DCA GRANT PROGRAMS
The purpose of DCA’s Grants Division is to offer a variety of different Requests for Proposals” RFPs” (which we call Grant Guidelines). Through these RFPs, we assemble expert peer panels to adjudicate the merits of each proposal through a transparent scoring rubric. Selected vendors with well estimated-projects, in which the City investment is made with civic funds for arts and cultural projects throughout the City, are awarded a one-year contract for services or one-time event agreement. Currently, within the overall portfolio we offer opportunities: for neighborhood activists to propose new events or pop-ups that will uplift a blighted street intersection or corridor (arts activation fund); for artists to propose community-engagement activities (artist residencies); for master artists to propose new solo projects (artist fellowships), for outdoor festival/parade collaborations between community-service organizations and local arts experts; and for nonprofit arts organizations to propose artistic projects or operating projects. All DCA-funded projects should highlight one of the following categories: culture/history, dance, design/visual arts, literature, media arts, music, theater, traditional/folk arts, or multi-disciplinary/variety arts. When appropriate, we ask that applicants select a special category such as the Sequential Arts in-school learning Culminating in Afterschool Public Events (SAIL-CAPE), formerly known as Arts Education. Or Arts Field Advocacy & Sector learning (FASL), formerly known as Business/Arts Advocacy. Special RFP’s are also occasionally posted (often for unique positions such as Poet Laureate).
Our annual goal is to co-sponsor at least 1,500 public activities (unique access points). Collectively these “services” are: A) a spectrum of well-estimated creative projects that are target-marketed to community audiences, visitors, and/or tourists, as well as B) free or low-cost (which we describe as approximately the cost of a local commercial movie-ticket).
The service-expenses best aligned with DCA’s Grant Program objectives are:
- payments to creative artists, technicians, and project managers,
- venue or equipment rental fees,
- marketing costs, and/or
- project-evaluation expenditures (that assess satisfaction with: participatory opportunities or interactivity, community-minded education, relevant themes, and/or potential outreach-engagement).