AIE Leadership Project
Deadline: February 1, 2008

Grant Coordinator: Catherine O'Brian
Catherine.R.O’Brian@dcr.nh.gov
(603) 271-0795

These FY09 Grant Guidelines are valid for grant period July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2009

The AIE Leadership Project Grant assists schools in designing and implementing projects in which artists serve as professional development resources for teachers. The goal is to strengthen and build arts education curricula. Activities may include professional development, collaborative curriculum development and/or creation of local assessment strategies to meet the State and National Standards for Arts Education.

These grants may support projects that provide new options for schools to meet the state's standards for learning, assessment, and local school improvement strategies for teaching the arts. Under the auspices of the AIE Leadership grant, schools work with artists and arts organization to support one or more of the following initiatives:

• Development of a new curriculum and/or revision of an existing curriculum;
• Creation of specific teacher professional development initiatives in the arts;
• Development of competency based and performance assessment strategies for the arts;
• Development of strategies for authentic integrated arts approaches.

Maximum Grant Request
Requests may be made for $1,000 - $5,000.

Important Note: All grant categories and amounts are subject to change, depending upon availability of state and federal funds for any fiscal year.

Required Match
At a minimum, grants must be matched on a one-to-one cash basis. State Arts Council funds may not be matched by other State Arts Council or National Endowment for the Arts funds. In-kind contributions are not allowable as a portion of the required match, although they will be considered by the reviewers as evidence of support and commitment by the school and community.

Who May Apply?
New Hampshire public schools, grades K-12; school districts; Directors of Arts Education Organizations and Professional Associations, or nonprofit arts organizations with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the IRS and not-for-profit incorporation in the State of New Hampshire, whose primary mission is to produce, present, or serve the arts through education whose:

• programs are accessible to people with disabilities; and who
• have submitted all required reports on previous State Arts Council grants.

Note: Priority will be given to schools and school districts that are making the arts an integral part of their students' comprehensive education and are encouraging greater teacher participation in the development of specific instructional strategies.

Restrictions
This grant does not support:

• More than one proposal per applicant during the fiscal year grant period (July 1- June 30).

Sample Projects

• Quality professional development for teachers in specialized and integrated arts experiences.
• Artists' team-teaching and collaboratively piloting a new arts curriculum with educators.
• Teachers practicing new instructional and assessment skills with an artist educator observing and advising them.
• Master level teaching artists invited as keynote speakers and presenters at conferences.
• Partnership between an arts organization and a school or school district that improves the school's arts education.

How to Apply
Those interested in this grant opportunity should contact the coordinator whose name appears above to discuss their project and request application materials. Draft applications may be reviewed if submitted at least two weeks in advance of the application deadline. First time applicants are especially encouraged to submit draft copies.

Deadline
Applications must be postmarked or hand delivered to the NH State Council on the Arts office at 2 ½ Beacon St, second floor, Concord, by 4:15 p.m. on the deadline date noted above. Office hours are Monday - Friday, 8:15 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. The office is closed all state and most federal holidays. Late applications will not be accepted. The Council cannot accept applications transmitted by facsimile (FAX) or be responsible for applications lost in transit. Errors and omissions may affect a panel's evaluation of your application, so please prepare your application carefully and follow instructions.

Notification
Applicants will be notified of their application's status within approximately ten weeks of the application deadline.

Payment
The NHSCA disperses funds appropriated from public sources, both federal and state. Checks are issued by Administrative Services of the State of NH, not the Department of Cultural Resources or NHSCA. Upon receipt of properly executed grant forms, the State of New Hampshire generally pays grants under $5,000 to grantees within 4 to 6 weeks. If a grantee is awarded $5,000 or more or has received other State Arts Council funds which brings the cumulative total received for that fiscal year (July 1 – June 30) to $5,000 or above, grants need to be approved by Governor and Council; consequently, payment can take up to ten weeks. All awards are subject to availability of state and federal funds. Therefore, we ask grantees to plan cash flow accordingly.

IMPORTANT:

• All grant agreements must be returned by January 15th of the fiscal year (July 1 to June 30) they are awarded. Failure to return the grant agreement by that date could result in cancellation of the grant and reallocation of funds.
• Payment of a grant will be withheld if final reports for previous grants are not in compliance with policy below.

Grant Period & Final Report
The grant period is July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2009. A final report is due 30 days after the completion of your project, but no later than July 31, 2009. An extension of up to three months may be requested by writing to the grant coordinator responsible for administering the grant. The request should be sent no later than July 15, 2009 and should briefly note why the extension is necessary and the date the report will be submitted. A status report will be due with the request.

Failure to submit the final report by the required date will result in the organization becoming ineligible to apply for NHSCA funding for two years. Additionally, failure to submit the final report may result in a withholding of funds from any currently awarded NHSCA grant. Click here for the Final Report Download Center.

Funding Criteria
The following criteria are used by reviewers to rate applications:

• Extent to which the project furthers the development of arts literacy, arts assessment strategies, and acceptance of the study of the arts as a part of basic education in New Hampshire public schools.
• Involvement of school administrators, teachers, artists and arts organizations in planning and implementing the project.
• Evidence of planning and partnerships with master level teaching artists.
• Potential district, regional or state-wide significance (publics served, potential to replicate project).
• Demonstrated artistic excellence of artists involved in the project.
• Clarity and feasibility of project design.
• Realistic project budget.
• Plans for promotion to participants and the community.
• Plans for dissemination of model projects to other New Hampshire schools and communities.
• Evidence of evaluation and planning for future support of the project.

Narrative Questions, Required Support Materials, and How to Prepare the Application Package
These are included in the application packet.

Application Review Process
A panel with expertise in the field meets to review and rate applications according to the funding criteria listed above. Funding recommendations are then passed along to the State Arts Councilors for review and approval. If a grant of $5,000 or more is recommended, or the applicant's cumulative total of grants received from the State Arts Council for that fiscal year (July 1 - June 30) is $5,000 or more, the grant recommendation must also be submitted to the Governor and Council for approval.

Last updated: October 24, 2007