New England States Touring Grant Webinar

This webinar is for folx interested in applying for the New England States Touring (NEST) Grant. For more information about the grant opportunity (including eligibility, funding criteria, and more) visit the grant page. Apply by 11:59 PM ET, March 8, 2022.

Read the Transcript

Adrienne: Good afternoon, welcome to NEFA's, New England States Touring webinar. We are so happy to have you today. So that everyone knows, this session will be recorded and shared on NEFA's website. And you can access it later. You are welcome to remain off-camera, if you would prefer not to be part of the video. I'm Adrienne Petrillo, I'm the senior program director for New England Presenting and Touring at NEFA. My pronouns are she and her. And before we start today, I do want to acknowledge the land on which we are meeting. At NEFA, 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. Therefore, as a committed ally, we wish to acknowledge that the grounds on which NEFA's offices are based, are the traditional lands of the Massachusett, Wampanoag and Pawtucket people. Today, I'm joining from my home, based in Massachusetts and Pawtucket land. We also acknowledge that all places where we provide support and hold events, are Indigenous lands. We pay our respects and honor ancestors, past, present, and future. And recognize their continued existence and contributions to our society. We welcome you to introduce yourself, and the land you occupy in the chat. Today, you will hear from the New England Presenting and Touring team. We are also very happy to be joined by ASL interpreters, Emilio Garcia and Nora Joy Rodriguez. And live captioner, Tina Baker. We are live captioning this session. And we can drop instructions to access the live captioning in the chat if that's something you need. I've already introduced myself, and so, I'm going to pass it on to my colleague, Falyn to introduce themself.

Falyn: Hello everyone, my name is Falyn Elhard. I am the program coordinator for New England Presenting and Touring, here at NEFA. I use they, them pronouns. And I am joining from the traditional lands of the Wampanoag, I'm sorry, Pokanoket, Narragasett and Negagasett peoples. And I will pass things on to Daniela.

Daniela: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Daniela Jacobson. I use she/her/hers pronouns. And the Spanish pronoun, ella. And joining you, zooming in from Western Massachusetts, in Greenfield, located on the native lands of the Wampanoag and Pokanoket. And I'm the program manager for New England Presenting and Touring Programs. And I'm really happy to have all of you join us together today. We can go to the next slide. So today, we're gonna be talking all about the New England States Touring Program. The grant guidelines for the upcoming March grant cycle. We will review the NEST program, who is eligible to apply, the grant guidelines, and application process. We'll also talk about how organizations can connect with potential touring partners for NEST 3 grants. And before we wrap up, we will share reminders and information about the CreativeGround profile requirements for artists and presenters. And at the end of the presentation, we'll take some questions. We do invite any participant to share questions in the chat as things come up, directly from the information shared in the following slides. We will hold time for more complex questions at the end of the webinar. And NEFA staff are, of course, our team, is available now, and up until the deadline to answer questions. We're happy to connect with you to offer guidance about the application process, and to confirm your eligibility for a project. All right, next slide. Today we're gonna walk through the NEST program and the grant guidelines for the March 8th deadline for presentations occurring in June 2022 through December 2023. And we have a lot of folks here today that may be familiar with NEST. But for those who are new to the program, NEST is NEFA's oldest program. And the core support for New England organizations that connect artists with communities in our region. This spring grant cycle of NEST funds presentations of regional, national, and international artists presented by New England based non-profits. This year, in response to the COVID pandemic, and the huge impact and challenges for the art sector, We have made some changes to the NEST guidelines for this grant cycle, which we will review in detail later on in the presentation. Just to review some broad program goals, NEST supports access to high-quality artists and aesthetic diversity for New England communities, connecting people to artists that are from New England, other parts of the west, and across the world. NEST is publicly funded and supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the six state art agencies in New England, supporting access to the arts for all is an important goal that we share with our federal and state partners. And now more than ever, it's important to keep live arts, opportunities, and programs alive. NEST stimulates opportunities for collaboration and partnerships between New England cultural organizers, artists, and communities. And the larger field of regional presenting and touring is an interconnected ecosystem. And NEST funds, helps support creative partnerships between arts presenters and artists doing really meaningful work together. And lastly, this encourages projects that provide meaningful interaction between artists and communities. These opportunities extend beyond just stage performances. And can take shape and deeper interactions to enhance the audience experience of the arts, and also enhance their understanding of artists' work. Next slide. So NEST grants fund the public performances, readings and screenings of work by regional, national, and international artists presented by New England based non-profit organizations. Applicant organizations must be a 501c3 non-profit organization, school, federally-recognized tribal government, or other government entity, including municipalities. Applicant organizations must be based in a New England state. And they also must present at least one public performance by the artist and engagement activity that's also led by the artist. Later on, we will review what NEST can, what NEST cannot support. We'll dive a little more deeply there, as well. Next slide. And just to elaborate a little bit further on the eligible applicants, and who can apply. I just wanna take a moment to explain what type of organizations we consider arts presenters in this context. NEST funds any New England arts presenter, which is a non-profit organization that offers performing arts programming, and hires artists to share their work. Arts presenters represent a range of different types of organizations, some arts presenters offer arts programming all year round. And others offer seasonal programing, some presenters own and operate their own venues and performance spaces, others don't, but rent spaces to put on their programming. And NEST funds and supports all these different types of arts presenters. And some examples include New England venues, more traditional performing arts centers, festivals, cultural series organizations, museums. We also do support university and college-based arts presenters. We also support public schools, and educational programs run by different non-profits. We also fund libraries, and community arts organizations, municipalities, parks and recs, and historical societies. And this is just to name a few. Next slide. We offer three different types of NEST grants. There are three different versions of NEST that are available for the March grant cycle. I will be talking a little bit about the NEST 1 grants in this slide. NEST 1 grants is the version of NEST that's funded organizations throughout NEFA's history, to support artists to tour outside their state. So NEST 1 grant applicants can apply to present a New England artist from outside their state. An artist must be listed as NEST eligible on the CreativeGround directory, and should meet the NEST artist requirements. And, we'll talk about, more about that later on. Applicants can request up to 60% of the artist fees. That can include the fee for performing, but also can include any travel costs in per diem, and housing for artists. The grant amounts range from $500 to $5,000. So this, the NEST grant itself, covers a portion of the artist fee. It is an artist subsidy for the arts presenter. NEST 1 projects with artist fees of $2,000 and under, may request a full artist fee subsidy for this grant cycle. And typically, most NEST 1 applicants do receive some level of funding in each grant cycle. And, the good news is that applicants can apply for multiple NEST 1 projects. There are no restrictions on that. As long as you are in good standing, and don't have any outstanding grantee reports from previous NEST projects, you can apply for multiple NEST projects for NEST 1 grants. Next slide. The second version of NEST, is what we call NEST 2 Grants. NEST 2 Grants funds tours of New England based artist that are presented by one non-profit, based inside of the artist's home state. And one other non-profit that's based outside of the artist's home state. NEST 2 was offered in our March 2020 grant cycle. It was dormant last year due to the pandemic. We brought it back again this year. This is an opportunity for artists who may have planned to work and be presented by an artist within their state. And allows an opportunity for them to also be presented outside of their state. So, much like NEST 1, the artist must be be listed as NEST eligible, and should meet the NEST artist requirements. Each applicant organization, each arts presenter, may request up to 60% of the artist fee. The grants range from 500 to $5,000. And projects with artist fees under $2,000, may request a full artist fee. Applicants can also submit multiple NEST 1 and 2 projects. And I will hand it over to Adrienne to talk about our third NEST grant option.

Adrienne: Thank you, Daniela, for sharing on NEST 1 and 2. So, I'm going to talk about NEST 3, which has an annual deadline that is in March. So this is the opportunity with this March deadline to apply for a NEST 3 project. For FY22, NEST 3 will fund tours of regional, national, and international artists who are presented by a minimum of two non-profits, in at least two New England states. Typically, we require three presenting partners. In response to the pandemic and the challenges around collaboration, we have reduced that to two for this year. The organizations may submit up to three applications for NEST 3. Just to throw a lot of numbers in there. Similar to the other versions of NEST, applicants can request up to 60% of the artist fee. But in this case, the grant size goes from $5,000 to $10,000, or 500, sorry. $500 to $10,000. We are still keeping the projects with artist fees of $2,000 and under, may request the full artist fee. New England artists must also be listed as NEST eligible on CreativeGround. However, if there is a non-New England artist, then one of the touring partners must submit a work sample for projects featuring artists from outside of New England. We have tried to adjust guidelines for this year. So that we can respond to some of the challenges with the pandemic. So again, NEST 3, one of the key differences is that it is the opportunity to apply for artists who are based outside of New England. Although, we are also happy to support New England artists through this version of the program, as well. Next slide. Just to clarify what NEST does not fund. We've touched on a few of these things, but want to make sure everyone's clear. We do not fund events that are not open to the public, and advertised accordingly. There can be private events, but there must be at least one public performance during the artist's engagement. We do not fund events outside of New England. And I hope I don't have to name the six New England states. But if anyone has a question about what they are, let us know. We also do not support fundraisers. Although to be clear, we're perfectly happy if you earn revenue on an event, that is, we are happy to see that. But what we don't support are high-ticket priced events, where it's a very exclusive crowd, and the artist performing is not really, is maybe more of a background kind of thing. Those types of fundraisers are not eligible for funding. Similar to the first bullet, we do not support activities and programs which take place exclusively in schools during class time. So again, there must be a public performance component. We will support projects where an artist might work with a school, for say, three or four days, and do a lot of work within the school. But then, at the end of that time, they'll do a performance that's open to the entire community. That model is absolutely fine. NEST is also designed to support professional artists. So, we do not support performances in which the performers are primarily students. It must be the professional artists who are performing. We also do not support self-produced presentations by artists or ensembles. There must be a non-profit presenter who is hiring and presenting, and paying the artist. This is also not a program for producing organizations, such as a symphony, to invite a guest artist, like a conductor, or a soloist. And finally, we don't through NEST, we will not support presentations of projects that currently have funding available through the National Dance Project, or the National Theater Project, which are two other NEFA programs that I encourage anyone who is a presenter to check out. They have an amazing set of projects that also offer fee subsidy for presenters. But, if you're able to access fee support through those programs, you should do that directly, and not through the NEST program. Next slide. In summary, the changes to the NEST guidelines for this deadline, and again, we keep evolving our programs to do our best to respond to the current climate. NEST 1, 2, and 3 grants are available in amounts up to 60% of the artist's fee. And range from $500 to $10,000. Applications with artist fees under $2,000, may request the full artist fee. NEST 3 grants require only a minimum of two presenting organizations, and they must be from two different states. The grant period has also been extended to give everyone more time and flexibility. So the grant period is June 1st, 2022 through December 31, 2023, so you have a full year and a half, during which activities need to take place. And we will continue to support online performances and community engagement activities. We know this has been an important strategy throughout this pandemic. And so, it is not a requirement that you have an in-person live event. Next slide. I'm sure folks are often wondering who gets funded, how does that happen? And it really is a very simple answer, which is that it's all about the funding criteria and the priorities. So, these funding criteria are what the panel uses to assess each and every application, and the strength of applications to meet these criteria, determines the grant award. First and foremost, is that we are looking for projects that have a clear rationale, for how the project aligns with the organization's arts programming, and significance for the community. When you're responding to this question, please make sure you name the artist. Talk about the artist, describe their work. This is your chance to share why you're excited to work with this artist in your community. We are also looking for projects where there has been collaborative planning among tour partners and the artists, and the featured artist should be included in that planning. This is only applicable for NEST 2 and 3. This is part of what makes NEST 1 potentially a slightly easier application. You don't have to address collaborative planning in that application. But for NEST 2 and 3, we are looking for that collaborative planning. We're looking to see how each presenter has worked with the artist, and how they've worked with each other. Have there been conference calls among the presenters? Are you sharing resources with each other? One thing we've seen a lot of in the past, is that one presenter may develop marketing materials, or educational materials that can then be shared with other presenters on the tour. That's just one example of how collaboration can happen. But you will need to address that. As Daniela noted, when talking about the program goals, we are looking for projects that include activities beyond the performance which provide opportunities for the artist to meaningfully engage with various sectors of the community and cross-sector exchange and collaboration are strongly encouraged. By cross-sector, I mean arts with non-arts parts of the community. So it might be a project that focuses on arts and healthcare, or arts in the environment. Looking at ways to engage with your community. We are also looking for projects that expand access to the arts for all New England communities. Including rural, and/or Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities. I invite you to look at NEFA's value statement regarding equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. And we certainly encourage all, and any organizations working in rural communities, or BIPOC communities to apply. Overall, a few recommendations, and I will touch on the funding priority, as well. Typically, we do look for projects that have a diverse source of revenue. We know that revenue is a real challenge right now. It is not a requirement this year that you have diverse sources of revenue. But we will prioritize projects that can show different revenue sources, which many include admissions sponsorship, other private contributions, individuals. If you do anticipate some revenue for this project, I encourage you to put that into your budget. Something to keep in mind is that you can preview the narrative questions on NEFA's website. You don't have to actually start a grant form to do that. You should take a look at those as soon as you think you might be applying to the program, and really think through your answers to those questions, because they are directly tied to the funding criteria. We do want to see strategies that are specific as possible. We know that this is all a projection, and right now everything is changing, and keeps changing. But as much specificity as you can provide, especially around your strategies, and particularly being specific about this engagement. If you're talking about how you engage with the community, we want to know how you're going to engage with the community for this engagement with this artist. Not your general work of your organization. It should be specific to the artist for which you are applying. I will also just say that, we think very carefully about how much space we give you to answer narrative questions. And I encourage you to use the space that is given. We think, we hopefully have given you a character count that will work for you. But you should really be using the full amount of space that's provided. And then you will, I would just recommend to try to make sure your application is, consistent with itself. There are other places in the application where you might note, say the number of workshops you're holding. And so, if you list three workshops in your narrative, please make sure to explain what those three workshops are. Making sure to look at your application holistically. The next slide. In terms of the application process, all applicants are responsible for contacting NEFA. We encourage you to contact us around project eligibility. Especially if this is the first time you'll be applying to the program. All applicants should be negotiating the terms of their engagement with the artist. And developing activities with community partners. Each applicant needs to submit their own online application. Applications are due before midnight on the deadline date. NEFA staff is available until 5 p.m. We will not be available after that. So we always recommend submitting as early in the day as possible. In case you run into tech issues. And, applicants on NEST 3, must submit a work sample for an artist that is outside of the New England region. There are instructions on submitting work samples within the application form. And with that, I'm going to pass it over to Falyn to talk a little about a few of the application details.

Falyn: Hello. So, if you have filled out a NEFA application before, you'll be familiar with a section in which we ask for a DUNS number, or a Dun & Bradstreet number. It's a number identifier that's used for 501c3 non-profit organizations. However, DUNS numbers are currently being phased out in favor of a SAM, SAM.gov, UEI, or Unique Entity ID. And so, starting this year, your organization will need a new UEI number to receive funds for NEFA grant opportunities. And so, the process of getting a UEI is done by visiting SAM, S-A-M. Dot gov. It's a free process, and SAM.gov, or Systems for Award Management, is the federal database for tracking where federal dollars for awards and contracts go. We have a blog on our website that has further detail about this transition. And so, if you visit our website www.nefa.org, and you search "the Transition From DUNS to UEI: What you need to know." Then, you will be able to find that blog, and read more about the process, and it also links to SAM.gov and everything, which gives further instructions about this whole process. I bet you're all wondering how do I find a NEST 3 partner? If you're looking to apply for NEST 3, anyways. And that is a fantastic question. So there are a few different resources available to you. Two of them are Arts Presenters of Northern New England, or APNNE, and New England Presenters, or NEP, which are the two New England presenters of choice. You're able to get in contact with them by visiting their websites. The APNNE website is APNNE.US, The NEP website is NEpresenters.org And we also have contact information on the slide. To contact APNNE, you can email to APNNEInfo@gmail.com To contact NEP, you can got to nepresenters@gmail.com Shoot them an email, they are very nice people. Additionally, we are also co-sponsoring a meeting with APNNE and NEP tomorrow at a, I'm so sorry, Adrienne and Daniela, can you remind me of the time that the meeting is occurring?

Adrienne: Yes, we're hosting the meeting at one o'clock tomorrow.

Falyn: Fantastic, thank you. And so, this is the meeting for presenters to connect. And talk about projects that they are interested in touring around the region. This would be a great opportunity to connect with your fellow arts presenters, and find some projects and partners, for NEST 3 applications. Another resource that is available to you is CreativeGround. CreativeGround is New England's online directory of artists and creative enterprises. You can use CreativeGround to search for New England art, New England artists who are interested in presenting. And also, to search for other New England arts presenters you might be interested in collaborating with. In addition, last year, towards the end of last year, in November, we have our annual Idea Swap event, which is a networking event for artists and presenters to come together to share info about work that they have available to tour or are interested in touring to other venues. And last year's Idea Swap event was virtual via the Whova online event platform. And so, initially all of the project information was available until this month, February. But we have extended access to the Idea Swap event on the Whova platform until May 18th, 2022. So you can also look back on that event, look at the profiles that people set up. It's another way to reach out to different artists and presenters, to learn more about their work, and what they are looking to tour. Just a little overview of what the application review process is like. So we have six people. One person from each New England state, who serve as our NEST advisors. And so, for every NEST 1 and NEST 2 round, our NEST advisors review the applications. Again, scoring based on how well they've met the funding criteria. How well you answered the questions. And so, we also have this information on our website. On the page about our NEST grant program. But they also have representatives specific for each of the New England state arts agencies. And we have Kolton Harris from Connecticut, Cassandra Mason from New Hampshire, Dan Black from Massachusetts, Megan Fournier from Maine, Todd Trebour from Rhode Island, and Michele Bailey from Vermont. And the process for reviewing NEST 3 applications is a bit different. The NEST advisors are not involved. Instead it is a group of outside reviewers who are familiar with the presenting and touring field here in New England. And the New England arts landscape, in general. For those who are applying to NEST 1 and 2, you should reach out to the appropriate NEST advisor for your state, not the state of the New England artist that you are applying for funds to. Reach out to your appropriate NEST advisor to notify them about your plan. In terms of award notification, timing, and FY23 NEST deadlines, because that is coming up faster than you know it. For the grant round with our deadline in March, you'll be notified by the end of May about the funding decision that has been made. Just a reminder, NEST grants are paid as reimbursement grants after the event has occurred. However, partial grant payments can be made before the entirety of the project is completed. If the grantee, the presenter, has already partially paid the artist. This is determined on a case-by-case basis. And please reach out to us, the New England Presenting and Touring Team, if this is an option that you are looking to pursue. And our contact info will be available on a later slide. regarding the FY23 NEST guidelines, those will be announced in May. I talked a lot about CreativeGround . Going to speak a bit more about it. As I said earlier, CreativeGround is New England's online directory of artists and creative enterprises. And in order to apply for New England Presenting and Touring grants, you must have an updated profile in CreativeGround. And you must include a link to the profile in your application. And so, while these profiles are required for anyone applying for a NEST grant, the review process for presenter profiles is a bit different from the review process for artist profiles. But it is very much to your benefit to keep your profile up-to-date and looking very robust. It will help you in networking and booking. And it will also aid the NEST panelists, whether they are our advisors, or the outside panel for NEST 3, in learning more about your organization. We have the page on our website, 'NEST Presenter Profile Recommendations.' That has instructions on what you should do in order to build the most robust profile that you can. If you search 'Nest Presenter Profile Recommendations' on our website, you will be able to find that webpage. As mentioned before, artist profiles go through an approval process. And this culminates in them receiving a NEST eligible designation. So a little line that says, "I am NEST eligible" appears on their profile Please note that NEST profile, I'm sorry, NEST eligible CreativeGround profiles are required for New England artists for whom you are applying for funding to present. However, we do not want this to act as a barrier in any way. So if you have a New England based artist who will not have a NEST eligible profile approved in time for the application to be submitted, you can submit the application without the profile being approved. But they do need to create and have an eligible profile as soon as possible after that. It really aids in the review process for the grants. Particularly because, for any New England based artist, their work samples will be included on their CreativeGround profile. So this is really the best way that the people reviewing your application have to get to know about the artist's work. And so, there is a page on our website that details the NEST artist requirement, if you search 'NEST artist requirements' on our website, you will find that page. And if you have any question about how to best build, build out your profile, how to go about requesting NEST eligibility, please feel free to reach out to me. Again, our contact info will be shared on a later slide in this presentation. And with that, I will pass things back to Adrienne.

Adrienne: Great, thank you so much, Falyn. And as we all know, it's very important to thank our funders. As Daniela noted, this is a program NEFA does in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the New England State Arts Agencies. So we are very grateful for their support and partnership. This content is also all available on NEFA's website. So hopefully you were not scribbling notes down frantically, during this presentation. It's all available. You're also welcome to contact the New England Presenting and Touring Team with questions. If, and there is our contact info. You can call, or email, us. And if you have questions now, I welcome you to put them in the chat. Or, you're welcome to raise your hand using that feature in Zoom. And I think we have a question in the chat. Can you apply for multiple NEST 1 projects from one organization during the same grant round? Yes. So one organization may submit multiple NEST grants for different artists. Each NEST grant is one NEST grant per artist. Just to be very clear on that. If you have three artists coming next year from New England, you could submit three separate NEST 1 applications. That is absolutely fine. There is no restriction on the number of applications that an organization can submit for NEST 1, or for NEST 2. For NEST 3, organizations are limited to three applications. I see another question. I maybe just answered this question. I'm not sure, I think I just answered the question about different types, NEST 1 versus NEST 1, 2, 3. So again, NEST 1 and 2, you can submit multiple applications. NEST 3, you can submit up to three. There is a question about the artist fee. If the artist fee is up to $2,000, it is covered in full. Would that be for the entire engagement, including travel expenses, and activities, in addition to the performance? So we do consider the artist fee to include both fee for performance, as well as, travel accommodations in per diem. If that total amount is $2,000 or less, the applicant can request the full $2,000. If it's more than $2,000, then the applicant can request 60% of that total fee. There's a question, do we need to have a specific date scheduled for the performance in order to apply? Dates change, especially these days. We know that. But you do need to have a projected date, because there is also a period of time in which performances need to happen. It is okay if it's a slightly placeholder date. It's okay if that date shifts, later on, after you get the grant, as long as it's still within the grant period. That's not an issue at all. But you should have an anticipated date, or timeframe. The form will also make you put in a specific date so you can't do something like July 2022, you will have to pick a date. I think we have a hand raised from Marian Baker. Marian, if you wanna come off mute, and ask your question.

Marian: Yeah, I just had a quick question. As an organization that's gonna be applying for one of the NEST 1 grants, for somebody who portrays a person, historical figure. For this August, but according to your information, it actually covers even for the next August. Should I apply one grant for both times, for two years? Because she does portray two different people.

Adrienne: So it depends on what your engagement with the artist is. If you are bringing the artist this August to do something specific within that timeframe, you can apply for that now. If you're bringing the artist back next year for an entirely different kind of project, you could put in both. Actually, with NEST 1 though, I would recommend waiting. There will be other NEST 1 deadlines later this year. So it might be easier on you not to have to do two applications right now, because you'll definitely have other opportunities for the future.

Marian: So, it would have to be two applications no matter what?

Adrienne: Right. Unless it's really one whole project that's spanning the entire time. But, if it's two distinct engagements, then it needs to be two different applications.

Marian: Yeah. Okay.

Adrienne: I see another question about, can we share some examples of meaningful engagement, interaction and activities beyond the public performance that are manageable in light of COVID? So yes, COVID is causing lots of challenges for everyone these days. But, in terms of community interaction, in days when we could gather in person, that included everything from workshops, panel discussions, community dinners, classroom visits. So a lot of that stuff can still happen virtually. It really is dependent on the presenter and how they engage with their community and the capacity they have to do that. But it might be virtual classroom visits. It might be small, informal discussions. It might be a really formal panel that happens virtually. So those are conversations that are great for the presenter and the artist to have together. I see Maureen Belger has a question, if you wanna, Maureen, if you wanna come off mute and ask your question.

Maureen: Hi, yes, thanks. I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit more on the NEST 3, if we're collaborating with another organization from a different state. Do we file, do we submit one application together? Or do we just submit ours, and I just include in there how the artist will be performing with us. And then, also theirs?

Adrienne: So with NEST 3, each organization that's hosting the artist needs to submit their own application. And you each need to talk about the collaboration you've had with each other. So what has happened around any collaboration in terms of bringing the artist to your communities? Have you shared ideas about what you are doing? Have you shared resources? Have you shared marketing materials? Have you had conference calls with everyone? But you will need to talk about what that collaboration has looked like.

Maureen: Okay, thank you.

Adrienne: And I see Jasek also has a question. Oh, you're still muted.

Jasek: Oops, yep. Hello, hello, do you hear me?

Adrienne: Yes, yes.

Jasek: So I have a question about the case where you are not organization, you do not qualify for being a presenter, but you do present. And you would like to continue and develop your presenting programs. Can I do something about that, or should I just find organization which will be doing this for me? Does fiscal sponsorship work here some way, or another form of collaboration?

Adrienne: No, for the NEST program, you would need to find organizations who would work with you to present you.

Jasek: No, no, no, not me. I want to bring someone else.

Adrienne: Are you presenting their work?

Jasek: I do present, but Greenfield Puppets, my theatre is not non-profit, is not a school, is not a government agency. We exist as a sole proprietorship. But we do bring puppeteers to our land.

Adrienne: Sure, got it. Right. So that really goes back to the eligibility for applicants. And with NEST, organizations do have to be non-profits, or a government entity, or a tribal entity. We are not able to fund for-profit organizations. And we are not able to fund through fiscal sponsorships.

Jasek: So I need to collaborate with someone who will actually do this with me. Thank you.

Adrienne: Great. I see another question in the chat around "when you're bringing multiple artists within a broader theme initiative would you need to do a separate application for each one?" And the answer is yes. It is one application per artist, or artist ensemble. When we say artist, we might mean individual or it might also be a dance company, theater company, but it is one application per artist. Even if it's part of a larger event. If it's part of festival, you need to submit multiple applications. I'm just kind of looking for some other questions. I do see a question from an individual performer who has mentioned Idea Swap, and asking about, can we approach an artistic and executive director about NEST grants? I am taking that to mean that you're an artist looking to reach out to presenters about your work, which you absolutely should be doing, if you're interested in touring your work around the region. CreativeGround is a great resource for that. It's an amazing directory of New England's cultural assets. It's something really unique that we're lucky to have in our region. And, our Idea Swap event, which is an annual event, is also an excellent resource. We did hold that event virtually this past fall. And we anticipate doing the event again this fall, either virtually or in-person. We do have some resources available to help you start with that networking. Any other? Daniela, have I missed any other key questions, or any hand raises?

Daniela: I've been trying to keep up with all the good questions. I don't know if we have addressed Katherine Kidd, who was inquiring about artist fee support to present Indigenous artists. So that might be something you would like to share before we conclude our webinar.

Adrienne: Sure, so we do have a partnership with an organization called Western Arts Alliance, where applicants who are funded through NEST, who are presenting Indigenous artists, can potentially get matching funds from our partners at Western Arts Alliance. If that is something of interest to you, please follow-up with me. I'm happy to talk to you a little bit more about how that works. But, it is a relatively straight-forward process. There is not a separate application. Or, if you're looking to identify Indigenous artists, if that's something you're interested in, but not sure where to go, I'm also happy to speak with you and share some resources on that. I think we have addressed the questions. Again, we are available Monday through Friday, nine to five, to address any other questions you think of. There is a lot of information on the website. This webinar will also be recorded and available on NEFA's website, probably next week sometime. And again, if you have any questions throughout the process, we really encourage you to contact us. Whether you're new to the program, or have been applying for many years, we know things keep changing, so we're happy to chat with you, as we head into this March deadline. And as Falyn mentioned, there will be more news in May about more deadlines in the rest of '22 into '23. So there will be more NEST 1 and 2 deadlines later in the year, exact timing and all of that, is still being finalized. So, we're happy that you could join us today. And we're really excited to read all of these great applications that folks are talking about. It's great to see the work happening in New England. And we're just so excited to have you, as part of the New England arts community. So, thank you for everything you do. Again, Daniela, Falyn, Adrienne, we're here to answer your questions. Feel free to reach out. And again, thank you to our interpreters, and our captioners today. We appreciate their support. Thank you all for coming, it's been great having you. I hope you have a wonderful afternoon.