Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs

ABCs: Arts Building Communities
in Schools Grant Guidelines

Strong schools and community arts partnerships have the ability to increase awareness of educational issues, build participation in community arts programs and enhance student learning.

Arts Building Communities in Schools grant funds are intended to support partnerships between schools and their communities over a three year period to improve student arts learning. This grant supports the time needed to establish communication and understanding between partners, to find ways to combine existing resources in creative ways and to develop new learning opportunities for students.

Grants awarded through this pilot program will support the development of school/arts partnerships to enhance the delivery of local K-12 education in and through the arts. All partners are required to work as a team to develop and implement the program.
Applicant teams must include at least 5 identified partners:

In all cases, the school will be the responsible fiscal partner for the grant. One team member from the school must be identified as the team coordinator (and primary contact) for the duration of the grant.

All partners will be responsible to plan, create, implement, and assess arts-infused learning that addresses district standards.

Grant Amount & Number of Grants

Subsequent continuation grants in amounts up to $5,000 each may be awarded for up to two additional years, depending on availability of funds and successful completion of project activities and reporting. Continuation teams are expected to annually increase their focus on identifying and addressing specific curricular needs through arts integration, assessing student achievement as a result of partnership activities, and sharing the model they are developing with others within and beyond the partner school.

Use of Funds

Grant funds are intended for the following purposes:

No part of grant funds may be used for capital expenses, equipment, or lobbying activity.

Application Deadlines & Project Dates

Responsibilities of the Team

Criteria for Awarding Funds and Selection Process

  1. Commitment from School: There is evidence of commitment from the school to serve on the collaborative team by at least two teacher partners (one must be a certified art or music specialist) and a school administrator. The school must be willing to serve as the fiscal agent for the grant and identify one of the school partners as the Team Coordinator and primary contact person for the duration of the grant. The application must include appropriate rationale as to why these partners should be members of the collaborative team. (15%)
  2. Commitment from Community: There is evidence of commitment to serve on the collaborative team by at least one teaching artist partner and one representative from an arts agency. The teaching artist partner will work within the school with the identified student group/s and teachers. The application must include appropriate rationale as to why these arts partners should be members of the collaborative team, including information about their prior work with schools. (15%)
  3. Student Learning: The applicant describes a student need which the team will work to address in and through the arts. (45%)
    (a) The applicant must identify evidence for that need; and
    (b) The applicant must explain why students will be better able to achieve district standards by meeting that need.
  4. Quality of Project Idea: Though the focus of this grant is the time spent with partners working and learning together over a multi-year period, the application must show evidence that the partners have an idea of how they would like to address the students learning needs as well as how the community would benefit from the partnership. The IAC expects that through the nature of relationships the ideas and project may change to suit the partnership, students learning needs and communities.(15%)
  5. The budget is appropriate to the work described, and the application is complete. (10%)

In addition, the Iowa Arts Council hopes to make every effort to achieve geographical balance within the state in awarding these grants.

Selection Process

Applications will be reviewed by a 3-member panel of peers.

  1. The panel scores each application on the degree to which it meets the review criteria, described above. Up to three applicants that most clearly reflect the criteria will be recommended for acceptance into the program.
  2. The IAC director makes final award decisions.
  3. Notification letters regarding ABCs grant applications will be sent within six weeks of the application deadline.

Matching Requirements

The grantee school is required to provide a minimum of 25% of the grant award amount, or $1250, as a match. Both cash and in-kind donations may be used for the match.

Cash Match refers to the actual cash provided by the school or donors listed in the "cash income" section of the budget. If the school also provides items or services, those may also be counted as part of the cash match. Time spent on the project by teacher partners during their normal paid school days may be used as cash match.

In-kind Match refers to donated goods and services that others (not the applicant school) have contributed to the project. You must calculate the dollar amount of in-kind donations at fair-market value.

Funds NOT allowed as match:

When Should Grant Recipients Expect to Receive Their Checks?

Applicants accepted into this program should receive grant checks by the end of August 2007. All funds must be expended by June 30, 2008. A year-end report detailing activities completed and expenditure of all funds will be due by July 30, 2008.

Funding Moratorium and Return of Grant Funds

Grant recipients will be placed on an agency wide funding moratorium if the Final Report and/or unspent IAC funds have not been returned within 30 days of the ending date of the project. The IAC may also initiate legal proceedings for the return of grant funds if the Final Report and/or unspent IAC funds have not been returned within 30 days of the ending date of the project.