Our Town

Overview

<p>Our Town is the National Endowment for the Arts’ creative placemaking grants program. Through project-based funding, we support projects that integrate arts, culture, and design activities into efforts that strengthen communities by advancing local economic, physical, and/or social outcomes. Successful Our Town projects ultimately lay the groundwork for systemic changes that sustain the integration of arts, culture, and design into local strategies for strengthening communities. These projects require a partnership between a local government entity and nonprofit organization, one of which must be a cultural organization; and should engage in partnership with other sectors (such as agriculture and food, economic development, education and youth, environment and energy, health, housing, public safety, transportation, and workforce development).</p> <p><strong>Projects</strong></p> <p>We encourage applications for artistically excellent projects that:</p> <ul> <li>Bring new attention to or elevate key community assets and issues, voices of residents, local history, or cultural infrastructure.</li> <li>Inject new or additional energy, resources, activity, people, or enthusiasm into a place, community issue, or local economy.</li> <li>Envision new possibilities for a community or place - a new future, a new way of overcoming a challenge, or approaching problem-solving.</li> <li>Connect communities, people, places, and economic opportunity via physical spaces or new relationships.</li> </ul> <p>The National Endowment for the Arts plans to support a variety of projects across the country in urban, rural, and tribal communities of all sizes.</p> <p> </p><p><strong>Project Types</strong></p> <p>Our Town projects must integrate arts, culture, and design activities into efforts that <a href="https://www.arts.gov/grants-organizations/our-town/grant-program-descri… communities</a> by advancing local economic, physical, and/or social outcomes. Projects may include activities such as:</p> <p>Arts Engagement</p> <p>Cultural Planning </p> <p>Design</p> <p>Artist and Creative Industry Support</p> <p> </p><p><strong>Strengthening Communities </strong></p> <p>Through Our Town projects, the National Endowment for the Arts Endowment intends to achieve the following objective: <em>Strengthening Communities: Provide opportunities for the arts to be integrated into the fabric of community life</em>.</p> <p>Our Town project outcomes may include:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Economic Change: </strong>Economic improvements of individuals, institutions, or the community including local business growth, job creation/labor force participation, professional development/training, prevention of displacement, in-migration, and tourism.</li> <li><strong>Physical Change: </strong>Physical improvements that occur to the built and natural environment including beautification and/or enhancement of physical environment, new construction, and redevelopment (including arts, culture, and public space).</li> <li><strong>Social Change: </strong>Improvements to social relationships, civic engagement and community empowerment, and/or amplifying community identity including civic engagement, collective efficacy, social capital, social cohesion, and community attachment.</li> <li><strong>Systems Change:</strong> Improvements to community capacity to sustain the integration of arts, culture, and design into strategies for advancing local economic, physical, and/or social outcomes including, for example: establishment of new and lasting cross-sector partnerships; shifts in institutional structure, practices or policies; replication or scaling of innovative project models; establishment of training programs; or dissemination of informational resources to support the creative placemaking field. </li> </ul> <p></p>