Annie Green of the Benton Foundation asked me to pass along the following
grant information to the list. Note that several pilots are already up and
running including one at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Barry Szczesny
AAM Government and Public Affairs
************************************************************
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 17:57:26 -0500
From: Annie Green <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Unprecedented Funding Initiative Launched to Empower
Arts and Cultural Institutions to Use the Internet as a Resource
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Benton Foundation recently
announced the nation's first funding initiative that will provide community
access to the arts on the Internet at sites in all 50 states as well as
propel artists and nonprofit arts organizations online by helping them to
become effective information providers on the World Wide Web.
This new $1 million initiative, called Open Studio: The Arts Online, is an
unprecedented collaboration between the NEA and the Benton Foundation to
help nonprofit arts organizations and artists go online, increase the arts
and cultural presence on the Internet, expand the online arts audience, and
provide public Internet access at arts and community institutions. The
project will serve as a "national laboratory" and is designed to
periodically assess the changing needs of arts organizations and artists and
the evolving state of networked communication and technology. The Open
Studio website also serves as a public clearinghouse for project
information, including a project description and status reports.
Open Studio is an integral part of an overall effort by the NEA to extend
its public outreach and serve the arts and the public more effectively
through the Internet. In April, the Arts Endowment launched its own Web site
at arts.endow.gov. The site includes a monthly magazine, a guide to the Arts
Endowment, and an art resource center. The Benton Foundation, dedicated to
protecting the public interest in the digital age, has long been a proponent
for providing noncommercial public space in the new communications
environment. The foundation's work ranges from published work on connecting
schools and public opinion research on libraries to national policy summits
on communications policy and practices in the public interest and the
creation of a communications hub to link children's advocates. More
information about Benton, including publications and cyber resource pages,
can be found at www.benton.org.
The initiative consists of two funding components:
1) Offering Free Community Access to the Internet - More than 100 arts
organizations and culturally-oriented community centers (2 in every state
and territory) will receive a matching award of $2,000 to $4,000 to set up
public access points to the Internet. Through this initiative, members of
the public who are interested in accessing the Internet can receive personal
assistance helping them learn how to browse the Web and access its cultural
resources.
2) Helping Artists & Arts Organizations Become Effective Information
Providers on the Web - Ten institutions with existing telecommunications
resources, such as libraries, universities, and community telecommunications
centers, will each receive up to $35,000 to serve as mentors to ten regional
cultural organizations and ten local artists, teaching them how to become
effective information providers on the World Wide Web. The trainees will
then mentor another organization or artist within a year of completing their
own training. By the autumn of 1997, this program will generate an Internet
presence for 200 arts organizations and artists with 200 more in training.
Fourteen sites have already been selected as pilots and the remaining sites
will be selected through a competitive process, with awards announced in
March 1997. The proposal deadline for the remaining sites is January 15,
1996. For more information about applying for site awards, send a blank
email to [log in to unmask] (for mentor awards) or [log in to unmask]
(for access awards), visit the Open Studio Web site at www.openstudio.org,
or call the Project Coordinator, Anne Green, at (202) 638-5770.
**********************************************************
Anne Green
Project coordinator
Open Studio: The Arts Online
http://www.openstudio.org
Benton Foundation [log in to unmask] (email)
1634 Eye St., NW, 12th Fl. 202.638.5770 (v)
Washington, DC 20006 202.638.5771 (f)
"Democracy demands wisdom and vision in its citizens. It must
therefore foster and support a form of education and access to the
arts... designed to make people of all backgrounds and wherever
located masters of their technology and not its unthinking
servants."
- Declaration of Purpose, National Arts and Humanities Act
|
