WCTF Administrator, Renée Bovée, at renee.bovee@wyo.gov or by calling 307-777-6312. I will be pleased to help, and I am always willing to review drafts (until, say, April 15 when I just get a little too swamped). Let me know what your needs and plans are, and let’s see how we can make your application to the WCTF competitive!

Creative Capital announces Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards

From Creative Capital:

Creative Capital is delighted to announce a new ancillary program, the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards, launched this fall in partnership with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF). The Performing Artist Awards will support individual artists in contemporary dance, theater and jazz for extended professional and artistic development. The program is designed to empower, invest in and celebrate notable performing artists, allowing for long-term exploration and research needs unmet by traditional project support.

The award programs will select and support 200 artists through unrestricted grants and additional funds will be available for audience development and matching contributions to artists' retirement accounts. The program will support 100 artists with grants of up to $275,000, plus an additional 100 artists with grants of up to $80,000. Artists will be selected for these awards through a peer-review panel process. No applications will be accepted.

Creative Capital will serve as DDCF's primary partner in working with artists in the award programs to realize and maximize the use of their grants. All awardees will have the opportunity to take part in professional development activities, financial and legal counseling, and grantee gatherings.

The Performing Artist Awards are part of a larger initiative, the Doris Duke Performing Artists Initiative, a new ten-year, $50 million program. The overall program includes a residency program as well as the two award programs. Since its founding in 1996, DDCF has given more than $218 million to its signature fields in the arts. With the Doris Duke Performing Artists Initiative, DDCF will now provide a critical mass of flexible support to individual artists, as well as to a range of dance companies, theaters and presenters.

Read more 

Proceeds from AVA's Dec. 22 Miracle Tree Raffle 2011 go to scholarship fund

http://www.avacenter.org

"Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change" report asks some tough questions -- and provides some answers

http://www.giarts.org/article/fusing-arts-culture-and-social-change

Holly Sidford writes on the Grantmakers for the Arts site about the new report she authored, "Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change: High Impact Strategies for Philanthropy," for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. Sidford is a strategic planner, program developer and fund-raiser with 30 years experience with cultural organizations and philanthropy. Here's her intro:

Every year, approximately 11 percent of foundation giving – about $2.3 billion in 2009 – is awarded to nonprofit arts and cultural institutions. The distribution of these funds is demonstrably out of balance with our evolving cultural landscape and with the changing demographics of our communities. Current arts grantmaking disregards large segments of cultural practice, and by doing so, it disregards large segments of our society.

Food for thought for all of us who work in the arts-funding biz. 

Courtney Balaker raising funds for film set in Jackson Hole

News from jhunderground about a Teton County movie project:

Courtney Balaker, a writer and director from Los Angeles, is seeking to shoot her first full-length film in Jackson Hole this fall. She not only is seeking funding for the project but also a title and other creative input, such as extras. 

At the now-defunct Jackson Hole Film Festival, Balaker won the 2008 Audience Choice Award for best short film for her debut, Cute Couple. She has teamed with the festival’s ex-artistic director, Melanie Miller, who is serving as producer of the untitled Jackson Hole film. 

The two have turned to Kickstarter to raise money. They set out to raise $50,000 in 50 days, and so far have netted $12,140. The deadline is 1:53 p.m. Thursday. 

Synopsis of the plot: UNTITLED JACKSON HOLE PROJECT is a feature film that brings a group of lifelong friends together in beautiful Jackson Hole, Wyoming over a long holiday weekend. What starts out as a festive and fun-loving reunion between friends filled with reminiscing quickly degrades into a test of relationships once Meredith reveals she is ready to have a baby – and she wants one of the guys in the group to step up to the plate and donate! More details can be found on the Kickstarter site.

Call for applications: Moss Foundation arts education grants

The P. Buckley Moss Foundation for Children’s Education has grants available up to $1,000 to be awarded in 2011 to educators who need assistance to further their program goals.

Applications may be made for a grant up to $1,000 to support a new or evolving program that integrates the arts into educational programming.  The purpose is to aid and support teachers who wish to establish an effective learning tool using the arts in teaching children who learn differently.

Grant applications due Sept. 30. 2011.

FMI: P. Buckley Moss Foundation, Grants Committee, 152 P. Buckley Moss Drive, Waynesboro, VA  22980; 540-932-1728;

http://mossfoundation.org/national-educators-awards-and-grants

NASAA: Debt ceiling deal spells deep cuts in domestic discretionary spending

Sent to the Wyoming Arts Council by Thomas L. Birch, Legislative Counsel, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA). The WAC is a NASAA member.

There can be little doubt about the result of the debt ceiling deal signed into law last week by President Obama. Discretionary spending will suffer mightily. President Obama has said that the deal will result in the lowest level of domestic non-defense spending since the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s.  

The Budget Control Act of 2011 passed by the House and Senate increases the debt ceiling through the 2012 elections. Just as significantly, the new law creates a 12-member bipartisan commission of Senators and Representatives charged with cutting $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over ten years. The committee must complete its work by Thanksgiving this year and Congress must enact the cuts by December 23.  

Everything in discretionary spending is on the table, and appropriators are initially uncertain how the recommendations of the new committee are going to interact with the appropriations process already underway. The debt limit bill sets spending caps for fiscal 2012, as well as fiscal 2013. The new law calls for trimming discretionary spending from the current $1.050 trillion level to $1.043 trillion in fiscal 2012. Since the Senate has not adopted a budget resolution, appropriators there now have the guidelines to allow them to proceed with their spending bills.  

However, both sides of Capitol Hill see little chance, given the limited time, to complete all the spending bills by the start of the new fiscal year on October 1. Another continuing resolution is more likely. The objective is to avoid the kind of protracted spending negotiations that dragged on six months into the 2011 fiscal year before Congress voted an end to funding process.  

Here are the highlights in the Budget Control Act:
• The bill allows a debt ceiling increase by as much as $2.4 trillion dollars in total. Included is an immediate increase of $400 billion dollars. President Obama would be permitted to request another $500 billion increase in the coming months, which Congress could vote to disallow by a veto proof two-thirds margin. A further increase of between $1.2 trillion and $1.5 trillion would be available after the special congressional committee does its work and identifies matching levels of additional spending cuts.
• Discretionary spending would be further cut by more than $900 billion over ten years. It would include security-related and non-security-related cuts. According to the Congressional Budget Office, discretionary spending would be decreased by $21 billion in 2012 and $42 billion in 2013.
• The 12-person House and Senate special committee, in addition to identifying spending cuts, could propose tax code reforms and make savings in benefit programs like Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security. Congress could not modify the committee's recommendation.
• If the special committee deadlocks or Congress rejects the committee's recommendations, automatic across-the-board spending cuts of at least $1.2 trillion would go into effect.
• The agreement requires that the House of Representatives and the Senate vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, although its passage is not guaranteed.
NASAA continues to pursue our advocacy agenda focused on achieving the best results in the 2012 funding bill for the National Endowment for the Arts, with attention to policy issues of interest to state arts agencies. We are engaging our members with contacts to key legislators charged with the decision-making in the bringing a budget to conclusion for the next fiscal year.

Curious about Arts Council IAPD grants?

The Wyoming Arts Council encourages you to apply for its Individual Artist Professional Development (IAPD) grants .

We launched the IAPD grants in 2005 following the successful "100 Days of Arts" campaign. Since July 1, 2005, the Arts Council has approved 69 IAPD grants totalling almost $35,000 for folk artists, performing artists, visual artists and writers. They have used the funding to design web pages, travel to conferences, record music CDs, assemble art exhibits, work with mentors, develop marketing plans, launch a book tour, etc. If it's a project that can assist the next step in your artistic career, the IAPD is a good place to start.

To apply, go to the WAC web site and go to the grants page (see left sidebar).

Casper receives $50,000 "Our Town" grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

This was posted an hour ago on the Casper Star-Tribune web site:

Casper will receive a $50,000 grant for a project that integrates public art into a low-income housing development, the National Endowment for the Arts announced today. As part of the project, an artist will work with developers and residents to design public art and green space for an apartment complex being built at the corner of Collins Drive and Beech Street. The money comes from the NEA's inaugural "Our Town" grant program, which aims to revitalize communities through partnerships between local government and arts organizations. Casper was one of 51 communities nationwide, and the only one in Wyoming, to receive a grant.

Read more: http://trib.com/news/local/casper/article_b59063b2-7991-51f2-8698-204d1b7b01fc.html#ixzz1RvYMviaT

Greg Mortenson -- education key to democracy

Greg Mortenson has humanitarian marrow in his bones. As an adolescent, he spent time in Africa with his Lutheran missionary parents and his then three-year-old sister as his father set up the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center in Moshi, Tanzania, which was opened in 1971. A month after his father said that in ten years, the facility would be staffed by the citizens of Tanzania, he was fired from his position for having the audacity to think that the running of the hospital could be done by the people in whose country it had been established. 

So Greg is familiar with failure. In fact, the title of the first chapter of Three Cups of Tea is "Failure." It is the beginning of his prophetic journey in building girls schools, first in Pakistan, and then in Afghanistan. At twenty-three years old, Greg's sister, Christa, who suffered from epilepsy, died from a massive seizure on the morning she was to go on her dream trip to Deyersville, Iowa, where the movie Field of Dreams had been filmed. It was a movie she watched again and again, and found much inspiration from. He had decided that he would climb Kilimanjaro in Christa's honor. He had brought her necklace with him that she had worn, which he planned to leave it as an offering at the top of the mountain to "whatever deity inhabited the upper atmosphere" (From Three Cups of Tea, pg. 9). He had summited "The Savage Peak" at eleven years of age, and had much climbing experience at other locations. Nothing to it to doing it again, he thought.

He ended up spending 78 days on the mountain, but never making it to the top. When he finally got down, he ended up in the village of Korphe, where the first school was built.

We watched a short film about the first school built in Afghanistan. On Mortenson's first visit to Afghanistan, he discovered classrooms of boys in the metal storage containers used by the Russians during the war. He also saw that the girls had class ourside on a hillside. It was here that he met Gomajin, a young boy who watched the progress of the school while he herded his goats, anxious for its completion so that he could attend. But he became the victim of a landmine and died from his wounds. In Gomajin's memory, his father learned how to remove land mines. There is a monument to Gomajin near the school.

Three cups of tea means that with the first cup, you are a stranger, second cup a friend, and by the time you are drinking a third cup, you are family. But this is not a linear progression, 1,2,3, boom you're in. In every village, there is an unspoken progression of bringing one into the social circle. It may take many cups of tea, not formally ceremonial, but an important indicator of acceptance and trust. Greg has taken many cups of tea in his 18 years in the field, and has facilitated the building of many girls schools.

Why girls schools? Educating girls has many positive rewards for the community. Women bring life and nurture it after it is here. Statistics show that when girls are educated, the birth rate drops, the infant mortality rate drops, the quality of life improves, and women go back and serve the community from a more informed place. It is a powerful thing when a woman can read the news. When people are isolated, this breeds fear, and fear breeds anger and ignorance. Education is the only way to civility.

Greg mentions more statistics. Since 2007, more than 3,000 girls schools have been destroyed or shut down by extremist groups. There is a proverb that says, "The ink of a scholar is holier than the blood of a martyr." In 2000, there were only 800,000 students, mostly boys age 5-15, attending school. In 2011, the count was up to 8.3 million children, with 2.8 million of those girls.

The subtitle on Three Cups of Teas is One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time. This was not the first choice of the publisher, who wanted to say something about one man's mission to fight terrorism. But Greg is adamant that he is doing this to promote peace. The book didn't sell with the publisher's subtitle, but Greg was able to get the publisher to agree that the subtitle would be changed if the book didn't at first do well. After the subtitle was changed, the book became a best seller.

Greg also talked about the poverty in this country and how we must be willing to touch, hear, and be poverty to realize any formative changes to the situation. His Pennies for Peace program does this, and suggests the grass roots effort in towns across America of collecting pennies and getting the money to our most impoverished schools. This was his first fund raising program, but it only began when he was asked to speak at a school about how to get the school built in Korphe. Up to then, he had typed hundreds of letters asking for donations, and only received one check back, from Tom Brokaw. A young boy brought his pennies to Greg, and that is how Pennies for Peace began.

Our military mission in Afghanistan now includes soldiers who work at laying some groundwork for the beginning of a school in villages. Greg believes the most successful mission begins with empowering the members of the village. They must dedicate the land for the school, provide the labor to build, and get the materials to where they need to be. With this kind of investment, the village is not so willing to let the school be closed. When the elders of a village in Afghanistan played on the playground of a school, they told Greg they wanted a school in their village, a place where extremists had a strong hold, but only if it had a playground also. They told him that as children, they never had a chance to play, all they were taught was to fight.

Around the world, children are bought and sold into slavery, and at the youngest of ages, are taught to kill. Soccer balls are made by children in Pakistan. China and India have huge child labor forces. Children are mistreated, poorly fed, work fourteen-hour days, and fear abduction and/or molestation at night. Many just disappear. They are certainly not allowed to go to school, but many express the desire to be able to.

So Greg continues his work against the ill winds of prejudice and ignorance. He received a standing ovation.

Linda Coatney

Grant-writing workshop May 23-24 in Cheyenne

The Cheyenne Police Department and Grant Writing USA will present a two-day grants workshop in Cheyenne, May 23-24, 2011. This training is applicable to grant seekers across all disciplines. Attend this class and you'll learn how to find grants and write winning grant proposals.

Click here for full event details: http://grantwritingusa.com

Beginning and experienced grant writers from city, county and state agencies as well as nonprofits, K-12, colleges and universities are encouraged to attend.

Multi-enrollment discounts and discounts for Grant Writing USA returning alumni are available. Tuition payment is not required at the time of enrollment.

Tuition is $425 and includes all materials: workbook and accompanying 420MB resource CD that's packed full of tools and more than 200 sample grant proposals. 

FMI: 800.814.8191 or cs@grantwritingusa.com