ADA Grants
With support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Carl and Ruth
Shapiro Family Foundation , VSA arts of Massachusetts is pleased to offer
ADA Cultural Access Grants for organizations proposing innovative ways to
include artists with disabilities and to attract audiences including people
with disabilities. The generous support of these funders has made it possible
to distribute additional funding to organizations who will receive an award
for the 2009-2010 grant cycle.
The purpose of the ADA Cultural Access Grants is to create opportunities for cultural organizations to engage artists, humanists and interpretive scientists with disabilities in the creative work of the organizations. Programs are intended to be accessible and to reflect Universal Design principles. They may include staff development, audience development and access services like sign interpretation, captioning, assistive listening and audio description, however, only programs substantially involving people with disabilities are eligible.
Read an evaluation of the 2008 - 2010 ADA Cultural Access Grants conducted by The Institute for Community Inclusion.
2009-2010 Grant Cycle
First Step
Interested Applicants should submit an Intent to Apply to grants@vsamass.org no later than May 8th. Applicants should be able to complete the Intent to Apply form by typing in the text boxes and save it as a Word Document. Please send an email with the attachment to grants@vsamass.org. Be sure to insert the name of your Organization in the Subject heading. A staff member will review your ITA and confirm with you by email before proceeding with the final proposal.
Second Step
Upon receiving confirmation from VSAM, you may proceed with the final application. Please follow the same steps as above. You are required to submit all materials requested electronically no later than June 12th. Please make sure you have completed the checklist in the application and mail one copy of the full application packet to:
ADA Cultural Access Grants Administrator
VSA arts of Massachusetts
The NonProfit Center
89 South Street #101
Boston, MA 02111
Be sure to sign where indicated in the original copy before mailing it in.
If you have any questions or concerns, please send an email to Bonnie S. Kaplan at grants@vsamass.org.
- Request for Proposals
- Intent to Apply, deadline May 8, 2009
- Application, deadline June 12, 2009
- Accessibility Glossary
Review past ADA Grant Recipients, this will take you to our prior vsa website:
2006 - 2007
2007 - 2008
2008 - 2009
To learn more about the Americans with Disabilities Act, please review the ADA Title III Technical Assistance Manual (http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/taman3.html) covering public accommodations and commercial facilities or to view highlights visit http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/t3hilght.htm . The NEA and the National Endowment for the Arts have also published a free resource, Design for Accessibility: A Cultural Administrator's Handbook.
