NEA Our Town Application, FY 2014

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The Arts Endowment's support of a project may start on or after September 1, 2014.”Grant Program DescriptionArt works to improve the lives of America’s citizens in many ways. Communities across our nation are leveraging the arts and engaging design to make their communities more livable with enhanced quality of life, increased creative activity, a distinct sense of place, and vibrant local economies that together capitalize on their existing assets. The NEA defines these efforts as the process of Creative Placemaking:"In creative placemaking, partners from public, private, nonprofit, and community sectors strategically shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood, town, tribe, city, or region around arts and cultural activities. Creative placemaking animates public and private spaces, rejuvenates structures and streetscapes, improves local business viability and public safety, and brings diverse people together to celebrate, inspire, and be inspired." Ann Markusen, Markusen Economic Research ServicesAnne Gadwa Nicodemus, Metris Arts ConsultingFrom Creative PlacemakingThrough Our Town, subject to the availability of funding, the National Endowment for the Arts will provide a limited number of grants, ranging from $25,000 to $200,000, for creative placemaking projects that contribute toward the livability of communities and help transform them into lively, beautiful, and sustainable places with the arts at their core. Our Town will invest in creative and innovative projects in which communities, together with their arts and design organizations and artists, seek to:• Improve their quality of life.• Encourage greater creative activity.• Foster stronger community identity and a sense of place.• Revitalize economic development.Through Our Town projects, the NEA intends to achieve the following outcome: Livability: American communities are strengthened through the arts. See "Intended NEA Outcome" for more details.

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