Maximum award: $15,000

Match requirement: 1:1 cash match in FY09

Contact: Expansion Arts Program Manager

The Expansion Arts grant program is designed to strengthen small and mid-sized nonprofit art organizations by providing salary assistance and technical support for an executive director for a period of three years.

Positions to be funded with this program will be equivalent to part-time employment. For example, an all-volunteer applicant organization could use the grant to hire its first half-time executive director, or an applicant organization with a new, part-time executive director could use the grant amount to make that position full-time.

The Expansion Arts program entails a maximum three-year commitment by the Arkansas Arts Council to fund selected emerging organizations. During the three-year period, the grantee is expected to be able to develop sufficient financial support to assume the full cost of maintaining the position by the fourth year.

Expansion Arts participants will attend workshops and conferences, submit to organizational reviews, and meet predetermined standards for board management. By the close of this cycle, organizations can expect to have a strategic plan, grant writing skills, and fundraising and marketing objectives.

Expansion Arts Program Application Cycle

Based on the current Arkansas Arts Council’s program cycle, First Year Expansion Arts grant awards will be made to selected organizations for salary expenditures occurring during FY09. Second and third year awards will be for FY10 and FY11.

An initial panel review determines an applicant organization’s capacity to develop a core of managerial leadership. Grant recipients must then re-apply each of the following two years, although the second and third year grants will continue with the determined amount unless organizational circumstances indicate a grant should not be continued. Second and third year grant applications will be reviewed by the Arts Council staff.

Grant awards for FY09 will be made between July 1, 2008, and June 30, 2009.

Grant awards are based on anticipated Arkansas Arts Council revenues and can be reduced at any time during the grant period.

Grant funds are viewed as supplementary to the budget of any grantee. Applicants are encouraged to secure and demonstrate broadly based financial commitments for the proposal submitted.

Expansion Arts Program Eligibility

An organization is eligible to apply for Expansion Arts Program Year 1 if it

Intent to Apply for Expansion Arts Program Support

Potential new Expansion Arts applicants must send a Letter of Intent to apply by November 2, 2007.

An organization seeking to apply for an Expansion Arts grant must first consult with the Arts Council’s Grant Programs Manager, and then submit

Criteria Scoring

The Council has established a weighted scoring scale that the panels are instructed to use in evaluating the different grant categories:

Expansion Arts
(ROTATION CYCLE YEAR 1)

To acknowledge the importance of broadly based community involvement with organizations requesting Expansion Arts Support, the review criteria are scored on the following scale:

Expansion Arts Program Limitations

Arts Council funds may be spent only to support all or part of the salary of the organization’s executive director.

Expansion Arts grant funds may not be used for other administrative expenses, for artistic or technical staff, or for contracted administrative or artistic costs. Any question on the appropriateness of a proposed budget line item should be referred to the Expansion Arts program manager.

Number of Possible Applications

Eligible Expansion Arts applicants for FY09 may submit a maximum of three grant proposals. Along with the Expansion Arts application, applicants may submit two in the Arts in Education (AIE) category.

Expansion Arts Request Amount

The grant amount determined in the first year of the three-year cycle will be maintained for Years 2 and 3.

Matching Funds

All Expansion Arts grant requests must indicate in their budget statements at least a 1:1 dollar-matching amount in overall organizational expenditures that comes from the applicant’s own resources.

For example, if the request is for $15,000, the applicant’s projected budget must show at least $15,000 in other operating revenue or contributed income. The Arts Council’s cash match requirement does not assume the organization will double its executive director’s salary unless the organization chooses that method of matching the Expansion Arts grant. The cash used for match must be from sources other than the Arkansas Arts Council, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, or the National Endowment for the Arts. Other portions of the proposal not involved in the specific arts council request and its match may be funded by government sources.

Matching funds will be increased to 1.5:1 in Year 2 (FY10) of the Expansion Arts program and 2:1 in Year 3 (FY11) in overall organizational expenditures.

Matching funds that are anticipated at the time of the application must be received and obligated no later than June 30, 2009.

In-kind contributions may not be used as matching funds on applications or counted as matching funds on final reports. They may, however, be included in applications as evidence of the commitment of other resources to the applicant.

Application Steps