City of Austin Releases Guidelines for Cultural Grants FY2013

The City of Austin has just published guidance for applying to the biennial program of grants to the arts, funded by the hotel occupancy tax. Deadline to apply is May. 1. From their webpage:

There are three specific programs which fall under the “core funding” umbrella.

They are:

• Organizational Support - Request levels up to $200,000 depending on organization’s budget size.
• Project Support - Requests of $25,000-$100,000 by organizations for specific arts project activities.
• Project Support II - Requests up to $25,000 by organizations for specific project activities. Requests up to $15,000 for individual artist projects.

Eligibility

Applicants must be incorporated, tax exempt organizations residing in Austin or its Extra Territorial Jurisdiction. Other organizations and individual professional artists residing in Austin or its Extra Territorial Jurisdiction may apply under the umbrella of a 501c organization.

Funding Cycle

Applications are due each year on May 1. Guidelines and application forms for the upcoming funding cycle are made available online in the early spring. Core programs follow a two-year funding cycle, accepting new applicants for odd-numbered fiscal years.

FY 2013 Core Funding Guidelines and Application - PDF or Word Doc

FY 2013 Core Funding Application Only - PDF or Word Doc

Updates to the FY 2013 Guidelines (PDF)

For extensive additional information, go to the website of the City's Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services Office

Invitation to Apply: NEA's Shakespeare in American Communities

Received from Arts Midwest, agent for the National Endowment for the Arts:

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Shakespeare in American Communities: Shakespeare for a New Generation reaches middle- and high-school students in underserved schools throughout the United States with high-quality, professional productions of Shakespeare’s plays.

Arts Midwest invites proposals from nonprofit professional theater companies to perform works by Shakespeare for middle- and high-school students between August1, 2012, and June 30, 2013. Approximately 40 theater companies will receive matching grants to support performances and educational activities for students from a minimum of 10 schools.

The standard grant award is $25,000. Applicant review will be based on artistic excellence and artistic merit.

Application Deadline: MARCH 8, 2012

Visit www.ShakespeareInAmericanCommunities.org to download the Request for Proposals and connect to Arts Midwest's eGRANT. Applications must be completed through eGRANT.

QUESTIONS? Contact Christy Dickinson, senior program director at Arts Midwest, at 612.238.8019 or shakespeare@artsmidwest.org.

Shakespeare in American Communities is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.

Arts Reporting: Kirk Lynn of Rude Mechs Receives $50,000 Fellowship through USA Artists

Following up a note published by Jeanne Claire van Ryzin in the Statesman's Austin360 Seeing Things blog, December 5:

Playwright Kirk Lynn of Austin's Rude Mechanicals is one of fifty U.S. artists selected as USA Fellows, receiving a $50,000 fellowship funded by Jeanne and Michael Klein of Austin, Texas, through the non-profit organization United States Artists. Among other grantees this year are playwright Annie Baker, musician Donald Byrd and playwright Octavio Solis.

Lynn's bio posted at the USA Fellows website reads:

Kirk Lynn is a playwright and Co-Producing Artistic Director of the Austin-based, experimental theater collective Rude Mechanicals (or Rude Mechs). Lynn co-founded the Rude Mechs in 1995 and, with them, he has written and adapted over a dozen plays, which have been performed around the world. His works have been honored with several awards, including the Total Theatre Award from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for Get Your War On (2007) and an NEA New Play Development grant for I’ve Never Been So Happy (2009). He teaches at the University of Texas, Austin.

City of Austin Announces 2012 Cultural Arts Grants

In its September e-mail newsletter issued this afternoon the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin reported that the City Council has approved cultural arts grants for fiscal year 2012. Grants are funded from a small percentage of the revenue collected by the City in the form of the hotel occupancy tax. Grant recipients. The announcement specifies "Pre-contract materials are due October 28, 2011. A pre-contract workshop will be offered at City Hall, Monday, September 19, 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Cultural contractors should plan to attend one of the two sessions."

The full list is available here. Following is a partial list of grants of interest to Austin live theatre.

Recipient	Grant $000
Austin Children's Theatre	17.6
Buzz Productions	1.0
Conspire Theatre	2.6
Crank Collective	1.0
Dustin Wills	3.9
Graham Schmidt (Breaking String)	2.6
Rubber Repertory	9.0
Baron's Men	2.567
City Theatre	6.4
Vestige Group	8.361
Tongue and Groove Theatre	7.8
Austin Playhouse	47.0
Scriptworks	21.6
Austin Shakespeare	59.5
Austin Theatre Alliance	122.5
Ctr for Women & their work: kt shorb	6.859
Ctr for Women & their work: Natalie Goodnow	4.516
Center Stage Texas	7.625
Different Stages	21.783
Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Austin	18.4
Long Center for the Performing Arts	125.0
Hyde Park Theatre (HPT)	54.5
HPT: sponsoring Capital T Theatre	15.303
La Fenice	2.9
Polyanna Theatre Company	35.1
Proyecto Teatro Spanish Language Theatre	8.469
Rude Mechanicals	64.5
Salvage Vanguard Theatre	62.0
Scottish Rite Theatre & Children's Theatre	19.2
Teatro Humanidad Cansada	30.25
Teatro Vivo	18.027
Teatro Vivo capacity building grant	4.4
Texas Juggling Society	1.0
Uprise Productions	8.446
Theatre Action Project (TAP)	67.0
Tutto Theatre	18.8
Vortex Repertory Theatre	64.5
Vortex sponsored: Salvata, Samayoa	17.936
Vortex sponsored: Shrewd Productions	10.396
Zach Theatre	110.0
Zilker Productions	45.0

Vortex Repertory Receives NEA Grant for Sara Silverhands

Received directly:

VORTEX Repertory Company’s

Sarah Silver Hands receives $20,000 NEA Grant

VORTEX Repertory Company is pleased to announce receipt of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for Sarah Silver Hands, a world premiere musical for all ages by award-winning Austin composer, Chad Salvata, and directed by VORTEX Producing Artistic Director, Bonnie Cullum. Sarah Silver Hands premieres at The VORTEX in Austin, Texas in October 2011.

Sarah Silver Hands is an original fairy tale, inspired loosely by the Grimm Brothers’ The Girl with No Hands. The protagonist, Sarah, Princess of the Autumn Kingdom, overcomes the disability of losing her hands to find her own truth and magic, and finally ends the war between the Autumn and Winter Kingdoms. Sarah reclaims the hero’s journey for young women as she rises above the obstacles of disability and tragedy to find self-empowerment.

Chad Salvata’s work has been widely recognized for its musical beauty and fantastical imagination. He has received numerous awards for excellence in his original works including The Dragonfly Princess, Bell(e), Vampyress, Pythia Dust, and The X&Y Trilogy. Sarah Silver Hands will be Salvata’s first work specifically designed for all ages.

Arts Reporting: City Says Hoteliers and Arts Groups Working on Cultural Funding Issue

Published today as the lead article in the e-mailed newsletter of the City of Austin's Cultural Arts Division, Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services Office (EGRSO):


Dear [first name],

I know you are aware of the City's effort to forge a strong working relationship among our Art and Cultural Contractors and our Tourism Industry and ACVB. The following is an update on the Hotel Occupancy Tax working group.

For the past three months, a group of community members representing the cultural contractors, hotel and lodging industry, and Austin Arts Commission have been meeting to develop strategies and partnerships in which arts & cultural organizations and hotels can work collaboratively to increase tourism and overall funding for the bed tax. We have had a number of very productive meetings and the group has identified four areas for concentrated work as we move forward:

1. Develop action items to brand and improve marketing of events, including creating structures for providing content to existing websites (www.austintexas.org and www.nowplayingaustin.com) and driving that content to the hotels for their guests and other potential event attendees.

2. Discern how leisure travel market (and the "drive market") can be developed using Austin's arts and culture resources and events.

3. Create multi-media strategies for long-range, fill-in-the-gaps planning for Austin tourism during non-peak travel periods, as well as regional collaborations with cities such as San Marcos and San Antonio.

4. Institutionalize relationships between the arts community and hoteliers so long term strategies continue and grow.

These actions will increase the audience for small art and culture contractors.It will also result in new revenues that will benefit the youth and disadvantaged as well as local hotels.

I want to point out that the recent article in the Austin Business Journal gave a misleading perception of the City's funding of arts and culture and was based on incomplete and inaccurate information. This has not deterred the working group nor changed our core goals.

We remain committed to continuing this important work and hope the strategies and recommendations will increase tourism in Austin, provide broader international and national recognition of Austin's arts and cultural organization, and ultimately, increase the Hotel Occupancy Tax.

Regards,

Kevin Johns

EGRSO Executive Director