National Endowment for the Arts Announces Access to Artistic Excellence

National Endowment for the Arts Announces Stewardship Grants in Design

Design Grants Part of NEA’s Second Major Round of Fiscal Year 2008 Funding

As part of its second major grant announcement of fiscal year 2008, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced today that it will award $563,000 to fund 14 Access to Artistic Excellence Stewardship Grants in Design. Grant amounts range from $20,000 to $70,000 representing some of the largest design grants awarded in recent memory.

“NEA support enriches the civic life of the nation by making the best of the arts available throughout the United States,” said NEA Chairman Dana Gioia.

Support for design stewardship at the NEA encompasses many disciplines including, but not limited, to planning, urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, product design, and graphic design. The 14 stewardship grants in design support projects that protect, share, or celebrate our collective design heritage.

“These projects underscore the dramatic range of contemporary interpretations of the word stewardship. They don’t focus exclusively on the preservation of high architecture, but instead, celebrate design culture in everyday life. By doing so, they represent an incredibly diverse cross section of American popular design culture” said NEA Design Director Maurice Cox.

The 14 projects supported by Access to Artistic Excellence stewardship grants in the design category include:

Cornerstones Community Partnerships | Sante Fe, NM $36,000

To support workshops focused on the preservation and conservation of historic adobe structures. The project will train rural community residents in traditional building methods. Through hands-on instruction, Cornerstones will train at-risk youth in the preservation of adobe structures using earthen materials and indigenous methods.
Photos courtesy of Antonio Martinez.

Museum of Neon Art | Los Angeles, CA $25,000

To support the conservation of historic neon signs, with related photographic documentation and educational programs. The project will be implemented in partnership with the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Photos courtesy of MONA: Koga, Albright, Biondo and Atherton.

openhousenewyork inc. | New York, NY $40,000

To support youth workshops and design education materials. In collaboration with The Center for Architecture Foundation and the Trust for Architectural Easements, design and architecture educational programs will be created for New York City students.
Photos courtesy of Veronica Price.

American Architectural Foundation | Washington, DC $70,000

To support a forum and video/resource guide on school design. The project will present effective learning environments in historic and non-traditional school facilities. The goal is to educate communities, designers, and decision-makers about the challenges and benefits of historic preservation and adaptive reuse of historic school buildings.
Photos courtesy of St. Paul Public Schools, Buffalo Pubic Schools, Packer Collegiate Institute.

National Building Museum | Washington DC $70,000

To support the presentation of the exhibition Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future, with accompanying education programs. Presented in partnership with the Finnish Cultural Institute, the exhibition will examine architect Eero Saarinen’s (1910-1961) influence on 20th-century design.
Photo 1: Courtesy of Balthazar Korab Ltd., Photo 2,4: Eero Saarinen Collection, Manucripts and Archives, Yale University, Photo 3: Collections of Arteago Photos Ltd., Photo 5: Ezra Stoller/ESTO

City of Mandeville | Mandeville, LA $20,000

To support planning for the conservation of the Dew Drop Jazz Hall. The 1895 building is a rare intact example of an African American Jazz Hall. The unaltered state of the Hall provides a unique opportunity for conservation and will allow visitors to more fully understand jazz history and culture.
Photos courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Friends of the Dew Drop

Alaska Design Forum, Inc. | Anchorage, AK $25,000

To support the lecture series, Future Now, will examine how the built environment influences the natural environment. Internationally recognized designers and artists will be invited to speak in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau.
Photos courtesy of Studio Gang Architects, Studio Orta

Public Design Studio | San Francisco, CA $40,000

To support the creation of online documentation of pro bono design services for nonprofit organizations. In partnership with Taproot Foundation, Public Architecture will identify pro bono design projects that exemplify excellence in architectural design, experimental use of space or materials, significant empowerment of a community or population, and a uniquely collaborative design process.
Photos courtesy of Public Design Studio

Rochester Regional Community Design Center | Rochester, NY $25,000

To support reshaping Rochester, an educational program on design and urban planning. Nationally-recognized design experts will speak at a public lecture, meet with government officials and civic leaders, and offer a workshop for local design professionals.
Photo courtesy of RRCDC

University of Miami | Coral Gabels, FL $59,000

To support the documentation of sustainable building practices and techniques examined at the symposium Under the Sun: Sustainable Innovations & Traditions. Wide spread dissemination of information from the symposium would be through the publication of a book, the creation of a Web site and workbook, and a conference.
Photo courtesy of Jan Hochstim.

Richard Nickel Committee | Chicago, IL $35,000

To support the digitization and increased accessibility to the photographs, negatives, papers, and research of architectural photographer Richard Nickel (1928-72). The collection includes more than 15,000 images of buildings by seminal architects such as Dankmar Adler, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies van der Rohe.
Photos courtesy of the Richard Nickel Committee

University of Utah (consortium) | Salt Lake City, UT $20,000

To support the Urban Gallery Project of site specific installations and performances in New Orleans. In partnership with the Broadmoor Improvement Association in New Orleans, LA, the project will allow local citizens to celebrate their neighborhoods. Architects Lisa Henry Benham, Cecila Uriburu, Greg Walker, and John Patrick rooney, will work with local artists in New Orleans to create the installations and performances.
Photos courtesy of Cecilia Uriburu, Lisa Henry Benham + Anne G. Mooney, Benjamin Butler

New York Foundation for Architecture, Inc. | New York, NY $50,000

To support Learning By Design: NY, design residencies in three New York City public elementary schools. The residencies will be held in three unique Lower Manhattan schools and the curriculum will for each residency will be designed around each school’s unique neighborhood.
Photos courtesy of the Center for Architecture Foundation

Pratt Institute | Brooklyn, NY $48,000

To support Liberty Career Exploration Program in Design. The weekend project will provide fifth and sixth graders access to design instruction through studio projects, workshops, and field trips. Students will learn to research a project, organize themselves to brainstorm ideas for the creation of a specific project, and design solutions to meet specific requirements for the project.
Photos courtesy of Liberty Career Exploration Program in Design

—

National Endowment for the Arts NEW Call for Submissions

Projects that protect, share, or celebrate design heritage through: historic preservation activities, exhibitions and publications of design of the past, education, outreach and community workshops on design stewardship, conferences, symposia, gatherings on the heritage and conservation of design

Design at the NEA
http://www.arts.gov/grants/recent/index_02.html

How to apply to the NEA
http://www.arts.gov/grants/apply/GAP09/Eligibility.html

Design Grant Evalution Process
http://www.arts.gov/grants/apply/GAP09/Applicationreview.html

How to Register on Grants.gov
http://www.arts.gov/grants/apply/grantsgovChecklist.html

About the National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest annual national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.