Teaching Assistantships: University of Wisconsin-Madison
The Department of Landscape Architecture at UW-Madison has several teaching assistantships available for our design studios in fall 2007 and spring 2008 semesters. If you have a degree in Landscape Architecture, Architecture, Interior Design, Urban Design, or related design field and are considering a graduate degree, please look at our program! www.la.wisc.edu/graduate/index.htm
We are looking for applicants to our graduate program with a strong design background who are interested in gaining teaching experience. Teaching assistantships may be offered for 2 years and include 1/3-time stipend, full tuition remission, and access to student health benefits.
We will begin considering applicants for these TA positions the week after Feb 1. If interested, please apply as close to that day as possible to ensure a competitive review.
Application instructions are available online: www.la.wisc.edu/admission.htm#graduate
If you have any questions, please contact:
Janet Silbernagel, jmsilber@wisc.edu
Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture
& Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
Campus: 1450 Linden Dr., 608.265.8093 (avail M-Th 8-3)
Design Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts
The NEA is the single largest funder of artistic activity in the United States. Most of its financial support is given in the form of cash grants, and a good number of those grants are made in the design field. I am writing this memo to encourage you to consider ways of applying for an NEA grant, and also to dispel some of the mystery surrounding the process.
Design at the NEA encompasses many disciplines including, but not limited, to planning, urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, product design, and graphic design. Applications will be accepted in 2007 under two deadlines, March 12 and August 13th. Projects are loosely divided into two areas: Innovation and Stewardship.
Innovation (Mid-March) refers to activities that are intended to advance, reform, or disseminate the latest techniques of design. These include, among others: competitions, commissions, community design workshops, exhibits of recent work, publications covering advancements in design or design theory, conferences, symposia, and other gatherings that promote innovation in design practice.
Stewardship (Mid-August) refers to projects that protect, share, or celebrate our collective design heritage. These include, among others: historic preservation activities, exhibits and publications of past design, education and outreach concerning established design practices, conferences, symposia, and other gatherings that promote the heritage and conservation of design. Given the possibility of overlap between the two areas, some applications may qualify for either deadline and panel, for example those that surround best practices.
For each of the two deadlines, the NEA puts together a diverse advisory panel of seven design experts who rank the applications in terms of “artistic excellence” and “artistic merit.” “Artistic excellence” refers to the quality and significance of the proposed work. “Artistic merit” addresses the capacity of the applicant to get the work done, and the likely impact the work will have. Aside from being instructed to look for these qualities, the panel is not led by the NEA to favor any type of proposal over any other. The past is no guarantee of the future, but in recent years the NEA has awarded grants to about half of its design applicants, with an average grant amount of about $25,000.
Because the Arts Endowment is a federal agency, a few basic rules apply to all grants:
- All applications must come from tax-exempt 501(c)3 organizations with at least three years of programming history. (The 501(c)3 status itself can be very recent, as long as there is three years of programming.) For individual designers, this is the toughest criterion to satisfy, as you must find a 501(c)3 that will team up with you and make the application its own. Local community development corporations, preservation groups, chapters of professional organizations such as the AIA, museums, and local governments can all qualify.
- You may only apply for work that begins after the grant is received. The project itself can be ongoing, as long as the funded activities await the award date, which is about nine months after the application deadline. For example, activities funded in response to a March application may not begin until January of the following year.
- Your application budget must indicate matching funds, so that the NEA pays no more than half the project cost. Services-in-kind qualify as a match.
- Each 501(c)3 may apply only once per year, although it is possible to apply a second time as part of a consortium.
- The NEA is not able to fund construction or land acquisition.
- Again, individuals may not apply for NEA grants.
The first step in applying is to log onto our website http://www.arts.gov and follow the links through “Grants for Arts Projects” to the “Access to Artistic Excellence” category. From there, you should carefully read the updated guidelines and download the application forms. Once you have a specific project in mind, you can discuss it with the design specialist Susan Begley at 202-682-5796. In contrast to most design competitions, we welcome questions from applicants, and we can often help you to improve your proposal. However, to keep call volume at a reasonable level, we ask that individuals find a sponsoring 501(c)3 organization prior to calling the NEA.
We here at the NEA ask you to consider how – with or without our help – you might initiate a non-profit project that allows you to serve your community, the design community as a whole, or perhaps the world at large. We look forward to hearing from you.
