Thousands of dollars funded by a commission grant could emphasize community engagement for youth in Arizona.
Arizona Commission on the Arts released the Youth Arts Engagement Grant for Arizona organizations and schools, according to its website.
The grant prioritizes arts learning projects that are offered outside of traditional school hours, such as holidays, breaks and before or after school hours, the Commission said on its website.
Previous to the Youth Arts Engagement Grant, and during the first year of the pandemic, the Arizona Commission on the Arts provided $2.91 million in funding through 497 grants, Wilcox said in an email.
The funding had been provided during the COVID-19 pandemic for Arizona art workers and other initiatives. The money came from a variety of sources, including federal emergency relief funds delivered through the National Endowment for the Arts, state-managed federal emergency funds, private and public donors to provide emergency relief, according to an annual report.
Applicants that apply for the Youth Arts Engagement Grant express their priorities to involve their community with “creative expression and in a safe, nurturing environment,” Evaluation and Learning Manager Anastasia Freyermuth said.
The grantees are youth-centered organizations that aim to provide projects for people, aged 24 years or younger, outside of normal school hours within their communities, released on its website.
The applications are reviewed by panelists who understand the role between the organizations, including the teaching artists or collaborators, and the community of learners involved, Freyermuth said.
The community of learners varies from city to city within Arizona, and each community creates a unique population, Communications Director Steve Wilcox said.
The diverse populations represented through the applicants are “all here and present together, and belong to different communities in different ways all the time,” Executive Director of Arizona Commission on the Arts Anne L’Ecuyer said.
The applicants for the Youth Arts Engagement Grant are considered “experts in their area and experts in the communities that they work with,” Wilcox said.
This expertise will allow applicants to identify how the grant will allow them to “[honor] youth voices, narratives, and perspectives,” Freyermuth said.
The funding amounts range from $5,000 to $7,500 per organization that applies with a project that meets the application criteria and is “reflective of their own community,” Freyermuth said.
Application criteria had been derived from and centered on the strength and premise of quality, integrity, impact and variability of the project, Freyermuth said.
The quality of the arts learning project is derived from an asset-based premise that states the “contributions of the community of learners and the collaborators involved,” Freyermuth said.
Integrity identifies the consistencies within the application that verify the collaborator’s depth within the community or culture “in which the project is rooted,” Freyermuth said.
The grant funds projects will have a positive impact on the learners, Freyermuth said. The criteria aspect for the impact section of the project values the individual quality experience for each learner, Freyermuth said.
Viability compiles the expense of the project in relation to the project’s feasibility, Freyermuth said.
The commission provides grants on the Cycle A and Cycle B time periods that correlate to the fiscal year. Within the Cycle A time period twenty-four applications had been submitted for the Youth Arts Engagement Grant and will be processed for review, Wilcox said in an email.
The application process for the Youth Arts Engagement Grant Cycle A deadline closed on April 7 and the funding for the grant is provided through the July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023, fiscal year.
The application process for the Cycle B deadline will close on September 15 and the funding for the grant is provided from Jan. 1, 2023, to June 30, 2023.
Contact the reporter at mbadman@asu.edu.
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