WAB Creation and Presentation Grant

Wisconsin Arts Board

Next predicted deadline: Sep 14, 2024 (Letter of inquiry)

Later predicted deadlines: Oct 12, 2025 1:00pm PDT (Full proposal)

Grant amount: More than US $2,000

Funding uses: Project / Program, General Operating Expense

Location of project: Wisconsin

Location of residency: Wisconsin

Overview:

NOTE: Organizations that have never applied to the Creation and Presentation Grant Program previously must notify the Arts Board staff of their intent to apply (See letter of inquiry deadline above). Notification should be in the form of an email to [email protected].

Wisconsin Art Board

Mission Statement

The Wisconsin Arts Board is the state agency which nurtures creativity, cultivates expression, promotes the arts, supports the arts in education, stimulates community and economic development and serves as a resource for people of every culture and heritage. 

Values

The Wisconsin Arts Board values:

• ​imagination
  
• creativity
• curiosity
• freedom of expression
• respect and appreciation for all cultures and people
• artistic quality
• a broad definition of the arts
• audience and patron development
• community engagement

Creation and Presentation Grants

The arts play an important role in the lives of every person in Wisconsin. All communities benefit from participating, experiencing, sharing and learning through the arts. Funding from this program supports organizations that provide essential arts programming to their communities and are integral to their communities’ cultural legacies. Through direct financial support of ongoing programming by arts organizations, the Arts Board sustains the vitality of Wisconsin culturally, educationally and economically.

Creation and Presentation grants provide artistic program and operational support to established nonprofit arts organizations that have art at the core of their mission, that create or present ongoing arts programming that makes a significant local, regional, or statewide impact on the cultural life of Wisconsin, and that further the Arts Board’s community development and arts education goals (see Goals 1 and 2 in the Arts Board’s strategic plan found here).

This is a multi-year grant program wherein applicants will submit a Full Year application in their designated year, and submit Interim Year applications in the other three years of the cycle. This allows us to collect information needed for accountability, but in a way that reduces the amount of work required of the applicant, and spreads that work over a four-year period. The Full Year application takes organizational size and capacity into account, even while it continues to be a rigorous tool upon which applicants can draw for applications to other funders. The Interim Year application provides an artistic and organizational health “check-in.” In both Full and Interim Years, the application form and narrative continue to be based on past performance rather than future projections.

Goals of the Creation and Presentation Grants Program:

• to promote and sustain art of the highest artistic quality;
• to promote and sustain organizational and financial stability;
• to ensure artistic relevance and effective arts organizations through appropriate organizational planning, ongoing assessment and evaluation, community input, and sound promotion;
• to increase local, regional, and statewide leadership among arts organizations in Wisconsin;
• to increase audience participation in, and appreciation of, programs created and presented by Wisconsin arts organizations;
• to help arts organizations articulate the value of the work that they do – and the impact of that work on community and economic development – to their local and state officials and to the people in their community;
• to encourage arts organizations to work to enhance arts education efforts in their community.

These goals are essential to the long-term vitality of arts organizations, and the communities that they serve

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website.

Eligibility:

• Applicants must fulfill all of the following conditions to be eligible for this program:
  • have a record of consistent artistic activities for at least the three consecutive years prior to application, (not including the months during which the artistic activity was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic;
  • have as a primary purpose the creation/production or presentation of artistic programming (performances, exhibits, events) that benefits the general interested public;
  • demonstrate community participation in the program planning;
  • match each dollar of Arts Board support with at least one dollar of public (non-state) or private funds;
  • be incorporated in and conduct business in Wisconsin in order to apply for support (Organizations are required to provide proof of incorporation and activity in Wisconsin before applications are reviewed or funds awarded.);
  • hold tax-exempt status from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and must qualify as a charitable organization under Section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 as amended; have a Federal Identification Number, assigned by the Internal Revenue Service;
  • have a federally required Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) which replaces the previously required DUNS number. If a Creation and Presentation grant applicant can show that it has applied for a UEI prior to submitting its application—even if that UEI has not yet been received—then the application will be accepted for review.
    
•  For Colleges, Universities, and Units of Tribal or Local Government including Public Schools:
  • The Arts Board does support programs that fall under the auspices of these organizations, provided those programs involve the local community in planning, execution, and participation. These applicants must demonstrate that their programming reaches the general public in addition to an academic audience. (This can be shown through financial support from sources beyond the school such as local corporations, businesses, individuals, and foundations; through its audience and participant evaluation statistics; and through board, advisory or steering committee composition that includes community members.) Performing Arts Series, Galleries/Museums and Art Film Series that are ongoing and a part of colleges, universities, or public schools are eligible. Grants are based on the arts program’s budget, not the overall university/college/school budget. Indirect costs may be shown as in-kind, but not as part of the cash budget/match. No administrative fee for this grant may be charged to the grant or to the program’s budget by the university/college/school
• For “Presenting Organization” applicants only:
  • (Note: A presenting organization is defined as an organization that serves its community primarily by brokering relationships between touring performing artists and the presenter’s community. It does so by acting as the catalyst to bring those artists from outside of the presenter’s community into that community, to perform in concerts and/or residencies.) The applicant must present four or more performances annually by professional touring artists who reside outside of the presenting organization’s community in a series that is locally planned.
• All Creation and Presentation grants require at least a 1:1 cash match.
  • In-kind goods and services may not be used to match Arts Board funds through this program but are useful to include in the application as an indication of community support.
    

Ineligibility:

• Who May Not Apply
  • Historical societies;
  • Humanities organizations;
  • General, non-arts museums;
  • Public or private college or university programs that do not directly serve the community beyond the campus;
  • Public or private schools that do not have a community-run performing arts series;
  • Public radio or television stations;
  • Libraries;
  • Arts organizations that have delinquent final reports due to the Arts Board; or
  • Organizations that received a Creative Communities grant in this fiscal year.
• In general, the Arts Board does not fund the following nor can the direct dollar for dollar match for Arts Board funds be used for these expenses:
  • Capital equipment (items costing more than $5,000 with a useful life of more than one year) or capital expenditures, e.g., renovation of existing facilities;
  • Food or beverage;
  • Building/space rental for administrative purposes;
  • Benefit/fundraiser activities;
  • Cash prizes or awards;
  • Competitions;
  • Deficits incurred from past activities;
  • Individual tuition;
  • Activities for which academic credit is given;
  • Curriculum expansion;
  • Out-of-state travel;
  • Hospitality expenses, i.e. entertainment, refreshments or food at receptions, parties, gallery openings;
  • Activities that have already been completed by the beginning of the grant period;
  • Activities that have a religious purpose;
  • Lobbyists’ payments;
  • Activities not open to the general public.