CELEBRATING THE TRADITIONAL ARTS

This program, made possible through funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, Folk and Traditional Arts Program, facilitates the newly established Maine Folklife Network. The Network brings together cultural conservation and folklife organizations to work on promoting traditional arts statewide and to find innovative ways to support traditional culture and artists living and working in Maine. The Celebrating Traditional Arts program supports this initiative by funding traditional artists’ fees for presentations in a range of community settings including festivals, gatherings, fairs, museums, tours and other community events.

Priority will be given to nonprofit organizations whose primary mission is to sustain and present traditional culture.

Deadline: Applications are accepted throughout the year.
Maximum grant amount $1,500 in artists' fees. Since one of the primary aims of the Celebrating Traditional Arts Program is to support the work of practicing traditional artists, the review panel will look closely at the amount of compensation traditional artists will receive. (It is recommend that selected artists be paid a minimum of $250 a day, in addition to travel expenses)

What are Traditional Arts?

Traditional arts take many forms including vocal and instrumental music, ethnic dance, instrument making, storytelling, as well as occupational traditions like boat building, chainsaw carving and stone carving and crafts such as basketmaking, beadwork, quilting, knitting, knife making and canoe building. Such practices are rooted in a longstanding sense of place, cultural identity and group membership. This membership can be based on kinship, residence, ethnicity, tribal affiliation, religion or occupation.

Because these arts reflect a group’s cultural expression, practicing traditional artists are valued by their respective communities for their artistic skills as well as their specific cultural knowledge. Such expertise is grounded in a group aesthetic rather than an individual vision and is usually acquired over time within a community context, through observation and imitation, rather than through classes, books, or other means of formal instruction.

Who is Eligible to Apply

Any organization whose primary mission is to sustain and present traditional culture that is:

A nonprofit organization, legally established in the State of Maine,
and has tax exempt status 501(c)(3) from the Internal Revenue Service,
or is a unit of local, county, state or tribal government in Maine; and
has completed and filed all final reports required for previous Maine Arts Commission grants.

An organization may also serve as the sponsor for an artist or a community organization that is not a registered nonprofit, but must be responsible for all fiscal and managerial aspects of the grant award. All contact information must be that of the legal applicant.

Examples of a successful project might be:

A Franco cultural organization hires traditional musicians to replace recorded dance music to play for community soiree.
A Native American artist gathering sponsors a workshop by a master bead worker.
A Sudanese cultural organization works with traditional dancers on developing a community outreach program.

Review Process

Applications are reviewed by selected members of the Maine Arts Commission Traditional Arts Committee and Maine Arts Commission staff.

Review Criteria

All grant proposals are reviewed on a competitive basis using the following criteria:

Primary focus is on cultural conservation, folklife or traditional culture
Degree to which the proposal is a good fit between the artists' presentations and the sponsoring organization.
Artistic quality of the traditional artists.
Significance of the traditional art to the community.

Required Application Materials

Please review the following required materials carefully in preparing your application materials. Failure to comply with these requirements will result in disqualification of your application. Only complete applications will be accepted. Please do not submit work in elaborate file folders or packaging. Make copies of all application materials for your records prior to submitting them.

Preparing your documents for submission - All word documents must be saved as .doc or .rtf files and follow the following naming convention: lastname_firstname_TitleOfDocument.rtf (example: veilleux_lisa_resume.doc or veilleux_lisa_narrative.rtf).

eGRANT Application
You will upload all supporting documents (with exception to video, audio or images) through eGRANT.
Application Budget Form and Detail (form below)
Providing evidence of a 1:1 in-kind or cash match. No substitutions for the budget form are allowed. The requet will show the break down of artist fees only. The match can represent other artistic or administrative fees.
Examples of proposed traditional artists' work with brief artists' biographies (one paragraph)
Application Narrative (form below)
A description of the folklife or cultural conservation organization sponsoring the artists' presentations and a description of proposed traditional artists' presentations. This narrative should address the Review Criteria.
Vendor Form (form below)
This is information used by the Treasury to generate a check if the grant is awarded. Applicants should be sure to indicate the address the check should be sent to. You must mail form with your signature to our office. Faxed copies are not accepted.
Assurances Form (form below)
With original signature of an authorizing official. Please mark with name of applicant.

Mail assurances form and vendor form to the Maine Arts Commission, 193 State Street, Augusta, Maine 04333-0025.

STOP!

Each Applicant must speak with Kathleen Mundell, traditional arts specialist, 207/236-6741 or mainetraditionalarts@gmail.com, about the project before submitting an application. Failure to do so will disqualify the application.

If you need a special accomodation to fully participate in this program or complete this application, please contact Kathy Ann Shaw, Senior Development Associate & Accessibility Coordinator at 207/287-2750, 877/887-3878 TTY/NexTalk UserID: kathy.shaw, or email kathy.shaw@maine.gov.

How to Apply

Applicants are required to apply through the Maine Arts Commission e-GRANT system. E-GRANT will accept applications until 11:59 pm, E.S.T., however; agency staff is only available to answer questions until 5:00 pm, E.S.T. Because of the volume of e-GRANT submissions on the day of any grant deadline, we strongly recommend you give yourself a 24 hour buffer.

Applicants who are unable to apply through e-GRANT must contact Kathy Ann Shaw at 207/287-2750, 877/887-3878 TTY/NexTalk User ID: kathy.shaw or kathy.shaw@maine.gov to discuss an alternative prior to applying. Alternative submissions will not be accepted without prior authorization.

The agency will not accept late or incomplete applications under any circumstance.

Accessible Print Symbol Grant information is available in large print format by request. All Maine Arts Commission programs are accessible to people with disabilities. All programs funded by the Maine Arts Commission must also be accessible.

Apply Now!

Celebrating the Traditional Arts Program Application and Forms
Application eGRANT	Assurances (PDF)	Budget Form	Vendor Form (PDF) or (JPG)	Narrative