DEADLINE APPROACHING: Innovative Space Awards Applications Due August 24
Through a funding collaboration between the MetLife Foundation and Ford Foundation, in partnership with MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, LINC has launched Space for Change: Building Communities Through Innovative Art Spaces.
The Space for Change program kicks off with the MetLife Innovative Space Awards (ISA), which will grant awards ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 to exemplary projects demonstrating the role that affordable artist spaces play in community revitalization and sustainable, socially progressive development. This award was established to recognize and promote successful artist spaces that exhibit innovation, affordability, sustainability and positive community impact.
The Space for Change program seeks to highlight the production of artist spaces in an emerging framework of cultural equity, where artists are key stakeholders and contributors in community building and revitalization.
If you haven’t already submitted an application, there is still time. Visit www.lincnet.net/artist-space to learn more. Online applications are due by 5pm EST on August 24, 2009.
Space for Change is comprised of two core components: the MetLife Innovative Space Awards and the Ford Foundation Space for Change Predevelopment Grants. These latter grants will provide support to exemplary projects, still in the early stages of planning, but which already demonstrate a strong commitment to creating affordable space for artists. Guidelines for these grants will be made available in spring of 2010.
Recognizing that the pursuit of artistic practices and the presentation of creative work often require unique spaces, LINC, in partnership with MetLife, the Ford Foundation, and MIT have shaped Space for Change to broaden public awareness of these needs and lift up best practices in developing affordable spaces for artists to create work. The urgency of this issue has galvanized leaders in arts and culture, planning, and community development to recognize the impact of artist space development on communities. Research has pointed to the range of positive physical, social, and economic impacts artists have on their communities, including increased employment opportunities and improved programs for youth development.
LINC’s primary resource in advancing the knowledge built through the Space for Change program will be the newly re-designed Artists Space Database which can be accessed via LINC’s website, www.lincnet.net. Best practices, research, project and community data, shared lessons, and other information on nominated and winning projects will be housed online to create a national database of artist spaces. The increased visibility of projects achieved through use of the Database will promote cross-sector collaborations among artists, developers, local municipalities, public agencies, artist-focused organizations, community development corporations, and other stakeholders.
To learn more about Space for Change, read the ISA guidelines, and submit an application, visit www.lincnet.net/artist-space. Applications can be submitted online until August 24, 2009, no later than 5 P.M. (EDT). For more information contact LINC at info@lincnet.net, or 646-731-3275. If you would like to download a PDF version of the guidelines and application, click here.
LINC is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to enhance the capacity of artists to create work, build social capital, and contribute to democratic values. The Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) resides in the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since its inception in 1933, DUSP has consistently remained one of the premiere urban planning schools in the country.