IMLS Invites Civic-Minded Techies to Hack Agency Data

Posted by L.M. on May 22, 2013
Posted in: Event, Hackathon. Tagged: , .

The National Museum Challenge
National Day of Civic Hacking:
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Dates: June 1 and 2, 2013
Website: http://hackforchange.org/challenge/public-library-challengemuseum-data-challenge-2-challenges

The first National Day of Civic Hacking will take place in communities across America—and at the White House—on June 1 and 2, 2013. The event will be the largest ever to bring together citizens from around the country to work with local, state, and federal governments—as well as private sector organizations—with the common goal of improving their community through technology. The Institute of Museum and Library Services will join other federal agencies in presenting national challenges that citizen hackers will tackle at more than 90 events across the country.

As part of the event, IMLS will provide two challenges, one relating to public libraries and another relating to museums. The public library challenge will ask participants to use data from IMLS annual public library data collection efforts to develop tools that will help allow citizens and others to explore public library data in new ways. The museum data challenge will ask participants to build tools that help enrich IMLS national museum data collection efforts using administrative data from the MuseumsCount survey. Participants can access information about the library and museum challenges and data sets at the hackforchange.org website.

IMLS is currently developing the Museums Count survey to establish comprehensive, reliable data about the size, distribution, and scope of the museum sector in the United States. While this survey is in the process of being deployed, for this challenge we are providing unreleased raw data that includes basic information for more than35,000 target museums including art, history, children’s,  and natural history museums; science and technology centers, historical societies, botanic gardens, arboreta, zoos and aquariums.

Museum Challenge Description

  1. Develop tools to verify and clean existing name and location data.
  2. Help build better museum records by filling-in missing data fields.
  3. Augment the museum records with institutional URLs and other details that would be helpful for public way finding.
  4. Develop a tool or a set of tools that allows citizens and others to interactively explore the museum data (e.g. visualizations, dashboards).
  5. Enrich this dataset with other available data sources (e.g. Foursquare, Google Places, Yelp).

Functional Specifications

  • All code must be open source and accessible online.
  • Tools should be user-friendly and accessible (e.g. Section 508 compliant).

Resources
Museums Count (beta) survey data:
http://go.usa.gov/TS4Gv (csv data)
http://go.usa.gov/TS4z (documentation)

More Information
To find an event near you, visit the hackforchange.org website.  For more information about IMLS challenges, please contact Justin Grimes, jgrimes@imls.gov

Upcoming Deadline: Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Design

Posted by L.M. on May 22, 2013
Posted in: Grants to Individual Artists. Tagged: , , .

Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Design
Vilacek Foundation
Amount: $35,000
Deadline: August 14, 2013
Website: http://www.vilcek.org/prizes/creative-promise/arts.html

The Vilcek Foundation will award three prizes of $35,000 each to young designers who demonstrate outstanding early achievement. Professionals in the following fields are encouraged to apply:

  • Product design: Functional objects and systems including furniture, lighting, equipment, and transport.
  • Graphic design: Visual communication including branding, identity, and packaging for print, digital, or the built environment.
  • Digital design: Computer-created visual and interactive multimedia from print to gaming to web-based communications.
  • Social design: Projects that address social issues to achieve more equitable and/or sustainable solutions at the humanitarian, community, or environmental level.

To be eligible for the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Design, applicants must meet all of the criteria listed below:

  • Applicant must have been born outside the United States.
  • Applicant must not be more than 35 years old as of January 1, 2013.
  • Applicant must be a naturalized citizen or permanent resident (green card holder) of the United States.
  • Applicant must intend to pursue a professional career in the United States.
  • Applicant must not be a past winner or finalist of the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise.

Selection Process
The selection process for the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise is application-based. A panel of distinguished jurors will evaluate each application based on its quality, level of creativity, clarity of vision, and impact. Recommendations of the jury will be submitted to the Vilcek Foundation’s Board of Directors for final approval.

The winners of the Creative Promise Prize in Design will be notified in November 2013 and will be invited to attend the Vilcek Foundation’s annual awards ceremony in New York City in the spring of 2014. Travel expenses and accommodations will be covered by the Foundation.

For more information contact Phuong Pham, Associate Program Officer, at 212-472-2500 or creativepromise@vilcek.org.

Why Your Grant Proposal Was Rejected…

Posted by L.M. on May 22, 2013
Posted in: Grant Writing.

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published an article by Michael J. Spires entitled, “Rejection and Its Discontents,” that explores why grant applications are often rejected..and what applicants can do to be more competitive next time around.

Spires lists the most likely reasons for rejection as: (1) proposal wasn’t a good fit for the grant program; (2) there wasn’t enough “there” there; (3) the proposal was written or organized poorly; and (4) grant agency was overwhelmed with applications. He also suggests the following process for applicants interested in resubmitting (calling the granting agency for feedback is essential):

First, if you’ve gotten comments back from the grantor, read them over once. Then stick them in a drawer and go out for your favorite adult beverage.

When you’re calm and ready, you need to get a sense of what went wrong with your proposal, whether you can revise it and resubmit, and what you need to do to close the deal next time. Revisit the comments, and then call the program officer to discuss them. If you didn’t get comments, absolutely call the grantor for a post-mortem (unless you’re explicitly precluded from doing so).

Hold off on calling the program officer until you can handle a frank discussion of what went wrong with your proposal. If time is pressing, ask someone else from your project team to make the call for you (or with you). You don’t want to lose your temper or bad-mouth the program staff and the reviewers. Getting snarky may improve your mood temporarily, but you’ll probably spend the rest of your professional life living down the consequences of that momentary indulgence. As the saying goes, the toes you step on today may be connected to the backside you need to kiss tomorrow.

Be sure you understand the resubmission process and its requirements. Is there a time limit—either before you can submit a revised proposal, or after which you can no longer do so? Are you required to respond to reviewers’ comments on the rejected proposal, and if so, how? Will the same reviewers see the revised proposal, or will it go to different people?

Once you have that information, assuming you didn’t get a wave-off from the program officer, follow the instructions, revise accordingly, and resubmit at your first opportunity.

Don’t just make a few cosmetic changes and turn in the original proposal again: The grantor will notice, and will probably send it back without review. You’ll have to wait until the next grant cycle to try again, and the program officer will remember your bad behavior.

If you did get waved off from resubmitting, be sure to ask whether another program would be a better fit for your project, either with this agency or someplace else. And if the answer to that question is “no” (and sometimes it will be), then pitch a different project and see if that one has any traction.

 

For more grant writing tips, read the full article here.

 

Upcoming Deadline: NYSCA Presentation Funds for Electronic Media and Film

Posted by L.M. on May 21, 2013
Posted in: Grant, Grants to Organizations. Tagged: , , , .

2013_EMF_postcard_front_flatPresentation Funds for Electronic Media and Film
NYSCA (administered by The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes)
Deadline: June 1, 2013
Website: http://www.earts.org/index.asp?pageId=96

The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes is pleased to announce its 2013 partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts to award Presentation Funds for Electronic Media and Film.

Presentation Funds offers partial support to non-profit organizations located in New York State for in-person appearances by independent artists working in moving image media and sound art, including video, digital and computer-based works. The mission of the program is to encourage opportunities for conversations between artists and audiences, support the creative programming of independent media-makers, and help increase appreciation for electronic media and film as an art form throughout New York State. Presentation Funds is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).

ELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS
Non-profit arts, cultural and educational organizations located in New York State may apply. Publicly supported educational institutions, public schools, local government units, and NYS agencies or departments are not eligible. Individual artists cannot apply directly but are encouraged to inform exhibition venues of this funding resource.

Matching funds are not required, but organizations are expected to provide additional support for the event.

ELIGIBLE PROJECTS, PROGRAMS AND EVENTS
The program provides funding for artist fees related to in-person presentations of moving image media and sound art, including video, digital and computer-based works. No other expenses are supported.The program is committed to the exhibition of works that approach electronic media and film as art forms. Programs featuring works that are primarily commercial, instructional, educational or promotional, or intend only to document other art disciplines are not eligible.

Programs must be open to the public and advertised as such. Classes, courses, workshops or other events that are open to a limited enrollment or student population are not eligible.

Funding Opportunities for International Cultural Exchange: Mobility Funding Guides

Posted by L.M. on May 21, 2013
Posted in: Funding Research, International. Tagged: , .

Mobility Funding Guides
Website: http://culture360.org/asef-news/mobility

Initiated by the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)  through its online portal culture360.org, these 20 mobility funding guides are a concrete output of the mapping of funding opportunities for international cultural exchange in 18 countries in Asia. The research was conducted with the cooperation of Korea Arts Management Service-KAMS, Japan Center, Pacific Basin Arts Communication-PARC, Tokyo Performing Arts Market-TPAM and Arts Network Asia-ANA.

The main objectives of the mapping are to make available online, in a transparent way, the existing information on funding for the international mobility of artists and cultural operators in Asia and to give input to funders on how to fill in the existing gaps in funding for international cultural exchange in Asia.

These guides list national resources, when available, and regional and international sources of funding – be they public or private. Only regular opportunities accessible online are listed; funds for which information is only available offline, not based on open calls, and ad hoc or short-term funding are not included.

Apart from the mobility funding guides focused on the respective 18 Asian ASEM countries,there are also find two additional guides, one focused on Asia and another one on funding opportunities open to any nationality.

For more information contact:
Valentina Riccardi
Project Manager, Cultural Exchange
valentina.riccardi@asef.org 

Webinar: Building a Strong Art Works Proposal for the NEA

Posted by L.M. on May 21, 2013
Posted in: Webinar. Tagged: , .

Building a Strong Art Works Proposal for the National Endowment for the Arts
Grant Center Webinar
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EDT
To register: http://events.meetingbridge.com/Register/?06123343995

In 2011, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), a longtime supporter of public broadcasting, restructured their popular grant programs funding arts projects to create the Art Works grant program. Art Works funds arts focused projects that address NEA’s key outcome areas of creation, engagement, learning and livability, and cover a broad range of disciplines including media arts, arts education and more recently arts journalism. The next round has an August 8, 2013 deadline. To help you prepare, on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 at 1:00 p.m. EDT, the Grant Center will host the Director of Media Arts at NEA, Alyce Myatt, for a discussion on this important opportunity. The conversation will focus on your questions, and is intended to help you shape a strong and successful Art Works proposal.

The most recent round of Art Work grantees include Alabama Public Television, WMMT-FM, KBEM-FM and KCET providing support for television and radio production as well as multimedia educational curriculum development. You can access the full list of recent grantees on the NEA website.

Alyce Myatt is no stranger to the Grant Center, and was featured as a presenter on an April 2012 Grant Center webinar to discuss the changing landscape of media grants at NEA. To watch the event archive and to download additional resources, access the official webinar page.

Call for Funding Request: International Fund for Cultural Diversity

Posted by L.M. on May 21, 2013
Posted in: Grant, International. Tagged: .

International Fund for Cultural Diversity: Fourth Call for Funding Request
UNESCO
Deadline: June 30, 2013
Website: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/cultural-diversity/diversity-of-cultural-expressions/call-for-funding-requests/

The IFCD has launched its fourth call for funding requests for projects and preparatory assistance requests that aim to foster the emergence of a dynamic cultural sector at the national and/or local level, primarily through activities facilitating the introduction of new cultural policies and cultural industries, or strengthening existing ones.

Since 2010, the IFCD is providing more than USD 3.5 million in funding for 61 projects in 40 developing countries, covering a wide range of areas, from the development and implementation of cultural policies, to capacity-building of cultural entrepreneurs, mapping of cultural industries and the creation of new cultural industry business models.

Government authorities and NGOs from developing countries that are Parties to the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, as well as international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), are eligible to apply.

Special attention is given in this fourth call to projects aiming at capacity building for cultural policies, understood as those policies designed to have a direct effect on the creation, production, dissemination, distribution of and access to cultural activities, goods and services. Important information:

  • Government authorities and NGOs are to consult their National Commissions for UNESCO for the submission deadline at the national level.
  • National Commissions for UNESCO will forward pre-selected projects to the UNESCO Secretariat for evaluation by 30 June 2013, midnight CET.
  • INGOs can send their applications directly to the UNESCO Secretariat before the deadline 30 June 2013, midnight CET.

Definitions of NGOs and INGOs:

For the purpose of this Convention, civil society means non-governmental organizations, nonprofit organizations, professionals in the culture sector and associated sectors, groups that support the work of artists and cultural communities. Criteria identified in the Operational Guidelines on civil society are: civil society have interests and activities in one or more fields covered by the Convention; they have a legal status in compliance with the established rules of the jurisdiction in the country of registration; they are representative of their respective field of activity, or of the respective social or professional groups they represent. Applications are welcome from:

  • Non-governmental organizations coming from developing countries that are Parties to the Convention, which meet the definition of civil society and criteria regulating admission of its representatives at meetings of organs of the Convention as mentioned in the operational guidelines relating to the role and participation of civil society.
  • International non-governmental organizations, which meet the definition of civil society and criteria regulating admission of its representatives at meetings of organs of the Convention as mentioned in the operational guidelines relating to the role and participation of civil society, and which present projects with impact at the sub-regional, regional or inter-regional level.

For more information contact: ifcd.convention2005@unesco.org