During the 2020-2021 academic year, Texas Tech University's J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts (TCVPA) established the TCVPA Arts in Action Micro-Grant Initiative. Numerous proposals were made, approved, and successfully carried out. For subsequent academic years the initiative is extended, in collaboration with the TCVPA's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, and formally renamed the Arts in Action Microgrant Program (henceforth, AiAP). See below for the guidelines and timelines for grant proposal submission.

The AiAP is an internal funding opportunity promoting diversity and inclusion through the arts by fostering collaborations between students, faculty, and staff in the TCVPA and across the student body at Texas Tech University. Emphasizing cultural change, critical discourse, and community healing, the AiAP invites artists and scholars to propose projects that support anti-discriminatory efforts, address the diversity of experience, and encourage understanding of different cultural ideas, perspectives, and values. The AiAP welcomes proposals that will investigate -- through research, art making, and dialogue -- artistic and scholarly processes and products engaging with experiences of discrimination in the spirit of learning and progress. AiAP funding can be used to support a number of different types of projects, including but not limited to performances (of fully or partially-realized works), workshops, exhibitions, presentations, readings, and moderated talks. Proposals may include types of projects not listed here but proposed projects must relate to themes outlined above and must ultimately seek to engage with the public (on and/or off campus).

While AiAP funding will prioritize project teams made up primarily of students (ideally both graduate students and undergraduates), submissions for proposal teams made up primarily of faculty and staff will be considered. Proposals that are attached to a specific course will also be considered, provided that the course allows for student enrollment from more than one School and that the coursework includes the development of a project related to the AiAP objective.

J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual & Performing Arts
Box 45060
Lubbock, TX 79409

• The project team should have a faculty or staff member designated as the facilitator. This facilitator will manage the budget and will also serve to provide feedback to project teams and assist with provision of educational resources as needed.
• The project team should include representation from more than one School, and when possible, representation from other Colleges. However, if those interdisciplinary relationships are not yet established, a proposal might come from members of a single School but specify that, if the proposal is funded, the team will actively work to engage members from other units.
• The project should culminate with an experience (virtual or face-to-face as allowable per TTU health and safety guidelines) crafted by and using the skills of the artists/scholars workingtogether on the project. The experience can take many forms; some examples include: a liveevent; a multimodal performance-for-camera work; a moderated discussion examining thehistory of BIPOC performers in musical theatre; a curated exhibition of visual art on themes ofdiversity and inclusion; a staged reading of an original script responding to shared experiences.
• The proposal must include a roadmap including target dates for the successful completion of the project and final presentation of the project experience no later than the last class date of the Spring semester each year. No proposed project can extend beyond the end of the Spring semester.
• The proposal must include a budget not to exceed $3,000. Important to note is that the budgetmay include funding for education and training to better prepare the project team. The budget should describe how requested funds will be allocated as currently projected. Examples: $750: stipends for playwrights, composer, performers (5 @ $150 ea.); $150: stipend for production designer; $300: stipend for videographer/editor; $100: marketing materials and publicity.

Proposals will be accepted starting November 1 and will continue until funds are expended, at which point all faculty, staff, and students in the TCVPA will be notified that funds are no longer available. The TCVPA has committed $25,000 to the AiAP.

Proposals will be reviewed by the TCVPA's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, which consists of student, staff, and faculty representatives from each School. The Committee will usea standard rubric to review each proposal and will provide feedback on all proposals including those not selected for funding. Additionally, the committee may request that a project teamrevise and resubmit a proposal, though it would be the project team's decision whether to proceed after a revised submission.

Project teams will be notified of a funding decision no later than two weeks after their proposalis submitted unless the volume of submissions is high enough to necessitate additional review time. In that case, project teams will be notified.

• Arts in Action Micro-Grant Proposal Form