NEA FY2024 Our Town Guidelines Posted

From National Endowment for the Arts –

Deadline for Part 1: August 3, 2023

Guidelines and instructions for Our Town are now available online. Through project-based funding, the program supports activities that integrate arts, culture, and design into local efforts that strengthen communities.

For FY2024, our updated guidelines emphasize how projects that advance local economic, physical, or social outcomes contribute to long-term systems change within communities, and bring new attention to or elevate key community assets and opportunities, local histories, and a community’s unique civic infrastructure. We want to honor a wide range of traditions shaped by the lived experience of a community’s residents, including music, dance, design, crafts, fashion, cuisine, and oral expression.

We also have updated the guidelines to make the partnership requirements more flexible, in order to encourage cross-sector work and engage with stakeholders from throughout the arts ecosystem. We particularly encourage projects that are working at the intersection of arts and health or well-being, transportation or infrastructure, or climate-related challenges within a community.

These are cost share/matching grants ranging from $25,000 to $150,000, with funding starting July 1, 2024 for 1–2 year projects. The application is submitted in two parts; the Part 1 deadline is August 3, 2023. You can learn more from the guidelines on our website.

Our Town Guidelines Webinar and Applicant Support

If you are thinking about applying, be sure to register for the FY 2024 Our Town Grant Guidelines and Summative Feedback Session webinar, on June 15 at 2:00 pm ET. In this session, Design & Creative Placemaking staff will help you navigate the application process and answer your questions in a live Q&A. The presentation will also cover summative feedback from the FY 2023 grant review cycle, highlighting characteristics of successful applications and key components of Our Town grants. Closed captioning will be available.

We also will be hosting three Q&A sessions throughout the application period. You can find registration links on the Applicant Resources page.

• Tuesday, June 27, 1:00-2:00 ET
• Thursday, July 20, 1:00-2:00 ET
• Thursday, August 10, 2:00-3:00 ET (for Part 2 of the application process)