The Maine Arts Commission (MAC) relies on teams of grant review panelists to help make decisions around the funding of grants and fellowships. Serving as a grant panelist for the MAC is a means of making a valuable contribution to the arts in Maine. All of our grant applications are reviewed individually by citizen panelists who then meet as a group in a recorded public panel meeting. At this convening, panelists discuss applications and finalize their individual scores for a specified group of applicants. Panelists are selected based on their knowledge about the materials they will be reviewing, their ability to articulate their opinions about applications, their capability in evaluating applications in a fair and unbiased way, and their availability to attend a review discussion after properly familiarizing themselves with all application materials. If you are interested in becoming a panelists for the Maine Arts Commission, please complete a reviewer form.
Panelists new to our Grants Management System should read the
Grants Management System Help document.
Grant reviews for the Maine Arts Commission are conducted through the Grants Management System; the same system that the applicants use. Evaluation, scoring, and notes are all managed within this system.
Our philosophy for panelists is that the review team shall provide helpful and constructive comments of the grants they read. For the time they are meeting, panelists serve as mentors and partners of each applicant (organization or individual). Funded or not, the Maine Arts Commission's review process strives be educational and helpful to each grant applicant.
What you put into it
- Your expertise and advice for applicants
- Several hours of reading applications
- A few hours of discussion on panel day
- Your advice to us about how to make programs more effective
What you get out of it
- Being part of decision-making in state government
- Meeting your peers in Maine who are also panelists
- Make new connections with artists, organizations, and colleagues
- Learn about clever ideas, innovative projects, and the folks making things happen
- Develop grant-making skills
Interested in serving as a panelist?
Let us know by filling out this short form. We’ll be in touch if we have a placement for you.