Jan.30, 2025

A note from RISCA's Executive Director


When our grants open on Feb. 1, you will see newly streamlined grant guidelines and evaluation criteria. The purpose of reworking our programs was to create simplified applications and questions, evaluation processes and final report requirements.


We spent last summer and early fall holding public meetings with the arts and culture community. We listened to what you had to say; we answered questions; and we asked for your feedback. We heard you, and we went to work.


Rest assured, the core elements of our programs will stay the same, but you’ll now have a simplified and less time-consuming process. Here is what you can expect to see when the grants open next week:


  • For newly streamlined applications, we reduced the number of questions particularly the narrative ones, as well as the number of required support materials.
  •  We ensured consistency among grant program applications and guidelines. All grant programs now have three evaluation criteria, two of which are shared throughout all programs, and many have the same application questions.
  • We have developed a more flexible panel process and simplified evaluation criteria and scoring. Panelists review applications with streamlined measures, and they will now be providing a single score on each application.
  • We have updated the grant awards for each grant program to better reflect the needs of our community, today’s economy and the volume of applications per grant program. Here are the new awards approved by the Arts Council in December:
  • Make Art Grant and Community Engaged Project Grant: Maximum award $5,000 (up from $3,000).
  • Project Grants for Organizations: Maximum award $6,000 (up from $3,000).
  • Project Grants in Education and the Arts and Health: $7,000 (down from $10,000).


Given all these changes, we have ensured that grant awards, including partial ones, will be more meaningful and have increased impact. These updates allow us to be even more aligned with our strategic plan goal of engage, which says to be continuously present in the arts and culture community and develop programs in conversation with our community.


We are excited by these changes and look forward to hearing from you. If you have questions or need more information, feel free to reach out to us at risca.contact@arts.ri.gov.


Todd Trebour

Executive Director, RISCA

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