Coming Up Taller

Introduction

By honoring excellence in after-school and out-of-school arts and humanities programs for young people through the Coming Up Taller Awards, we seek to promote a creative, engaged, skilled, and confident generation of young people. Each year the Coming Up Taller Awards recognize and reward excellence in after-school and out-of-school arts and humanities programs for underserved children and youth. Awardees receive $10,000 each and an individualized plaque. We encourage programs initiated by museums, libraries, performing arts organizations, universities, colleges, arts centers, community service organizations, schools, businesses, and eligible government entities to consider participating. Nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations, units of state or local government, and federally recognized tribal communities or tribes are eligible to apply.

In its seventh year, the Coming Up Taller Awards support after-school and out-of-school programs that are tangible examples of the power of the arts and the humanities to encourage young people's creativity and to provide them with learning opportunities, chances to contribute to their community, and ways to take responsibility for their own futures. The Awards also celebrate the contributions that educators, curators, historians, scholars, librarians, and artists make to families and communities by mentoring and teaching children.

The making of art and the study of the human experience, past and present, are at the heart of what these programs offer young people. These are places and programs where children learn about cultural traditions and the histories of families, neighborhoods, and nations. They explore musical, visual, physical, and literary ways of understanding, expressing, and communicating ideas and perceptions. Coming Up Taller programs reflect a broad range of goals and serve youth and communities in various important ways: job training, improved school performance, community development, and cultural preservation and rejuvenation.

Research suggests that children who attend high-quality arts and humanities programs during the hours they are not at home or in school benefit from this exposure. Recent surveys also demonstrate that parents want the arts to be part of their children's learning experiences.

Please read the Eligibility and Selection Criteria carefully. You may visit the Coming Up Taller web site at www.cominguptaller.org to learn more about past awardees and semifinalists cited for their promising programs.

All programs must be nominated, although self-nominations are accepted. Completed nominations should be sent to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and postmarked no later than Thursday, March 25, 2004. If you have any questions, please contact the President's Committee at 202-682-5409.

Coming Up Taller is a program of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Eligibility Criteria

Prior recipients of a Coming Up Taller Award are not eligible for an award in 2004. Coming Up Taller Awards are given to organizations for a specific program or programs. In some cases, the organization and program may be the same. Nominated program(s) are eligible if they meet all the eligibility criteria below:

• Operate as a program for children and youth outside the school day. Pre-school, after-school, weekend and/or summer programs, however, may have a school-based component or use school space. Multi-site initiatives that meet the criteria also are eligible;

• Have been operational since January 2000 for a minimum of five years, including 2004 [the operational years of the specific nominated program(s) and not the organization's years of operation when nominating a program or programs within an organization];

• Use one or more disciplines of the humanities or the arts as the core content of its program(s);

• Concentrate on children and youth who live in family and community circumstances that limit their opportunities - underserved children and youth are the primary participants in the program;

• Involve children and youth as active participants in the arts or humanities experience. Cultural programs in which children function only as an audience are not eligible;

• Provide participants regularly scheduled sessions on an ongoing basis; one-time or occasional programs will not be considered; and

• Focus on child and youth development as an expressed goal (e.g. enhanced leadership skills, self-confidence, and peer relations). Programs concentrating only on preparing youth for an artistic or cultural career are outside the scope of Coming Up Taller.

Narrative Instructions and Selection Criteria

We request that your narrative begin with a program summary of no more than 150 words about the nominated program(s). Following your summary, the narrative should address how your program(s) fulfills the criteria outlined below in the order that each criterion is presented. In selecting semifinalists and finalists, evaluators will look at the following criteria:

Evidence of high quality programming in the arts and/or the humanities;

The experience provided is of sufficient intensity, consistency, and duration as to reasonably expect a positive impact on the skills, development, and/or resiliency of children and youth;

The program's focus on fostering child and youth development (e.g., increased leadership skills, self-confidence, and ability to develop strong positive relationships with peers and adults), including information on the children and young people who participate in the program;

The integration of support services (e.g., homework help, counseling, job training, etc), and/or prevention strategies (e.g., mentoring) with arts and humanities programming - the way these disciplines and services work together to address program goals;

Evidence that the humanities or arts program is having an impact on children's learning, development, education, and/or resiliency (e.g., provide summary results from assessments, evaluations, surveys, and/or performance measures; and also mention any honors, public recognition, or youth entering advanced training and/or higher education, etc.);

The professional background of the artists, curators, educators, historians, librarians, museum professionals and other scholars working with young people, and/or managing the program(s);

Organizational stability and commitment. Include information about important partnerships and their functions.

Nomination Materials

Nominations must include five (5) complete sets of the following:

• The attached Nomination Cover Form. All information on this form should relate to the nominated program(s) (i.e., program(s) within an organization, or an organization that meets the eligibility criteria);

  Coming Up Taller Nomination Cover Form is available in Portable Document Format (PDF). To view PDF documents, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader.

  The Nomination Cover Form is read-only and cannot be filled in onscreen. You may, however, reproduce the form on your computer.

  Nomination Cover Form.

• A narrative of up to 6 pages, single spaced, excluding the nomination cover form, on standard (8 1/2" x 11") paper. Refer to the Selection Criteria for specific information and order of its presentation. Please do not send materials in a hardcover binder. Lesson plans, news clips and additional letters of support are welcome in addition to the 6 pages. Pre-printed documents (reports to funders, program curriculum, etc.) may be sent but are not encouraged. Please do not include CDs, videos, or artwork. No materials sent will be returned;

• Resumes for key program staff, especially those in management and teaching roles (e.g., those administering the program, developing program content and working directly with program participants);

• Three (3) high-quality color photographs of the program in operation. The same three images may be sent for each of the five nomination packets. One set should be a high quality original and the remaining sets can be copies of the original; and

• A letter of recommendation from an officially designated state or local arts agency, state humanities council, state cultural agency, regional arts organization, supporting corporation or foundation. An effective letter of nomination/recommendation amplifies and reinforces the application narrative.

Decisions Calendar

• By late May, up to 50 semifinalists will be selected. All nominees will be notified by letter of their status at this time. The letter will go to the contact person for the program(s) nominated. The contact person is responsible for informing their nominator. A National Jury of independent experts will review the nominations of the semifinalists and recommend awardees.

• By late June, the 2004 Coming Up Taller awardees will be chosen. All semifinalists will be notified of their status at this time.

• In the Fall, the awards will be announced. Each awardee will receive a $10,000 award and a plaque at a special ceremony in Washington, DC. Remaining semifinalists will be sent a Certificate of Excellence.

Deadline

Five sets of the completed nomination and accompanying information must be postmarked by Thursday, March 25, 2004. Please review your nomination before submission to ensure all questions have been answered on the cover sheet and that the nomination addresses the eligibility and selection criteria. All nomination materials and correspondence should be sent to:

Coming Up Taller Awards
President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Suite 526
Washington, DC 20506
(Telephone: 202-682-5409)

The delivery of first-class mail to the federal government continues to be delayed, and delays are expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Please also be advised that support materials (e.g., slides, documents printed in color, and photographs) put through irradiation to protect against biological contamination are suffering irrevocable damage. Therefore, we strongly encourage you to consider alternative delivery services and accept our apologies for any inconvenience or expense this may cause.

National Endowment for the Arts
Contact the Web Manager