New England States Touring (NEST) 3 Webinar - September 2022

before we begin today I would like to acknowledge the land on which we are meeting while we are meeting virtually nifa's offices are based on the traditional lands of the Massachusetts Wampanoag and Mark people and we honor their ancestors past present and future and recognize their continued existence and contributions to our society at nifa we believe that one of the roles of the Arts is to make the invisible visible we also believe that it is not the responsibility of those who have been made invisible to remind us that they are still here we also acknowledge that all places where we provide support and hold events are indigenous lands and we offer our respect to those who have continued to Steward the land on which we meet we will take a moment to pause and I invite you to reflect on the Deep history of these lands and its people thank you so I'd like to formally introduce myself and we can go to the next slide I'm Adrian Petrillo I'm the senior program director for New England presenting and touring here at mifa I'm joining you today from Massachusetts knit buck and wampanoagland and I am joined by my colleague Fallon Fallon if you would like to introduce yourself hello all my name is Alan Rose Ballard I use fathom pronouns and I am the program coordinator for New England percentage employing here at nifa I am living on the unseated lands of the Wampanoag mayhaganfit and Pokemon cat peoples and Province for diamonds we are also joined today by our ASL interpreters Elizabeth nodalski and Lisa Gentile our agenda for today we can go to the next slide is we will do an overview of the New England states touring or next grant program uh we will also talk about creative ground and how that intersects with the next program and we will have time at the end of the session for questions you are welcome to drop questions into the chat as well and we'll do our best to either answer them um or we may ask you to hold your question to the end and we will address them at that time so today we are here to talk about the next program um Nest is one of nifa's many Grant programs uh it supports projects based in New England and we have several other programs at Nisa that do that as well I encourage you to review our website for more information about other opportunities that nifa offers because today we'll be focused only on the nest 3 Program Nest is the oldest of Memphis programs and really the core support for New England organizations and Nest connects artists with communities in our region it is a publicly funded and supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the six State Arts agencies in New England while Nest has been around for almost Lisa's entire history there are currently three versions of the program Nest one Nest two and Nest three no claims for creativity there um but Nets one and two are exclusively for supporting performances and activities by New England artists and we won't be covering those in detail today but there is information available on our website today's webinar will focus on Nest three which is the newest iteration of the nest program next slide I'd like to share about the goals of the nest program which informs the program design as well as the funding criteria so it's important to understand the big picture of what Nest is trying to do broadly speaking Nest supports access to high quality artists and aesthetic diversity for New England communities connecting people to artists from New England other parts of the United States and the world as I mentioned Nest is supported by the Nea and the six State Arts agencies in New England and supporting access to the arts for everyone is an important goal of our federal and state partner and now more than ever we are continue to be focused on supporting live Arts events as much as possible though certainly the virtual has become part of the process as well the nest program also stimulates collaborations and Partnerships between New England cultural organizations artists and communities the field Regional presenting and touring is an Internet connected ecosystem and Nest funds help support creative Partnerships between Arts presenters and artists we also encourage projects and engagements that provide meaningful exchange between artists and New England communities these are opportunities that extend beyond the stage and Beyond the performance and can help shape deeper interactions and enhance the audience experience of the Arts and understanding of the artist's work this can lead to more meaningful connections for both the artist and for the community so what is this that is the question we're here to try to answer for you today Nest three funds presentations of regional National and international artists who are being presented by a minimum of three non-profit organizations in at least two New England states those organizations are also known as presenters so you may hear me use the word organizations or presenters interchangeably in terms of Eligibility and again you'll see this noted that eligible organizations also known as Arts presenters are organizations that offer Performing Arts programming and represent a range of different types of organizations but in terms of Eligibility criteria they must be a 501c3 nonprofit or a school or government agency um or a federally recognized tribal government and they must be based in New England just for the sake of clarity I will say that the six New England states are Connecticut Massachusetts Rhode Island Vermont New Hampshire and Connecticut New England does not include New York applicant organizations also do not need to be Arts organizations so we support a number of different types of organizations including theaters Performing Arts centers festivals museums we also support art centers based at universities but also Public Schools educational programs libraries Community Arts organizations Parks and Rec departments historical societies so as long as it is a 501c3 or government entity and based in New England the organization is eligible to apply next slide please the way that so Nest funds presentations of regional National and international artists who are hosted as I said by three non-profits in at least two New England states at least three organizations in two different states must submit an application for the same artist or Ensemble when I say artists I do mean an ensemble or a group not necessarily it doesn't have to be an individual those three organizations coming together is the definition of a tour for the nest grant program tours may include more than three organizations and may include more than two states organizations applying May request up to 60 percent of the total artists fee this fee can include travel accommodations and per diem so all of those things together make up the total artist fee if the total artist fee is two thousand dollars or less the organization May request up to a hundred percent of the fee Grant amounts for next three range from five hundred dollars to ten thousand and these Grant amounts are per organization on the tour so if you have three organizations on the tour it's possible each one can get ten thousand dollars though I will say typically grants fall more within the five to seven thousand dollar range or at least they did before covid a lot has obviously shifted but I would say in general we are trying to make substantial grants through the next three program applications must also include at least one public performance meaning that it must be open to the public and advertised accordingly we're happy to support activities that are set within School settings but there must also be one performance that is open to the general public so this may mean an artist in a community working with a school for several days and then at the end of their residency they also offer a performance that is open to anyone in the community to attend online performances and Community engagement activities continue to be okay in these coven times so if part part of an engagement or all of an engagement is happening virtually that's absolutely fine organizations who are applying to Nest 3 May submit up to three applications which means that a single organization can be part of up to three tours the grant period for these tours is June 1st 2023 to August 31st 2024 and all funded activities must take place within that time frame the tour dates do not have to be contiguous so it can be that if there's three different presenters involved each one could be doing an engagement with the artist at a different time so one might be having the artist in June another in September another in December or they may all be tightly routed all of that is fine as long as activities take place within the grant period next slide please the next program does not fund events that are not open to the public and advertised as I noted everything must include at least one public performance Nest also does not fund any events outside of New England it does not fund fundraisers and by fundraisers we mean uh events that have a very high ticket price where the artist who's engaged might just be playing in the background and is not actually the featured performer applicants are more than welcome to make money on their event we have no problem with Revenue being earned but that is not the same thing as hosting a fundraiser um activities and programs that are exclusively in school so they're only with students and do not engage the general public are not funded through this program also performances in which the performers are primarily students are not supported this program is intended to support professional performing artists to do their work this program also Nest does not fund self-produced presentations by artists or ensembles so there must be a presenter involved who is hosting presenting and paying the artist uh producing organizations such as a symphony or a choral group who are inviting a guest conductor or a guest soloist to perform as part of a concert with the group is also not eligible for nest funding and finally presentations of projects that have funding available through nifa's National Dance Project or National Theater project are not eligible for funding the NDP and ntp program because we need to abbreviate everything here at nifa they select artists who receive touring subsidies each year there is a new roster of funded projects always available to presenters and so if those projects have funding available for touring presenters must go through those programs to access it if you do for anyone who does present dancer theater there are amazing amazing projects every year supported through that program and I highly recommend taking a look at those as well for your programming the next slides so the next grants are awarded through a competitive selection process and the amount of funding is based on the extent to which projects meet this funding criteria so the funding criteria is really critical to the the funding and to the application process so first the first Criterion is that there must be a clear rationale for how the project aligns with the art with the organization's Arts programming goals and its significance for the community this is the place for applicants to talk about the artists the artist should be named if the artist's name isn't anywhere in this section it's a problem um this is the chance to talk about the artist to describe their work and talk about why an organ for the organization why they want to bring the artist to their community second is that we look for collaborative planning among tour partners and artists and the featured artists should be included in that planning as much as possible um this is a great place to be specific about what that planning looks like for instance have there been conference calls either between being all of the presenters involved and the artists or with the artist or their representatives or is there any sharing of resources marketing materials educational materials study guides you know and we've seen a lot of instances where a organization that has a lot of educational resources has helped to you know create educational resources that can then be shared across all of the tour Partners so examples like that are great and I strongly recommend being as specific as possible additional activities beyond the performance that provide opportunities for the artists to meaningfully engage and connect with various sectors of the community are also part of this program cross-sector exchange and collaboration are strongly encouraged cross-sector meaning Arts with non-arts so arts and Health Care Arts and environments can be and you know Arts and Science anything that's cross-sector is always great to see and just we're looking for ways that the community has opportunity to engage with the artists um and engage with their work and finally we are looking for projects that expand access to the Arts for all New England communities including Rural and or black indigenous or people of color also known as bypoc communities we acknowledge there are structural inequities that have excluded individuals and communities from opportunity based on race gender disability sexual orientation class age language culture and geography and we strive to counter those inequities in our work I recommend that you take a look at our value statement regarding Equity diversity inclusion and accessibility um we also really encourage organizations who are serving Rural and or bypoc communities to apply to the next program and then we also have a front one funding priority so a priority is not weighted quite as strongly as the rest of the criteria but we are looking for projects that reflect diverse Revenue sources so that's revenue from whether that's admissions sponsorship other private foundations individuals or government agencies we know that neither cannotch be the only source of funding and we do want to see that there are plans to include other funders in the mix and a strong mix of Revenue is important the applications which best address the funding criteria are likely to receive funding the funding amount also depends on how well the application meets the criteria so in other words the stronger the application the higher the grant amount Nisa staff is also available in advance of the deadline to give you advice guidance on how to address the criteria the full application from net3 will not be available until early 2023 however you can preview narrative questions on our website currently and if you do that you will see a direct correlation between the narrative questions and the funding criteria and here's my my Insider tip for everybody if the answer to one of you if with one of the narrative questions you feel like your answer is no or not applicable that does not make for a strong application if we ask a question about how you have collaborated with Partners it is because we expect to see collaboration with partners and that is what we are looking for when we assess these my other advice when answering narrative questions is specificity the most common feedback we hear from our panelists is that they want more details about the project and so I recommend taking full advantage of the space that's provided there are character counts to what you can enter but I would say please use the amount of space that is there and try to answer with as much specificity as possible thank you and with that I'm going to turn it to my colleague Fallon who's going to talk a little bit more about the application and review process hello uh next slide please thank you um so approaching the deadline everyone that is interested in applying should really contact nifa staff to confirm the Project's eligibility um we don't want you spending time on abroad like um writing a grant for a project that ultimately winds up being ineligible for funding um especially so for people who are less familiar to the grant program uh first time applicants um all applicants are responsible for negotiating the terms of the engagement with the artist that is not a step in the process that Nixa is involved with um it's also again strongly encouraged that there are activities with Community Partners defense Community engagement is something that is very strongly considered um and the evaluation of the applications if there is no or minimal Community engagement uh it will not make for a strong application everyone is also responsible for submitting the application by the deadline dates the deadline date is always posted on our website on the page where you can access the application itself a week in advance it is typically on the first business day of March um sometimes it shifts by a week or two but I um either way all applications must be submitted by 11 59 pm on the day that it is due any later and she will not be able to submit additionally um presenters are responsible for verifying that a new infant artist is listed as Nest eligible on the Creator's grounds directory um I will be talking about what exactly that means in another moment um but enough eligibility is not meant to be a barrier to application it's meant to strengthen the artist and the uh the application itself if the artist uh does not become less eligible by the deadline you can still submit your application but the artist will need to become less eligible as soon as possible um for projects featuring artists based outside of New England one partner in the tour needs to submit a work sample for the artist foreign artist the creative ground profile search as their work samples sent to be most eligible their profile needs to have um audio or video samples of their work but for artists outside of New England they will not have creative ground profiles and so um at least or only one presenter on the tour will have to submit a work sample for them next slide please so the application review process itself um next three features a peer panel review process panelists can include presenters artists agents managers and others with knowledge of the presenting and soaring fields they may be from New England but many are not because it can be very difficult to find people in New England who don't have a conflict of interest we are a small region after all um the panelists may or may not be familiar with the New England art landscape and so you should keep that in mind when you are talking about your artist or community in your application you should not assume that the panelists will have knowledge about your organization or your city or town need for staff facilitate the panel meeting and we may Supply contextual information when requested but we do not participate in the review process itself all final decisions are made by the panel applicants will be notified of funding decisions in early May we realized that this timing is challenging for um organizations that do presenting in the summer starting in June and so that's another thing to be aware of if you are considering applying and it is also why um the grant period um the time during which all activities must take place includes two summers 2023 and 2024 um with all of our grant programs we offer uh panel feedback once the process has included um whether or not your application was funded it's never a bad idea to um get feedback and learn about what was done well or what might be improved upon um nifa grants are generally paid as reimbursement grants so if you are awarded a grant um you won't actually get the money until all activities have taken place you've submitted your grantee report and it has been reviewed to make sure that all necessary components are there and approved for funding if needed we can make partial payments in advance on a case-by-case basis next slide please ah so creative grounds and other need for resources and the past two slides I have referenced creative grounds um it's a very useful tool that we have here in New England we keep mentioning how you're going to need touring Partners without learning England and you might be wondering how do I find those partners creative ground is an excellent tool to do that it's a robust directory of New England's artists and cultural organizations all next African organizations love themselves maintain an updated profile in the creative brand directory for their cultural non-profits and a nest eligible artist profile is required for projects featuring new england-based artists you are able to search uh creative ground in a variety of ways and you can filter by things like organization type um artistic discipline geography Etc you can use creative Brands to find Nest eligible artists and to find a touring partners as a reminder only artists and organizations that are based in New England May create profiles on Creative grounds foreign to you is Nissan's annual idea swap the ideas flow is an annual Gathering of New England Arts presenters cultural organizers and artists for networking and sharing touring project ideas um last year due to the pandemic we held idea swap virtually over two days but we are happy to say that this year we'll we will be returning to an in-person event which will happen on November 2nd 2022 in our usual venue mechanics Hall in Worcester Massachusetts organizations that are based in New England are encouraged to attend they give up to learn more about uh the potential tours that people are looking to put together um and to find touring partners that they might collaborate with um and with that I will pass it on to Adrian again thank you Fallon you can go to the next slide which actually wraps up our presentation so it is always important to thank your funders so I do want to give another shout out to our partners at the National Endowment for the Arts as well as the six New England State Arts agencies they are critical to the work that we do here in New England and final slide please so as a reminder Fallon and I are both here to answer questions you have about the next program we are accessible through email and phone we will return your calls we will return your email we are also here as the deadline approaches we're happy to talk with folks about how to make the application as strong as possible and we are as silent mentioned in the midst of planning for our idea swap event on November 2nd and so we hope we'll see many of you there it will be a great opportunity to connect and reconnect and meet new folks especially as we have all been so socially distanced in the last couple of years and we expect to hear a lot about projects that may be touring the region and could lead to potential Nest 3 applications if you are new to the next program or nifa's work in general we always encourage you to call us before you submit an application and so we can verify that your project does meet eligibility and guide you in any way that might help with your application so thank you so much for joining us I do see we have a question in the chat and folks are welcome to put questions into the chat or use the raise hand uh feature in Zoom so the question is how is idea swap the same or different from law or Midwest and other Regional conferences is it basically a New England version of one of these booking conferences as the others are have been known so I would say idea swap yes and no it is not quite a booking conference we we try to be clear on that it's a much smaller scale than some of those other Regional conferences it's usually I think this year with some capacity limits we'll be at about 200 people and just for one day and it's really a networking and relationship building event so there's lots of opportunities for presenters to talk to presenters for presenters talk to artists for artists to talk to other artists but it really is the start of conversation and so our hope is that folks will gather in November and talk and meet and some of those folks May reconnect at the APAP conference that happens in January in New York and there will be more conversation and then that may lead to some Nest three applications in March but we also hope people meet as idea Swap and that they're still talking to each other three years from now and that is something we have seen we have folks who come to idea swap every year and it's about hearing about learning about artists and learning about projects that might be touring the region but really it's about networking and trying to build those relationships is there any other questions uh if someone if you have a question you want to come off mute and ask your question you're welcome to do that yeah Adrian this uh this is Brian I had asked that question about idea swap so the um I guess I'm trying to figure out is um is it the distinction you're making as my only I guess my reference point is artists Midwest wa some of the regional conferences so I'm trying to understand the distinction you're making about how it's not a booking conference I guess I guess I see those as exactly how you just described it they're more about opening conversations I know there's some people that go there to do selling and it is transactional uh for for some art from some agents and and presenters but that's not how I've seen it as an independent artist so is that a good way is that a good framing with this it's it's less booth and exhibit hall model and more uh I don't know are there like events every hour on the hour like talks and all that or can you just kind of tell us what it's like especially from an artist I'm interested from the artist's perspective sure absolutely those are great questions so yes I would say it is less transactional there are no booths or exhibit halls or um though certainly people bring materials and put them out but that includes two Runners and other attendees as well um there are there is Project sharing which could also be called project pitching um and it but it is done in a very specific format and that pitching comes both from artists but also presenters who are talking about artists that they want to bring to their community and so I do kind of frame it as a relationship building event also to set expectations and that you may not necessarily walk out with a set of bookings if that's a goal in attending you know that you would sort of come in and leave with a whole two were booked that's pretty unlikely to happen it sounds like you understand how that works um but it is a good place to start to get to know who's in the field who's in New England what people are interested in and who's out there doing things so it's a great way to do that we also this year um though the event will be in person we have an online platform as well and so there is some networking that can happen through that platform before during and after the event so we're really excited about that new component as well well got it and do you know what the proport the percentage breakdown of artist agent presenters are for that roughly and historically um so the story historically I would say it's 50 to 60 presenters and 40 artists and there's very few agents um there's a tiny handful who may come but it is not again it's not really geared towards agents um it's a whole new world so we're not entirely sure what it will look like in person this year okay and registration just registration just opens a couple of weeks ago um so we're just starting to see registrations come in and I think Fallon did drop some good info into the idea swap page on our website which will give you kind of a sneak peek into what what's happening and that page will continue to get updated uh throughout the next several weeks got it yeah I had seen that one last question if I can the the word project um so as a musician and a particular artist what we don't necessarily we don't present ourselves as doing projects and programs necessarily it's the music's really it's internally composed it's the artist is the identity of the program should is that okay to just frame that is that when you talk about pitching a project then then that can be synonymous with the artist or or do you really mean a project of some kind no we're just trying to be as all-encompassing as possible so it may be what you do as an artist and that's totally fine there are other artists who like have one specific thing they've been working on right that they're ready to tour um but they've got any of that great thank you yeah you're welcome any other questions either you can drop in the chat or come off mute okay well we thank you so much for joining us today I also want to thank my niecea colleagues who are helping us behind the scenes Michelle Daly and Leilani Ricardo and another thank you to our ASL interpreters we appreciate your work here today as we said at the beginning this session has been recorded and it will be available on nisa's website probably in another week or so and you're welcome to revisit it and please do feel free to call or email us with any questions thank you for joining us today

2022-10-10 05:51

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