Currently closed. Funds for this grant have been awarded for the school year.
Click here to access the RISCA grant portal for organizations.
In-person arts and cultural field trip: up to $750 to support the cost of transportation.
Virtual arts and cultural field trip: up to $350 to support the arts organization or teaching artist.
Grant Opens: September 1, 2022, rolling deadline.
Grant Closes: May 1, 2023
Applicant: Schools or school-affiliated non-profits organizations (e.g., PTO/PTA, diocese).
Arts in Education, Director: Maggie Anderson
Phone: 401-222-3880
Email: Maggie.Anderson@arts.ri.gov
About the Big Yellow School Bus Program during COVID
The Big Yellow School Bus Program was designed to support arts learning in the school. To qualify for this funding schools must plan an in-person or virtual field trip with an arts and cultural organization or artists.
As schools plan for the 2023-2024 School Year there may still be COVID-19 restrictions mandated by the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) or individual school districts with regards to in-person field trips.
About the grant for in-person arts & cultural field trips
- Schools may apply for grants of up to $750 to support the cost of transportation to in-person arts and cultural field trips.
- In-person field trips must take place at a Rhode Island arts or cultural organization, teaching artist group or institution.
- In-person field trip support is ONLY for the cost of transportation to the arts and cultural event and cannot be used to pay the arts organization or artists or offset substitute costs.
- BYSB grants are awarded to schools or school-affiliated non-profits organizations (e.g. PTO/PTA, diocese).
- In-person and virtual field trip activities need to take place by June 30, 2023.
- Applicant must be an approved vendor with the state of Rhode Island. If you have not received grants from RISCA in the past, you will need to register with the Rhode Island Ocean State Procures (OSP)* system.
- Applications will be reviewed on a first come, first-served basis.
- Please check that the application is fully and correctly completed.
- Please be aware, incomplete applications may be returned thus affecting your first-come, first-served status. If you have any questions, contact Maggie Anderson, Arts in Education Director, at anderson@arts.ri.gov.
- If approved, funds will be sent to the approved vendor only (school or school-affiliated non-profit organization).
About the grant for virtual arts & cultural field trips
- Schools may apply for grants of up to $350 to support their participation in arts or cultural virtual experiences.
- Experiences that might qualify as a virtual field trip include pre-recorded videos and/or arranged live, performances and virtual meetings between a representative from an arts or cultural organization and a classroom, or pre-recorded or live tours of exhibits and installations.
- Virtual field trips must be facilitated by a Rhode Island arts or cultural organization or individual teaching artist, group or institution
- Virtual field trip support may only be used for the fees paid to the arts organization or teaching artist.
- BYSB grants are awarded to schools or school-affiliated non-profits organizations (e.g. PTO/PTA, diocese), who are then responsible for paying the arts and cultural organization to cover the cost of the virtual field trip, associated performer/teaching artists costs or the like. Note: No BYSB funds remain at the school for other expenses including substitute teacher costs.
- Applicant must be an approved vendor with the state of Rhode Island. If you have not received grants from RISCA in the past, you will need to register with the Rhode Island Ocean State Procures (OSP)* system.
- Applications will be reviewed on a first come, first-served basis.
- Please check that the application is fully and correctly completed.
- Please be aware, incomplete applications may be returned thus affecting your first-come, first-served status. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Maggie Anderson, Arts in Education Director, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, at anderson@arts.ri.gov.
- Funds will be sent to the approved vendor only (school or school-affiliated non-profit organization).
Please note: Big Yellow School Bus Grants do NOT count toward the number of grants an organization can receive from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts each fiscal year.
BYSB application deadline and notification
- There is no application deadline. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis in the order they were received. Applicants can submit requests up to 14 days prior to the event.
- Applications are reviewed regularly during normal office hours.
- Schools may apply for more than one BYSB grant but not within the same grade level. For example, only one grant may be submitted from the third grade, but a single school may submit more than one application if they are from different grade levels: Second grade and fifth grade from the same school can submit applications.
- Notification about the status of your application will be sent by email.
- All final reports are due by June 1, 2023. Payments are only processed after receipt of an approved final report and active vendor status with the Rhode Island OCEAN STATE PROCURES (OSP)* system.
- Grant will remain open during the 2022-23 School Year until all funds are awarded.
How to become an approved vendor with the State of Rhode Island:
All Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) grant award recipients need to have an approved vendor profile in the Rhode Island OCEAN STATE PROCURES (OSP) system. This new online registration system is used by the State of Rhode Island for any vendor of the state, not just those working with or receiving grant awards from RISCA. Use the Vendor Self-Registration Guide (https://www.ridop.ri.gov/documents/vendor-self-registration-quick-start-guide.pdf) for complete details on how to fully register and create a login to access your secure Vendor Portal at http://ridop.ri.gov/vendor-registration/.
Please note this is a 2-step process:
- Create Vendor Profile– After completing Vendor Self-Registration Guide step 6 “submit registration”, your login credentials and the login link will be emailed to you (with the subject line: “Welcome to WebProcure!”).
- Upload W-9– Once you have registered (including uploading a new W-9) and been approved by OSP, RISCA can process your award payment.
Need help? For questions related to OSP registration, contact WebProcure Technical Support at 1-866-889-8533 and webprocure.support@perfect.com.
Big Yellow School Bus PDF of guidelines (pdf)
Big Yellow School Bus Question List (pdf)