RISCA staff members assist in navigating the FY22 fall grant application process

Get your questions to staff prior to 6 p.m. on deadline day– October. 1. The portal closes at 11:59 p.m.

Click here to sign up for open office hours on Oct. 1.

Our helpful and friendly RISCA staff can assist you with your grant application needs. In addition, we are available to meet with you about your grant ideas. We are offering grant writing and budgeting workshops, drop-in hours and one on one meetings during August and September so you can meet our Oct. 1 deadline.

In addition to open office hours on Oct. 1, the staff is available for schedule meetings throughout the open granting period.

How to schedule a one-on-one meeting

Arts Access Grant

Todd Trebour, Organizations Program Director, will be holding one-on-one virtual meetings for nonprofit organizations interested in Arts Access Grants organizations. He will answer any questions you have about the grant program. He can also help you with the budget forms; review any specific answers you’ve written; or any other assistance you need with your grant application.

You can sign up for either a 30 minute or 1-hour meeting slot. To schedule a meeting with Todd, click here.

If none of the dates or times listed works for you, email Todd at todd.trebour@arts.ri.gov for alternate date or time.

Project Grants in Education and Individuals in Education

Maggie Anderson, Director of Arts In Education, will be holding one-on-one meetings for nonprofit organizations, artists and schools interested in Project Grants in Education for Individual.

For more information and to schedule a meeting to assist you with your grant application, email Maggie Anderson at Maggie.Anderson@arts.ri.gov.

Fellowships

Mollie Flanagan, Individual Artists Program Director, will be holding one-on-one virtual meetings for artists interested in fellowships for individual artists. She will be answering any questions you have about the grant program.

You can sign up for drop-in hours with Mollie. Here is a listing of Mollie’s meetings. Please sign up in advance for the following drop-in hours.

For office hours for Fellowships, please sign up in advance by clicking here.

Folk Arts Fellowships and Apprenticeships

Elena Calderón Patiño, Community Arts Program Director, will hold meetings for artists and culture organizations interested in folk arts. The folk arts are defined as those artistic practices which are community or family-based and express that community’s aesthetic heritage and tradition.

For more information and to schedule a meeting, contact Elena.Patino@arts.ri.gov.

Project Grants in Healthcare

For more information on Project Grants in Healthcare, contact Randall.Rosenbaum@arts.ri.gov.

RIEAP Alumni Consultant Program offers mentoring to the latest cohort

On April 21, Rhode Island Expansion Arts Program alumnus Chief Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson and Denise Barge hosted a workshop for the 2019-2022 RIEAP Cohort. They brought with them insightful knowledge and guidance on LLC’s, nonprofits, and alternative business. Workshops such as theirs are specifically designed to meet the needs of individual organizations within the RIEAP Cohort.

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Denise Barge

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Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson

Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson, a RIEAP Alumni Consultant, is the Clan Chief of the Pocasset Wampanoag Tribe of the Pokanoket Nation. The Pocasset Tribe’s reservation called Wattupa is based in Fall River. Chief  Jamieson has been the Drum Director of the Eastern Medicine Singers for the last 13 years, and the CEO of Eastern Medicine Cultural LLC, a for-profit company. He runs Black Eagle Productions, a new media and music company promoting culture and music productions. For more information about the Eastern Medicine Singers click here.

Denise Barge is the proprietor of Barge & Associates, LLC, (established in 2009) which provides planning, management and operational consulting to nonprofits and small business owners seeking assistance in starting, growing or sustaining their organizations and companies.

RIEAP Alumni Consultant Program was developed to recognize the important role the alumni play in strengthening their communities including cultural preservation, education, and youth development. Having gone through the program, the alumni continue their leadership role as culturally sensitive consultants who share their knowledge while mentoring the new cohort to become future leaders. It also serves as a professional development opportunity for the alumni. This program becomes an incubator for consultants of color from Africa, Latinx, Arab, Asian, and Native American (ALAANA) communities.

For more information about the Rhode Island Expansion Arts Program, visit the website or click here.

Spotlight: A conversation with the Executive Director of the Tomaquag Museum

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Lorén M. Spears, Narragansett, Executive Director of Tomaquag Museum

To learn more about Lorén M. Spears’ work at the Tomaquag Museum, the RI Expansion Arts Program sat down with Lorén, Narragansett, Executive Director of Tomaquag Museum and a member of the RI Arts Council. She holds a master’s in Education and received a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from the University of Rhode Island for her dedicated work. She is an author, traditional artist and shares her cultural knowledge with the public through museum programs.

RIEAP: You have served so many roles in the community. What have been some of the most meaningful moments during your career as an educator, activist, author and/or artist?

Lorén: The most meaningful moment was the creation of the Nuweetooun School. It was impactful for my own personal children, other tribal children and children in general attending the school. I think that was important as it integrated all the things I do as an educator, activist, and traditional knowledge person or someone who passes down information from one generation to another. In the Tomaquag Museum, I also play an external role through the work I do with the creation of the Indigenous Empowerment Network, which is intended to create opportunity for Indigenous people through job training and development, entrepreneurship, educational and cultural opportunities in the arts, traditional cultural knowledge, environmental sustainability and advocacy. One of my most important roles is acting as a bridge between the Indigenous community and their cultural knowledge to the general public. Through the Tomaquag Museum and the Indigenous Empowerment Network, we act as a bridge for the Native community but also educate through our programs, partnership, collaboration, and professional development on cultural competency, anti-racism, equity and justice.

Read the rest of the interview and learn more about the Tomaquag Museum’s origin and its new 18 acre expansion.