• Use your Program Director: NEA Program Directors are very open to getting calls from prospective applicants. They can help you craft your proposal to better fit NEA guidelines and are generally strong supporters of the field. The current directors of Multidisciplinary, Visual Arts and Literature have met with the Alliance and are well aware of what the field offers to individual artists. They want to help you be successful, so don’t hesitate to contact them (contact info below). You should contact your Program Director at least a month before the application deadline.
• Define your project clearly: The NEA is limited to supporting projects; however, there are many ways to carve out a portion of your regular activities and call it a project. Outreach to a particular constituency, support for artists that have never done a residency previously, or support for artists from under-represented states are all examples of projects.
• Artistic excellence is key: Half of the score attributed to all proposals falls into the artistic excellence category. Since most artists’ communities are applying for support for artists that have not yet been selected, other factors must demonstrate artistic excellence. The following are ways to communicate this to the panel:
  1. Representative list of alumni, including media in which they work, titles of well-known works, and other identifying characteristics.
  2. List of selection panelists -- since they do not know specifically which artists will be served, knowing who will select them is an important consideration. If you have closed panels, a representative list of past panelists could be acceptable.
  3. Fully describe the support given to artists in residence. This includes facilities support, technical support, meals, lodging, travel expenses, exhibition/presentation opportunities, stipends, etc. If you provide stipends, be sure to indicate all other supports offered. A stipend from a program where meals and lodging are provided is very different from a stipend at a program where nothing is provided.
  4. Submit strong work samples. A tremendous amount of how your application will be viewed depends upon the quality and professionalism of the artist work samples provided. It is essential that you submit samples of work created at your residency center, not simply slides of your facilities.
• Describe opportunities to engage with the public: Be sure to indicate whether these opportunities are required or optional, planned ahead or scheduled last minute. Managing the expectations of artists in this area is key. Anecdotal stories from NEA panelists reviewing the applications about the past experiences of their artist friends at your community can easily kill the prospects of an otherwise good application.
• Communicate the tangible (or more tangible) results of residency “synergy”: Many artists’ communities talk about the synergy that residencies create for artists -- between each other, across disciplines, etc. Be sure that if you mention this as a benefit of the program you fully describe how this manifests itself.
• Position your program within the field of artists’ communities and the broader arts community: Panelists are looking for you to explain what makes your program unique from all the other applications in front of them. This means explaining how you are different from other residency programs, but also how what you offer artists is different from “residencies” in schools, museums, performing arts centers, etc. The Alliance website is a great tool for researching the program details of other artists’ communities, helping you to better understand your uniqueness.

Access to Artistic Excellence applications are due mid-March of each year Guidelines for applications are available online at www.nea.gov.