New Work New England Grant Webinar Recording

 

Artists across New England: learn more about our new grant opportunity, New Work New England. Find out how to apply, who is eligible, and more directly from our program staff in this webinar recording.

New Work New England provides grants of $7,500-$15,000 directly to New England artists in dance, film, interdisciplinary work, music, musical theater, opera, poetry, storytelling and theater to support creating and producing new work that has potential to engage multiple New England communities. The focus of this pilot program is on artists and the creative process and projects that further equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. 

apply to new Work New England

Deadline to apply: September 3, 2020 

Contact

For questions about eligibility, review criteria, application narrative questions and  proposed new work, please contact: 

Adrienne Petrillo (she/her/hers)
Program Director, New England Presenting & Touring
617-951-0010 x527

Jane Preston (she/her/hers)
Deputy Director
617-951-0010 x520

For technical issues regarding accessing the Grants Portal or submitting your application, please contact:

Falyn Rose Elhard (they/them/theirs)
Program Associate, New England Presenting & Touring
617-951-0010 x538

Video Transcript

Adrienne Petrillo: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We have about 30 participants on this webinar today. We're excited to have you with us. I am Adrienne Petrillo. I'm the senior program director for New England Presenting and Touring at NEFA. And I am joined by my colleagues at NEFA today, who I will ask to also introduce themselves.

Falyn Rose Elhard: Hello, and good afternoon, everyone. My name is Falyn Rose Elhard, I use they/them pronouns, and I am the program associate for New England Presenting and Touring at NEFA.

Adrienne: And Jane, would you like to introduce yourself?

Jane Preston: Thank you. Sorry, I was needing to unmute. I'm Jane Preston, I use she/her/her pronouns, and I am deputy director for programs at NEFA.

Adrienne: Thank you, Jane. So just a few technical items before we get started. I just want to let everyone know that this webinar will be recorded, and it will be available on our website afterwards. So you're always welcome to revisit the conversation, and feel free to share with others who weren't able to attend today. We will do our best to address questions.

We do have a number of slides to go through to talk about the program, but if you do have questions, you're welcome to put them in the chat. You can choose the option to reply to everyone, and we will do our best to respond. If we are not able to get to your questions today, please feel free to reach out after the webinar. We are always available via phone and email, and happy to answer any questions you may have.

And as you may have noticed, we are doing this webinar without video today. And we hope that will work for everyone. We want to focus your attention on the information on the screen. And we will ask that your audio stays turned off so that we can minimize any background noise. So with that, we will move into the agenda, which Jane will lead us on.

Jane: Welcome, everyone, and thank you for participating in this workshop today about NEFA's new opportunity or New England artists and your work. We thank all of you for all your patience with us as we did a little reworking of this program over the past few months. And we postponed the deadline to give everyone a chance to regroup during these challenging times. We're hoping that this later deadline has allowed artists to consider some new strategies for continuing to make and share work under the current conditions.

Today, the three of us at NEFA who are working to launch this new grants program will go over the basics, and we'll try to answer questions in the time that we have. We'll review some general information about NEFA, talk through the specifics of New Work New England and how to submit an application, give some information about our CreativeGround directory. And we'll leave some time for questions. We want to stress right at the beginning, so you're not stressed, that this is certainly not your only chance to ask questions. We'll be as available as possible right up to the deadline to schedule individual meetings and phone calls for additional questions and follow-up.

Before we get started, NEFA has a practice of acknowledging the land on which NEFA is holding this meeting. At New England Foundation for the Arts, 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 and as artists, New England Foundation for the Arts wishes to acknowledge that the ground on which our offices and all the staff at the moment are located are the traditional lands of the Massachuset, Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and Naumkeag people. We honor their ancestors past, present, and future, and we recognize their continued existence and contributions to our society.

NEFA's mission statement was updated for our current strategic plan, which was adopted a couple of years ago. Always evolving, but this mission statement is our starting point for all program development. And it is, currently, "NEFA invests in artists and communities and fosters equitable access to the arts, enriching the cultural landscape in New England and the nation. We contribute to a nation where artists flourish and communities celebrate art as essential to a thriving and equitable society." Next slide.

We also, in that strategic plan, developed core values, reidentified our core values in these areas, in these six areas-- artists and the creative process, equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, knowledge building and sharing, leadership, partnership, and public funding for the arts. This program is particularly focused on the first two values of artists and the creative process and equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, so I will read those full value statements, which will not be on your screen.

Artists and the creative process, this value is that "NEFA values the individual and collective contributions of artists in society, the ingenuity and imagination of the creative process, and is committed to freedom of artistic expression. NEFA believes in amplifying the voices of artists as leaders in our organization, in the arts sector, and in communities."

And our equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility value reads, "NEFA values an equitable, diverse, and inclusive world, which we interpret as all people having fair access to the tools and resources they need to realize creative and community endeavors. We acknowledge structural inequities that have excluded individuals and communities from opportunity based on race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, class, age, and geography, and we strive to counter those inequities in our work." So you will see that this new program, New Work New England, is particularly focused on these two areas, artists and the creative process and equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. Next slide. You got it.

New Work New England is a three-year pilot program initiated in 2020 and guided by NEFA's strategic plan. It will support artists in New England, artists in dance, film, interdisciplinary work, music, musical theater, opera, poetry, storytelling, and theater. If the proposed work has had previous public performance, we want to see some demonstration that this grant will continue that development, and we'll fund additional development.

So in this program overview, New Work New England provide grants of $7,500 to $15,000 directly to New England artists to support creating and producing new work. And we're particularly interested in work that has potential to engage multiple New England communities. And we're very aware of the challenges of getting out to multiple communities at this particular time. So we'll certainly take that into account.

Eligible projects can be in the early stage of development at the time of the application, as well as projects that artists have been working on for a while that may be in mid or later stages of development. As we've been repeating, the focus of this pilot program is on artists and the creative process, and also projects that further equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.

We'll move on to program goals. Specific goals of the program that relate to those values that I've been repeating are intended to focus on the priorities for the support. So these goals will help you in understanding how we are going to look at the grant-making for this new program. These will also relate to the funding criteria and questions that Adrienne is going to review next.

So reviewing the program goals, we want to directly support New England artists. So when we say directly support, this is not a commissioning program. We really want the funding to go to artists and collaborators directly who are making it work. And that is to enable developing the work and to realizing the artistic mission and the artists.

We want to advance equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility through supporting artists across all six New England states. So in rural areas where we may not know as many artists as we do right in our home base in Boston, but we're really committed to supporting artists across the region. We want to support and develop relationships with artists who have not previously been able to access NEFA grant opportunities. As you know, in the New England programs, many of the grants go to organizations. So this is an opportunity to fill that gap and have direct support for artists.

We hope to create career opportunities by increasing regional artists' visibility and connectivity to others working in the New England creative economy. And NEFA has some annual events. They may look a little different this year. But we are very conscious of support not ending with a grant. So participation in NEFA events, like the Idea Swap and connections with our New England states touring programs are another component of this program and a real opportunity for the artists to participate. And I will turn this over to Adrienne.

Adrienne: Great. Thank you, Jane. So that sets up the overview of the program and gives you a little bit of background and context. And I'm now going to talk more about some of the practicalities, and how the application process will work.

So in terms of who applies, as Jane said, first and foremost, this program is intended to directly support artists. Therefore, the applicant should be a practicing artist in dance, film, interdisciplinary work, media, music, musical theater, opera, poetry, storytelling, or theater. There is no minimum for years of experience as an artist. And individuals may apply for this funding.

Artistic collaborations may also apply and may consist of individual artists working together on sort of an ad hoc or a project basis, or more formal collectives or collaborations. The work may be interdisciplinary and can include creators in multiple artistic forms. And again, applicants must reside in any of the six New England states. And just as a refresher, because we find that it's helpful to name them, those New England states are Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

We also ask that applicants maintain an active profile as a touring artist on CreativeGround, which we will talk about a little later in the presentation. And just to confirm, as an individual you are welcome to apply for the program. You do not need to have 501(c)(3) status. That is true for individuals or collectives. However, if you are applying as an individual, it's important to know that there will be tax implications for this grant funding. It is considered taxable income. And we are happy to talk with you more about what that means.

So moving on into the funding criteria. So the funding criteria is really the key part of the grant program. This is what the reviewers will base their evaluation of the application on. So I will step through this.

The first criterion is strength of artistic vision and demonstrated experience in artistic practice related to the new work. A clear articulation of artistic process and strategies to advance the work during the grant period. New work will contribute to the cultural and aesthetic diversities available to New England audiences and communities through content, relevance, artists, and others involved in the development of the new work.

And artists have a meaningful plan to engage with New England communities in the development and/or presentation of the work. At least one public presentation of the work must occur during the grant period. And this can include performances, work in progress showings, community engagement activities. But there needs to be something planned at some stage in the development process.

And again, we recognize we are in unusual times. It is a little harder to engage with people these days in a live format. And so digital engagement strategies are also welcome.

These funding criteria also align with the narrative questions that are in the application. And so the application narrative questions really provide a lot of the information that panelists use to assess the application. The questions are available on our program web page. You do not need to log into the grant application to see them.

And we do strongly encourage you to spend some time thinking about your responses to the questions and also drafting them in a Word document, and then pasting into your application. From a technical standpoint, that will make your life much easier than trying to type it into the application form. I strongly encourage you to have this content saved before you try to put it into the application.

I will just talk briefly about the questions. But again, they are available on our website. So we ask you to describe the proposed new work, including your artistic vision and how it relates to your practice. We ask how the work contributes to the cultural and aesthetic diversities of New England audiences and communities. We ask to describe how New England communities and audiences will connect with the work.

We also want to know what stage of development you're in. And we also ask of our applicants to share any information that might be useful to panelists as they are looking at your work samples, reading about your work. We know that the people reviewing the application may have gaps in their understanding or knowledge about the context for your specific work.

And so we want you to provide your own definitions of success and any other information you think the panelists should have in order to fairly assess your application. So the funding criteria really are the guidance you are looking for in submitting a competitive application. This is what the panel will use to review and score applications.

And yes, let's move on to work samples are also another key part of the application. All applicants will need to submit an audio or video work sample. Your work sample should be about five minutes. If you have multiple files, we ask that it still stay within five minutes. And you provide us with cue times.

We also have some guidance from a technical standpoint. It's best when video work samples utilize the original audio. We also ask that work samples be of a recent work, meaning within the last four years or so.

And we strongly encourage you to submit a work sample that best represents your work and the type of work that will happen in this project. We know that you likely do not have a fully produced video of the work since this is a program looking to support new projects. But we hope that work samples will help to give the panelists a sense of your work, what you do, and sort of imagine what the future work will look like.

We ask that you do not submit promotional videos or video montages. Anything that is a quick cut kind of promo video does not serve you well. We need to see kind of long excerpts of a work to see how it develops and not just a flashing promotion. And then it is also incredibly important that any work samples submitted are a downloadable file so that we can view your work sample under the best conditions and not have to rely on streaming capabilities.

If we can go to the next slide. Within the application, there will also be a budget form. Essentially, you can include any expenses included with creating the work. Those can include artist fees, rehearsal fees, travel, hotel, production costs, marketing costs, rights, permissions, if there's things you need to gain. So it's pretty wide ranging. And this is where I would say if you have questions about what can be included in the budget, it's great to reach out to staff. And we're happy to talk with you about that.

The other important thing to know is that this is not a matching grant. So you are welcome to enter any revenue projected for this project if you have other grant support or individual donors. We're happy to see other revenue sources, but it is not a requirement. And it is OK if the NEFA grant is the only revenue source listed.

And I will say we truly want to know how much the project costs. And so that should include artists paying themselves. You are welcome to include those costs. We encourage you to do so. And as Jane mentioned at the beginning, the request amount will be $7,500 to $15,000. So depending on your budget, you're welcome to request any amount from $7,500 to $15,000.

We can move onto the funding priorities. As Jane said, we are considering our strategic plan and our values. And so we are hoping to support artists throughout the New England region. And so final grant decisions will take into account geographic diversity, including all New England states and rural and urban communities.

And because we're interested in providing support in developing relationships with New England artists who have not previously been able to access NEFA grant opportunities, we are giving priority to artists who have not received funding previously for new work through NEFA's other programs-- the National Dance Project, the National Theater Project, or Creative City, or through the Boston Foundation's Live Arts Boston program. If any of those program names sound intriguing to you, please let us know. We do have other opportunities in dance, theater, and public art that directly support New England-based artists. And we're happy to put you in touch with the appropriate staff to talk about those programs.

We are also looking to support grantees broadly beyond the grant funds. We know that funding is only one piece of it. So in addition to grant funds, NEFA will provide networking and visibility opportunities for artists. Typically, we would have featured grantees at our annual Idea Swap event. Unfortunately, that event has been canceled for this year. But we are still exploring ways to provide networking and visibility for grantees. And we do hope to hold the Idea Swap in person next fall.

And if you're not familiar with our Idea Swap, the info is on our website. But it's an annual event that we have been doing for about 18 years. It's become kind of a key regional event for artists and organizations to meet each other and talk about projects that can tour New England. Typically, it's a one-day event held in the fall, often in Worcester, Massachusetts.

But we are rethinking strategies for this year as everyone is. And some of those strategies may impact future Idea Swaps as well. But know that that is still an opportunity that we hope to offer to the region, whether it's virtual or in-person.

We also want to be clear that support for organizations, as well as subsequent touring and presentation opportunities, will be available through our New England States Touring program, the NEST program as we call it, which funds non-profit organizations to present touring artists in communities across New England. Organizations apply to that program. And they apply looking for grant support that goes directly to the artist fee. And so it, hopefully, makes the fee more affordable for the presenter and enables the artist to be paid fairly.

There are currently three versions of NEST with multiple deadlines. It depends on which version you're applying to. But for all of the artists who are joining us today, it's also good to know about NEST. Because it's a great opportunity. If you have work that has already been created, and you're looking to tour it, the NEST program is the opportunity to do that.

And our hope is that the projects supported through New Work New England will eventually tour through the NEST program. And again, with the caveat that COVID has changed everything. And so we know the touring landscape and the presenting landscape are facing a lot right now. And we are also figuring out how to adjust that and respond to the realities of the field in this moment.

Go to the next slide. So just want to kind of reconfirm a few things we've said, in terms of what New Work New England will not fund. We will not fund applicants based outside of the six New England states. This is also not for organizations commissioning new work from artists outside their organization. The artists creating the proposed new work should be the applicant. And we are not looking to support projects in which the performers will primarily be students. This program is intended to support professional artists in New England to create their work.

So with that, I will turn it to my colleague Falyn, who is going to talk a little bit about our CreativeGround website, which is a great resource for everyone. It's directly tied into this grant program, but it's also a resource on an ongoing basis as well. So Falyn.

Falyn: Hello, and thank you, Adrienne and Jane. So CreativeGround is New England's directory of artists and creative enterprises. And having a profile on CreativeGround can help artists and presenters alike to contact each other for networking and/or booking purposes. And it's required for both our New England States Touring or NEST and New Work New England grant programs.

If you visit CreativeGround, you will find a featured profile section, which rotates each month, and gives you an idea of the various types of profiles that you will find on there. And you also have the capability to search for artists, presenters, and cultural organizations by name, city, state, zip code, discipline that they either work in or present, the different artists and presenters that they have worked with, and more.

So as mentioned before, a CreativeGround artist profile is required for all applicants. And the following fields are required to have on the profile and must be filled out. And these are the profile image, contact information, About section, the image and video gallery, the I have worked with section, and the touring artist information.

And it is highly recommended that all applicants update their profile before submitting their grant applications because it may be used in the panel review process. And on our website, you can find a page which lists the CreativeGround profile requirements for New Work New England applicants. And if you have any other questions about CreativeGround, or need help in accessing your profile or updating your profile, feel free to reach out to me. And all of our contact information will be listed later in this presentation. So yeah.

Adrienne: Thank you, Falyn. And as a reminder, if you have questions, you are welcome to put them in the chat. And we'll do our best to answer them today.

So moving on, I think we can go to our next slide. With a couple key pieces of information. One of the most important is that the application deadline is September 3rd. Staff are available to answer questions Monday through Friday, 9:00 to 5:00. As we've said, you can call or email us.

The application form will be open until 11:59 on September 3rd. However, we highly encourage you to submit before 5:00 PM in case you have trouble submitting and you need to reach out to NEFA staff. Late applications will not be accepted. And if you have a problem at 11:30, you will not be able to reach a NEFA staff person. So please try to get things in and have your questions answered as early as possible. I think it will be beneficial to you.

In terms of the process, we are planning to award approximately 10 to 15 grants in this first pilot round. The funding decisions also are made through a peer review process. NEFA staff facilitate that review process, but we do not provide input.

And panelists will come with different areas of expertise within the arts. So there might be presenters, producers, curators, managers, other artists, educators from all kind of facets of the arts. And they are the ones who will review the applications and make funding recommendations. The applicants will be notified in mid-November. And the grant period begins January 1st and runs for the full year of 2021.

So that concludes most of the program info. I do want to thank our funders. It's always an important thing to do. New Work New England is possible thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts, the Seedlings Foundation, and individual donors. And we will put our contact info up on the screen.

And then with that, I think we've had a few questions in the chat if we want to try to address some of those. Jane, are there questions we want to address?

Jane: There are.

Adrienne: Great.

Jane: Yeah, there's some great questions that I think will be useful for everyone to hear. One is about work examples. And it asks, it says, you say that multiple work samples can be included in the five minute video, but not a video montage. Could you explain the difference better?

Adrienne: Great question. So to clarify, we are looking for work samples that really give us a sense of your overall work. And so that may mean multiple clips, especially for a new project. What we don't want is something that has a lot of quick edits, text over video. We want to be able to watch multiple minutes of one piece and be able to get a sense of the work.

So it's OK to have multiple pieces, a montage in that way is fine. But please not something you might send out as a marketing piece that has a lot of flash and quick cuts and maybe music over it that wasn't the music in the piece and things like that. So I hope that helps to clarify. Are there other questions, Jane?

Jane: Yes. Again, something I think will be useful to everyone. Does the performance stage or venue need to be secured when applying?

Adrienne: That is another very good question. So the performance date, venue doesn't need to be confirmed as in contracted. And especially in the movement we're in, we recognize how challenging that might be. But we do want to see a plan for how you will engage with communities.

So if you're in conversation with a venue, and it seems like that is something that's going to happen, it would be good to explain that. But as much information as you can provide about your plan to engage with communities, and how New England communities will have access to this work. That's really what we're looking for.

Jane: Right. A question about the priorities. You said that priority would be given to organizations that have not already received NEFA supported funding. If an applicant has received a Live Arts Boston grant, is it worth applying?

Adrienne: I would say, yes. I mean, it's always worth applying. Because if you don't apply, you definitely won't get funded. But we are trying to reach artists who have not had a lot of support previously. But there's a lot of factors that will go into that. And again, geographic diversity is a big piece of it too.

If you have questions about your specific competitiveness, I encourage you to contact me or one of my colleagues, and we can talk more about your specific scenario. But in general, everyone is welcome to apply. Those are just some priorities and will inform how we're making the final decisions.

Jane: Right. And I would just add to that the thing that we never know until the day after the deadline is what the breadth of the applicant pool is going to be. And that is always a factor in how competitive a program is and where we've gotten applications from. So again, I just second what Adrienne said. You might want to talk through your project with this. That could be useful.

Next question is, if the artist is associated with a small arts company as artistic director, can the project be in association with that company? It's not the situation of a commission. It's the company. It's a project that the artistic director has planned a new work.

Adrienne: Yes. I mean, it sounds to me, and I encourage Jane to chime in, but it sounds--

Jane: I'm agreeing with you.

Adrienne: --that that is an artistic collaboration. That company represents a collective of artists who work together. And so that is definitely eligible to apply.

Jane: Completely agree with that. Another question about ensembles. My ensemble of three New England residents recognizes this is a unique time to collaborate online with artists internationally. Would including these collaborations in our new work hurt our grant?

Adrienne: I'm not sure I would say it would hurt the grant. We are really prioritizing New England artists. And partly because we recognize that New England artists have been under-resourced, especially to create their work. But it is possible that you may have collaborators from elsewhere. But the grant funding itself is intended to directly support the artists who are based here in New England.

Jane: Yes, and I would second that as well. Could be very exciting to have an international collaboration. But the funding would go to the New England artist.

Next question is, can one individual artist collaborate with community members of state colleges in New England? Sometimes this is a problem with state arts agency grants, I think. Was that clear, Adrienne, the question?

Adrienne: I think I'm not totally clear on what that question means. What's meant by community members of state colleges. So Jane, if you had an initial response you want to share, or if the person who typed to the question wants to add some clarification into the chat, that would be very helpful.

Jane: Clarification-- is it a problem if your collaborators are employed at state colleges. I think the answer to that would be no. It would be fine if your collaborators are associated with state colleges in New England. But we do have a clarification down here. Employees, staff, and/or faculty who would like to collaborate individually. So it's not it's not a project of the whole educational institution, but individual artists who happen to be faculty is the way I'm reading this.

Adrienne: Yes, that's how I'm reading it as well. And that is fine. I do not see an issue with that.

Jane: Another question on work samples. If I'm the primary artist on an application, but I'm planning on working with a collaborator or collaborators, how do I think about work samples, especially if most of my work samples show solo work?

Adrienne: Sure. That is a great question. My guidance would be to try to submit work samples that illuminate all of the different collaborators. We do recognize there can be limitations with that, again, especially with new pieces. And you may not have a work sample of your collaboration together.

If you have work samples from each of you individually just to give us a sense of your work, that can be very helpful. And again, this is a place where it might be good for us to have a conversation so I can understand a little bit more clearly your project. And then provide some more specific guidance as well.

Jane: That seems like a really good recommendation to go through the specifics of the types of work samples you have. I will say from other NEFA artist creation programs that we are interested, especially if the collaborators are a major portion of the project. Say, you are collaborating that your solo work may show dancer theater, but you are collaborating with a musician. The primary work sample would be of the solo work, but a sample, a briefer sample that, especially if, say, you're working with a composer and the music is a really critical piece. Then a bit of that composer's work would also be really helpful.

Adrienne: Yes, thank you for clarifying that, Jane.

Jane: Sure.

Adrienne: Other questions we should address?

Jane: Yeah. The guidelines state that applicants need demonstrated experience in artistic practice related to the artwork. I have two current projects. One is the film, which is the medium I usually work in. The other is a multi-media installation with photo film and projections. Since I don't have experience in installation, should I instead apply with the film only project?

And I'll just jump in because, again, the critical clause I think that you quoted there is the demonstrated experience in practice related to the work. So if your experience in film, you're expanding it into installation and can clarify your plans to do that, I would say that that could be equally competitive. And I'll also let Adrienne weigh in.

Adrienne: Yes, I think that is true. And I will go back to the first narrative question that we asked, which says please describe the proposed new work, including your artistic vision, and how it relates to your artistic practice. And so I think this can be kind of a new area you may be venturing into.

But it sounds to me like it is also very much tied to your film work. So all of that is your artistic practice. And talking about that as a whole is probably a good strategy.

Jane: We've got another great work sample question. These are so useful. Is there advantage to having footage of the work proposed. I'm always developing multiple works. Is preference given to the work at a particular stage. Related, what constitutes additional development for a work that has already been performed a few times?

Adrienne: Sure.

Jane: So a multiple part question.

Adrienne: Yes. So to respond to the work sample piece first. We are happy to have work samples that show the proposed project. That if you have video from a work in progress showing or rehearsal footage, that can be enormously helpful. And I think there is a place to describe the work sample you submitted. And so it can be useful to just tell us what we're looking at so that we know.

But if you also have something that is maybe more of a finished piece or a fully produced piece, it can be helpful to see that as well. Just both of those things together, I think provide the best context for the work. And then Jane, do you want to address the question about development stage?

Jane: Sure. We are asking, in this particular program, for you to describe a particular work that you're working on, understanding that you may be working on-- I think most artists are working on multiple projects at the same time. We are not giving preference to any particular stage. Though, as you read through the questions, be sure that you can clearly address questions if you choose a work that is really early in its development. You may be able to address some of the questions for something that is not just in the idea stage.

In terms of something that has already been performed or presented, additional work can mean, and we really value this at NEFA, we know that a performance may happen. You may find out a whole lot about the work that couldn't be revealed until you had really done it with an audience or done it with participation. And if there are additional components, or you want to go back and rework some sections of it, or if funding actually allows you to expand the scope of the project or add additional collaborators, all of those things would qualify for additional help.

Thank you. Question around geographic diversity. And what we mean. Can we elaborate on what you mean by geographic diversity within New England? Does this mean you'll be looking for artwork outside of major urban areas?

Adrienne: Sure. So part of what we mean is that we want to fund projects in all six New England states. That is a significant goal of ours as a regional organization. We are looking to support projects and artists that are in all corners of New England. So that includes some of our more urban centers, but it is also about some of the rural areas.

So we're just considering that as part of the diversity, I would say. The best example would be if we're giving 15 grants, 14 of those will not be exclusively in Boston would be a way to think about it. If we're giving 15 to 20 grants, there will be at least one in every New England state and ideally a majority diversity of communities.

Jane: And I would just add that that geographic diversity applies both to the artist and where the artist is based, as well as the project and the geography that the project might be addressing or might be reaching. Though all of those things are taken into account.

And the next question actually relates very nicely to the last one. Oh, is it the case that priority will be given to the artist who has not received funding from LAB, NDP, or for the work? Is it about the artist? Or is it about the work that have not received such funding? How does [AUDIO OUT] evaluate an artist that has previously received LAB or NDP funding for a different work that is now applying to New Work New England for a new production?

Adrienne: Sure. So in this case, it is more about the specific artist than it is the work itself. Because, again, one of our program goals is to provide support and develop relationships with New England artists who have not previously been able to access NEFA grant opportunities. And so we are looking to support artists who have not benefited from some of these other programs, which is certainly, in the case of the NEFA programs, it's a relatively small number of New England artists who have benefited from our programs. And so we are looking to expand our reach beyond that number. Jane, is there anything more you want to add to that?

Jane: I think that covers it very well. Yeah, it really is about expanding relationships with artists and offering new opportunities.

Question, if we are a composer or choreographer based in New England, should all of the performers or ensembles we work with for our project also be based in New England? Sure.

Adrienne: So again, the grant will be going directly to the creator of the project. So it sounds like, in this case, the grant would go to the composer or the choreographer. And that is the New England artist we are directly supporting. You may have, at some point, performers or collaborators who are not New England based. But again, our primary goal is to support New England-based artists with this program.

Jane: Yes, so having performers or collaborators from outside New England doesn't disqualify you from applying. But the more New England artists we can support, we'll be happier.

Now, there is another excellent question about other NEFA programs. If we've received smaller NEFA grants, New England Dance Fund as an example, does that affect the chances of receiving funding?

Adrienne: Sure. So if you have received a New England Dance Fund grant or something comparable and smaller-- those grants usually max out at about $1,000-- that does not have an impact on your competitiveness for this grant. That grant is also targeted at supporting artists for some critical development in their career. And this grant is very specifically focused on the creation of new work.

But those smaller grant opportunities at NEFA that you may have been a part of will not be a factor. It is really just the larger grant programs that support the creation of work.

Jane: I'd just piggyback onto that to say if you have been presented with funding from the New England States Touring program, that's great. And that also does not affect your eligibility for these, finally, giving support directly to artists for the creation of the work.

Adrienne: Yes, thank you for that additional clarification. Are there any other questions?

Jane: Looks as if we're at the end of the ones in the chat. We can give a moment to see if there are any others popping up. But great questions. Thank you, everyone. Those were really useful questions.

Adrienne: Yes, and again, all of this information is available on our website. So I hope no one was frantically scribbling notes, because it is all available. And again, we're available to talk with you at any time and answer questions, especially if you have a specific scenario. It can be helpful to hear that.

And this webinar will also be available. So you're welcome to watch it again, or share it with your friends. And so I think with that, we will wrap up. Thank you all so much for joining us today. We are very excited to be launching this new grant opportunity at NEFA. And again, we welcome your questions, comments, any of your feedback. So thank you for joining us. And we hope to hear from you soon. Bye.

Jane: Bye everyone. Thank you so much.

Falyn: Bye and thank you for joining us.