Savannah Barrett

Arts Resources for Rural America

Posted by Savannah Barrett, Feb 21, 2014 0 comments


Savannah Barrett

Savannah Barrett Savannah Barrett

From the coalfields of Appalachia to the lumber mills of the Cascades, rural people across the nation share a common desire to see the places where they live grow and prosper as livable, energetic communities. Many small communities in rural America have witnessed dwindling philanthropic investment in the twenty-first century. Although rural communities, labor, and expertise remain vital to health of our nation, reports of philanthropic investment in small communities average between 1-5%. As Rick Cohen referenced in the Non Profit Quarterly earlier this year, “Many rural nonprofits have probably given up on seeing philanthropy double its rural grant making in five years, as per the challenge issued by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) to the Council on Foundations seven years ago, because of the historic underfunding of rural communities by foundations.”

Thankfully, this narrative is beginning to shift. While inequity in resource allocation to rural communities persists across the arts and culture sector; agencies, foundations, and support organizations are beginning to take note of the value of rural arts and humanities organizations, and are increasing their investment in rural communities. This blog post is aimed to inform rural arts and culture practitioners of the opportunities available for capital, human, and social investment in rural organizations.

The Year of the Rural Arts and the Rural Arts Resource Directory
2014 marks the inaugural Year of the Rural Arts: a biennial program of events, conversations, and online features celebrating the diverse, vital ways in which rural arts and humanities contribute to American life. This inaugural effort connects citizens, artists, scholars, designers, and entrepreneurs and meets with audiences on the grounds of universities, museums and galleries, cultural organizations, and across rural and urban communities. Coordinated by Art of the Rural and organized by a collective of individuals, organizations, and communities; we utilize a digital platform to elevate the rural arts field by facilitating rural-urban dialogue and cross-sector exchange.

Each time we partner with regional organizations to build digital networks on the Atlas of Rural Arts and Culture, we attempt to strengthen those networks on the ground by connecting rural organizations and individuals to one another, and to regional and national associations and opportunities. Through this process and the contributions of many advisors and stakeholders, we’ve created an online rural arts resource directory, complete with a variety of helpful toolkits, funding opportunities, networks and associations, conferences, webinars, professional development opportunities, websites, books, and articles related to rural arts and culture.

The range and diversity of resources included in this directory are exciting. We identified more than 50 funding and support opportunities for rural and cultural organizations from federal assistance programs, foundations, and corporate grant makers.

Federal Resources
Federal granting and lending programs include rural support from surprising agencies, including the:

Corporation for National and Community Service; Department of Agriculture; Department of Defense; Department of Education; Housing & Urban Development Department ; Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs; Department of Transportation; and of course the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Americans for the Arts website houses a considerable database of federal funding resources for many of these agencies.

The United States Department of Agriculture maintains the Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI), the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant Program (REDLG), and the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program (RMAP), among other rural support programs. Moreover, the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Awards provides financial investment and technological support to fifteen community groups across the nation.

Philanthropic Resources
Numerous national foundation and corporate funders have priority areas aligned with rural communities and the arts. The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Dana Foundation, Gates Family Foundation Capital Grants,  SURDNA Foundation, Ford FoundationWells Fargo Corporate Giving Programs each invest in rural  communities. Funding consortiums like ArtPlace America and the National Rural Funders Collaborative operate through a diversified funding model that includes myriad foundations, banks, agencies, and corporations to more significantly invest in integrated, transformative projects.  These investments have funded Arts @ the Feed and Grain in Loveland, Colorado; Artsipelago in Eastport, Maine; the Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota; the Sonoran Desert Retreat Center in Ajo, Arizona; and the Higher Ground Project in Cumberland, Kentucky; just to name a few.

Across the nation local agencies and foundations provide regional granting opportunities. Moreover, many organizations and consortiums invest in the development of human and social capital across the rural arts field through professional development opportunities, convening, and media resources such as tool kits, books, articles, and reports. Examples of each of these are available in our resource directory.  Increasingly, rural communities are also investing in themselves by creating community foundations, community endowments, and TimeBank programs.

Take Action:
As national institutions increase their investment in rural arts programs, arts administrators and cultural organizers must also strengthen their commitment to improving the field of rural arts and culture. Collaboration and partnership are essential to organizations that are geographically and professionally isolated from the overarching field, and we are actively seeking your contribution: 

What opportunities and resources are you aware of? What are your rural arts success stories? Please consider sending your tool kits, funding opportunities, networks/associations, conferences, webinars, professional development opportunities, websites, books, and articles to Art of the Rural for inclusion on the Resource Directory by emailing [email protected] or tagging your Twitter and Instagram posts with #ruralarts.

Regardless of your role in rural arts and culture, be you an administrator, organizer, funder, constituent, politician, advocate, or just plain interested individual- WE INVITE YOU TO THE TABLE. The National Rural Assembly's Rural Arts and Culture Working Group was formed in 2012 with an inaugural convening at Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Massachusetts of more than 30 rural arts and culture workers around the nation. The long term vision for this work is about building a movement. Across disciplines and geographies, we are creating a new narrative of rural experience. Our communities are diverse and resourceful, local and yet connected with urban and international locales—and they occupy a place at the center of an emerging zeitgeist concerned with sustainability in all its forms, and with building deep and lasting human relationships. Join the Rural Arts and Culture Working Group’s Facebook Group, and join the conversation.

Want to know more about resource opportunities for rural arts programs? Make plans to attend the Americans for the Arts Resources For Rural Arts webinar on February 27, 2014 at 3:00 PM EST. This is the second webinar in a series of three webinars in our "Community Development in Rural Communities" series held on concurrent days in one week. To register for the entire series please visit the series registration page.

Visit the Rural Arts and Culture Resource Directory.

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