New England Arts Presenters and Cultural Organizers – Apply for Expeditions

As the new year begins, New England arts presenters and cultural organizers are busy organizing and planning new seasons of arts programming for their communities. The annual January performing arts conferences in NYC also spark inspiration for collaborative projects between artists and arts presenters working in communities all around the world. If you are looking to present an artist in a New England tour, you may consider applying to NEFA’s annual Expeditions deadline on February 20, 2019 (11:59 eastern time). New England arts presenters and cultural organizers are invited to apply!

About Expeditions

• The Expeditions program supports New England nonprofit organizations to plan and implement tours of projects involving New England, national, and international artists.
• Expeditions Touring Grant projects must include at least three New England nonprofit partners in geographically separate communities from at least two states. Expeditions Touring grants provide up to 50% of artist fees.
• Expeditions Tour Planning Grants provide up to $5,000 for projects that need additional planning time to build interest among presenters in preparation for a grant request for Expeditions Touring support. Projects featuring New England artists’ work may receive an additional $5,000 to support the development of new artistic work. For more details, all applicants should contact Adrienne Petrillo, Program Director, New England Presenting & Touring, at apetrillo@nefa.org for guidance on the application process.

Submitting Your Application

• Review the narrative questions prior to starting your application form. Please note some questions have been revised.
• All tour partners for Expeditions Touring projects are responsible for carefully reviewing the program goals and funding criteria. This information should be considered when developing plans for community engagements and to prepare application materials in a complete and timely manner. Each tour partner must include public performances, and additional community engagement activities. 
• A word about the required work sample  – please submit a segment of fully produced work. We do not recommend submitting trailers or highly edited promo videos. Sharing samples of full performances will help panelists in their project evaluation.
• Save your application form frequently in the NEFA grants portal to prevent losing your work. We highly recommend building your application in a separate Word doc for back-up too!

NEFA staff are also available on Monday through Friday from 9-5pm ET to offer guidance and technical assistance for applicants.

Contact

• Adrienne Petrillo (she/her/hers), Program Director, New England Presenting & Touring
• Daniela Jacobson (she/her/hers), Program Manager, New England Presenting & Touring
• Falyn Rose Elhard (they/them/theirs), Program Associate, New England Presenting & Touring

Here are a few helpful resources and important highlights for all applicants:

• Each year NEFA hosts the Idea Swap, an event for New England-based nonprofit cultural organizations and touring artists to network and share touring project ideas, including those that may qualify for funding from NEFA’s Expeditions grant program. Projects shared during the Idea Swap and contact info for all participants are available on NEFA’s website here .
• Expeditions applicants are invited to fill in this Google Form  to allow participants to see all tours in development. Looking for additional presenter partners? Add your details in the form to spread the word.
• Expeditions applicants must update their profiles on the CreativeGround directory to capture their organization’s work and mission, activities, and who they’ve worked with in the past. Take a moment to also search the directory to find presenting organizations, artists, and nonprofit partners for potential collaborative projects. You can search by keywords and different search criteria, including by state, profile type, and artistic disciplines.
• New England presenters and cultural organizations are welcome to join Arts Presenters of Northern New England (APNNE) and New England Presenters (NEP)  for networking and peer-to-peer learning throughout the year. Membership meetings include topics such as block booking, current issues in the arts, contract negotiation, marketing strategies, and more. Contact NEP and APNNE if you are interested in joining:
  
  NEP: Lori Jones  and Sharon Fantl, Co-Presidents
  APNNE: Shannon Mayers, President

We look forward to connecting with all applicants in the coming weeks.