Leanne Tintori Wells, Program Director, ltwells@nysca.org
Arian Blanco, Program Officer, ablanco@nysca.org

State and Local Partnerships (SLP) supports the growth and development of organizations operating at the regional, county, and local levels that advance local arts and cultural initiatives and offer comprehensive arts services essential to the state's continued cultural development.

SLP seeks to accomplish the following goals:

Strengthen the leadership role of local/regional arts organizations in encouraging local cultural development and increasing resources available for the arts.

Encourage greater public participation in the arts through support of a wide range of local, regional, and statewide programs and services that respond to assessed cultural needs and that reach the full diversity of each community served.

Enhance the professional capability of multi-arts organizations operating on the local level, and of arts service organizations that promote the development of the arts and provide arts services statewide.

SLP primarily supports multi-arts centers, local arts councils, and multi-arts service organizations. It places high priority on organizations that demonstrate a commitment to reach out to the full diversity of the communities they serve. SLP focuses on issues that affect organizational stability, professionalism, and effectiveness. Priority is given to professional staff development, catalytic projects that enhance the resources and visibility of the arts, and services that support individual artists.

New applicants to SLP are welcome to present requests in the Workshops, Services to the Field, and Administrative Salaries categories. New applicants are strongly advised to consult with SLP staff well before the deadline.

SLP also manages Decentralization (DEC), the Council's statewide regrant program. DEC provides support for community-based arts activities through a local decision-making grant process that reflects the unique character of each of the state's communities. Through the efforts of a network of local arts organizations, DEC is available to artists and organizations in each of the state's 62 counties.

Definitions

Local Arts Councils

SLP supports arts services by local arts councils, including local arts advocacy, regranting, arts marketing efforts, formal programs of technical and developmental assistance for artists and arts organizations, and information services for artists and the general public. Local arts councils must demonstrate a commitment to providing access to service resources and information for artists and arts organizations across artistic disciplines. Support for local arts programming is provided only where there is a documented community need for such activity at local arts councils that does not duplicate existing activities in a community. In these cases, SLP requires a balance of programming and service offerings. Local arts councils with missions that are primarily programmatic, as opposed to service-directed, may not be eligible.

Multi-Arts Centers

A multi-arts center is an organization that owns or operates an accessible cultural facility. Eligible multi-arts centers are mission-driven to provide a multi-disciplinary menu of arts and cultural activities and offer participatory community arts programs, presentations, and exhibitions along with a range of resources for individual artists. Programs must be regularly offered in at least three of the following areas: performing arts, visual arts, media arts, and/or literary arts. (Community Music Schools, including those with some multi-arts programs, are referred to the Community Music Schools category under Music.)

Multi-Arts Service Organizations

Multi-arts service organizations are mission-driven to provide access to professional resources, information, and developmental and/or technical services for artists and arts organizations across the range of artistic disciplines. Single discipline service organizations are not eligible for support by SLP and should refer, instead, to the relevant NYSCA discipline.

Please note that organizations applying for SLP funding may not apply to the Community-Based Learning category in the Arts Education Program.

Evaluative Criteria

Grant requests are evaluated in accordance with agency-wide criteria.

Artistic Evaluation

NYSCA must be able to evaluate an applicant's artistic quality on an ongoing basis. It is the responsibility of all current and prospective applicants to inform staff of public programs or events well in advance of the event date. This is required so that staff, advisory panelists, or auditors may attend and evaluate the events. Email notification is welcome at slp@nysca.org.

NYSCA believes in honoring aesthetic and artistic excellence that reflects creative diversity without cultural boundaries, and in an evaluation process that embraces the widest spectrum of cultural expression offered to the public, in a broad array of settings and contexts -- from classrooms and community centers, to parks and open spaces, to more traditional venues. NYSCA celebrates artistic pluralism and welcomes requests from organizations serving all of the communities that make up New York State. These include the physically challenged, immigrants and other communities with special needs.