Educational Funding Opportunities

• Dept. of Education - Teaching American History
  Teaching American History is a new $50 million program established to fund projects to improve the quality of instruction in American History, as distinct from general social studies education. Grant awards will be designed to assist elementary and secondary schools in implementing research-based methods for improving the quality of instruction, professional development and teacher education in American history. These funds will be used for competitive grants to local education agencies (LEAs) or consortia of LEAs where appropriate. The Department will award approximately 100 to 120 grants, and the estimated range of the awards is $300,000 - $700,000. Grants will be available for up to three years (dependent upon the availability of funding after 2001). Applications should be available May 1st with a closing date of July 30, 2001. Information will be available at the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education web site. Please contact Anthony Fowler by e-mail if you have any questions.

• National Endowment for the Arts - Challenge America
  The Endowment has a new initiative entitled "Challenge America" which offers matching grants of $5,000 or $10,000 for Positive Alternatives for Youth (February 1st receipt deadline) and Community Arts Development (May 1st receipt deadline). The Community Arts Development supports "partnerships between arts organizations and community groups that highlight the potential of the arts to address key community concerns. Projects are limited to: (a) community arts development activities that use the arts as a focus for the development of cultural tourism or cultural districts; (b) efforts to make a community more livable by addressing civic design issues, such as the preliminary planning for the design of buildings or public spaces, or the design for restoration of historic structures; (c) the development of community cultural plans, and (d) the use of new technology to promote and market the arts to a wide audience.

  Their preference is to fund the visual, performing and literary arts. They do not generally, however, fund "representational art" (a painting or statue that replicates an historic person or event without interpreting it), reenactments, or even plays that are straightforward presentation sof an historic story.

  For further information about Challenge America, visit their web site.