DEADLINE: August 12, 2024

AWARDED BY: August 19, 2024

AMOUNTS: Up to $1000 (Between $500–1000 based on proposed budget is typical)

FUNDING AVAILABLE: $5000

APPLY NOW

Objectives

Increase student voting participation in fall 2024! Faculty Grants, funded via Creative Citizens in Action at CCA (CCA@CCA), are designed to support course efforts tied to civic and democratic engagement by CCA faculty. The goal of this program is to support the implementation of small-scale, immediate, public-facing events, projects, or activations that aim to improve the learning experience of students and provide opportunities for students to practice creative activism. Projects require a public outcome that can be featured in the Creative Citizens Program Series as well as social media and online platforms.

In fall 2024, we are looking for projects that are related to voting and democratic engagement, timed in connection to the United States Presidential Election on November 5th. Activities are encouraged to take place before the election, but projects taking place later in the semester will still be considered as long as they are connected to democratic engagement. Your project may take a point of view, but please remember that as an institution, CCA is committed to non-partisan political dialogue.

Here are links to archived events from Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, fall 2022, spring 2023, fall 2023, and spring 2024. Your project may follow a pre-existing format, or it may not. In addition to events, grant funds have supported a number of book, zine, website, social media, and printing projects. Grant funds are not available for private class visits or programs that do not have a public outcome.

Eligibility

All faculty who are actively teaching at CCA in fall 2024 are invited to request funds. Faculty who have previously received CCA@CCA grants are eligible to apply again, but priority will be given to new applicants. Faculty are welcome to collaborate on a grant application and share the awarded funds between their classes.

Funds

In fall 2024, we have up to $5000 of grant funding available to support 5-10 grants of $500-$1000 each. Funds can be used for printing, materials purchases, and/or Speaker Fees that are part of your course-related public-facing project. Projects are expected to be completed within the fall 2024 semester, including the public-facing outcome.

Based on an evaluation of past grant cycles, we recommend focusing funding support on the following budget categories:

1. Speaker Fees. Funds can be used to compensate a guest speaker/artist/participant for a lecture, workshop, event, project, etc. Please note that your budget must include any additional costs associated with taxes, wiring fees, etc. Speaker fees must be $100 or higher.
2. Printing. CCA Exhibitions can arrange for printing via a CCA approved vendor or a limited number of online vendors such as blurb.com.
3. Materials. Purchases from amazon.com, ARCH, Blick, or another CCA approved vendor. Past materials purchases have included paper, printed t-shirts, postcards, website domains, and art-making supplies.
4. Organizer stipend. Adjunct Faculty may include a stipend based on an hourly rate for additional work that is above and beyond regular course preparations related to the grant project. The current hourly rate for non-ranked faculty is $48/hour. Stipend will need approval from Divisional Dean and may not comprise more than half of the total grant amount. Ranked faculty may count their hours toward college-wide service. Exceptions or adjustments based on individual contracts may apply, we are happy to talk through any questions you have. The goal is to recognize and compensate faculty labor.

Please note that students are not eligible to receive direct payments or shipped materials. Purchases must be processed by CCA Exhibitions, we cannot reimburse expenditures. If you have specific funding questions, please contact exhibitions@cca.edu.

Application

Applicants are asked to address the following components via brief responses in the Submittable application. The application fields are purposely brief. We expect that projects will evolve, and are just asking for just enough detail to give us a sense of your course and the proposed project.

1. Project Proposal – Describe your proposed public-facing project, event, or activation and how you anticipate this project will improve the student learning experience related to voting and democratic engagement within your course. A brief synopsis of your vision is fine. (Up to 300 words)
2. Public Outcome – What is the public-facing outcome of your project? i.e. website, artist talk, student-led roundtable event, printed publication, workshop, etc. Who would participate?
3. Connection to voting and democratic engagement – How does your proposed project increase student learning and participation related to voter participation and/or civic and democratic engagement? (Up to 200 words)
4. Budget – Please craft and upload a budget for an amount between $500 - $1000 including expense categories, and short explanation. All expenses must follow college guidelines, reach out to exhibitions@cca.edu with any questions. Please estimate where exact amounts are unable to be calculated.

If you would like a preliminary reading of your application or assistance in developing your proposal, contact exhibitions@cca.edu to schedule an appointment.

Please e-mail exhibitions@cca.edu with any questions. We are happy to discuss proposals that are still in the working stage. APPLY NOW!

Helpful Links:

• CCA@CCA Voting Resources
• CCA 2022 Voting Action Plan
• Past CCA@CCA Faculty Grant awardees
• Archived events, publications, and activations from Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, and Spring 2022. Note: projects by faculty in fall 2020 related specifically to voting and democratic engagement, but please bear in mind that courses and events were fully online due to COVID-19. We are hoping to transition to in-person activities in 2022.
• A selection of past project examples related to voting include:
  • Voting Story organized by Aspen Mays, Associate Professor, Photography Program.
  • Getting Out the Vote: The 2020 US Presidential Election Awareness Project organized by Steve Jones, Adjunct Professor, First Year Core Studio Program and Kim Anno, Professor, Painting and Drawing Program.
  • We’ave the People organized by Susanne Cockrell, Associate Professor, Community Arts Program.
• Voting Resources for CCA Faculty
• Projects are encouraged to support CCA’s CCA’s work related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging.
• Note: About 40% of CCA’s total student body is international or undocumented, and therefore ineligible to vote. When discussing elections, it is important to acknowledge this population and emphasize that U.S. election issues and results can have personal, bureaucratic, and global ramifications that affect them, too. All students can organize and mobilize their peers. View 5 Steps to Understanding U.S. Elections as an International Student.

APPLY NOW

Creative Citizens in Action at CCA (CCA@CCA) is a college-wide initiative that promotes creative activism and democratic engagement through public programs, exhibitions, and curriculum connections. This grant opportunity is funded by an endowment gift to support The Deborah and Kenneth Novack Creative Citizens Series, an annual series of public programs focused on creative activism that spans the disciplines of art, design, architecture, and writing. A list of past awardees is available here.