Neighborhood Activation Grant, round 5

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Accessibility and Accommodations

If you need accommodations or assistance with your application, please contact the grants team at artsgrants@boston.gov with subject line “NDAG, round 5,” or leave a message at 617-910-0048, and someone from the grants team will be in touch with you.

BACKGROUND

The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture’s (MOAC) believes artists have a crucial role in creating a thriving, healthy community for all. Furthermore, MOAC is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to creative expression through lifelong arts programming across all Boston neighborhoods. To support this vision, the Neighborhood Activation Grant program was established to fund community-focused arts, cultural, and creative activations in public spaces that foster joy, strengthen community wellbeing across, and advance placemaking across Boston neighborhoods.

Who can apply?

This round of the Neighborhood Activation Grant program is open to individuals and nonprofit organizations working alongside community partners to implement small to mid-sized creative activations in Boston, with a priority for projects that center communities who have been impacted by long-standing systemic inequities. If an organization or community group does not have 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, they can apply with a nonprofit fiscal sponsor.

What is a creative activation?

Specific to this grant, a creative activation is an arts, cultural, and/or creative experience in a publicly accessible space that imagines and explores new possible uses for that space, contributing to placemaking efforts. This includes experiences that:

Transform the Space: Result in permanent or temporary changes to the physical, social, or atmospheric components of the space.
Highlight Community: Center the social fabric, traditions, norms, and conversations within the community, showcasing its existing strengths and history.
Incorporate Multiple Creative Elements: Demonstrate a variety of creative elements, cultural traditions, artistic disciplines, and community engagement processes.
Engage and Benefit Residents: Are designed, planned, and executed in partnership with residents, local organizations, business owners, and workers, aiming to benefit those within and surrounding the space.

This grant is open to both existing creative activations that are ongoing and new activations that are being launched for the first time. General examples of creative activations include (but are not limited to): site-specific performance art, immersive arts installations, community celebrations, interactive theater productions, film screenings with conversation, cultural festivals, arts and cultural markets, community dialogues that center the arts, a digital arts festival, and more. For examples of selected grantees in previous rounds, please see here.

Please read through the full grant description prior to applying. A strong application will fit the full criteria outlined in this description.

THE BASICS

Contact: For questions regarding the Neighborhood and Downtown Activation Grant, please email artsgrants@boston.gov with subject line “NDAG, round 5”. If phone is preferred, please leave a message at 617-910-0048, and someone from the grants team will be in touch with you.

Funding Source: City of Boston Operating Budget

Total Funds Available: $200,000

Size of grants:

Cultural Festival: $5,000
Small-Scale Activation: up to $10,000
Mid-Scale Activation I: up to $15,000
Mid-Scale Activation II: up to $20,000

Application Deadline

May 8, 2025

Additional Information

Events and programs of small and mid-sized scales will be considered. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit a budget that is commensurate with their proposed activation.
MOAC will make every effort to fully fund approved proposals within the selected tier of the total requested grant amount.
Please note: There is a limit of five grants total available at the $20,000 tier. This tier will be more competitive, and while up to five projects may be selected at this level, the selection committee may award fewer based on the quality and alignment of submissions.
If you are applying as a Cultural Festival, your application will also be considered for the Cultural Affairs Grant Program. To be considered for the Neighborhood Activation Grant, you must submit your application through this program. By doing so, you will automatically be entered into the Cultural Affairs Grant pool as well. Applicants who apply only to the Cultural Affairs Grant Program will not be considered for the Neighborhood Activation Grant. Cultural Festivals will only receive funding from one of these programs, with a maximum grant award of $5,000.

ELIGIBILITY, CRITERIA, AND PRIORITIES

Applicant Eligibility

Applicants need to meet all of the following criteria to be eligible:

Be an individual artist, cultural worker, non profit arts organization, or community group with a non-profit fiscal sponsor
Have a direct relationship to the community or area in which the activation or program is taking place. This can include being from that community, having spent a significant amount of time working and building relationships in that place, etc.
Have not received more than $20,000 in total from previous rounds of the Neighborhood and Downtown Activation Grant (former name)

Project Requirements

All projects and related programming are located in the City of Boston and are free and open to the public.
Have a concrete location(s) in which the activation(s) will take place, even if the place(s) is not yet confirmed. Project ideas that list entire neighborhoods will not be considered.
Demonstrate strong alignment with MOAC’s definition of creative activation.
All events and programs funded by the Neighborhood Activation Grant are required to be accessible for persons with disabilities under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), including additional accommodations to be made available upon request of any person who requires alternately formatted materials, auxiliary aids, or other accommodations.
An evaluation plan to document and communicate the impact of the program to the public.
Permitting: All activations supported through this grant must secure any required permits independently, as permitting is a separate process from this grant program. Receiving a grant does not guarantee permit approval. Grantees are responsible for applying for and obtaining the appropriate permits for their project. For more information about permit requirements and how to apply, please go here.

Considerations and Priorities

Projects that include some or all of the these elements will be prioritized:

Location:

Priority will be given to activations that occur or include the following neighborhoods: Mattapan, Roxbury, Dorchester, Hyde Park, East Boston, and Chinatown.

Public participation / co-creation:

Going beyond the public as an audience and strategically building opportunities for the public to contribute to the vision, creation, and enjoyment of the activation.

Youth participation and training:

Integrating outcomes for young people (ages 14 to 24) into the activation, facilitating opportunities for young people to inform and lead work, including opportunities to learn specific skills or gain career exposure.

Partnerships and Collaborations:

Authentic partnerships and collaboration that bring communities into conversation and cross-neighborhood collaboration with each other.

What this does not fund:

Due to limited funding and the goal to partner with a diverse range of arts stakeholders, the following are ineligible for this grant:
- Previous Neighborhood and Downtown Activation Grantees who received over $20,000 in total (former name)
- Recipients of the FY25 Opportunity Fund – individual artists and cultural workers may apply for both the Opportunity Fund and NAG, but if selected, they can only receive funding from one.
Fundraising events, advertising, or any activity that is primarily for the commercial benefit of one entity
Inherently religious programming
Ticketed events that have an entry fee (ticketed free events are eligible)
Other foundations or grant-giving organizations
Events that have taken place prior to July 7, 2025
Employees of the City of Boston

Evaluation and Reporting Requirements

Once the activation(s) proposed is complete, grantee partners will be asked to complete a brief final report form, as well as a survey about the grant process. This will allow MOAC to improve our grantmaking processes in the future to better support community work. Grantees may be required to meet with the Grants + Programs team periodically.

APPLICATION PROCESS AND TIMELINE

The application is available on Submittable here. Funds will support activations starting after July 7, 2025 and take place before July 1, 2026. Grants over $10,000 will be disbursed in at least 2 installments with the full amount distributed no later than August 2025.

A condensed application process is as follows:

Submit application via Submittable
Review of application by the Grant Review Committee
Final approval based on Grant Review Committee review process

Application Support

The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture will host two virtual office hours for applicants to discuss the NAG and its application. Office hours will be held on the following dates and times (dates include links to the office hour):

Due Dates

The deadline to apply for this grant is May 8, 2025 by 5:00 p.m. Applications submitted after 5:00 p.m. on May 8, 2025 will not be accepted. A member of MOAC will inform all applicants on the status of their application within 8 weeks of the due date. If approved, payment can take up to 30 days to process.

Grant Review Committee

MOAC is committed to implementing transparent, equitable and inclusive grantmaking practices, including the way we determine and distribute funding. The Grant Review Committee (GRC) is a diverse cohort across age, race, cultural backgrounds, professional and lived experiences, artists and community members, ability, gender identity, and more. It is comprised of MOAC staff members and community members, positioning community members as decision makers on systems and structures that ultimately have the power to shape their lives and the well-being of their communities.

Review Application Questions

Applications will be accepted through the application below. If you would like to review application questions, you can see a PDF version of them below. Please be sure to read through the grant description in its entirety before applying, including criteria and project priorities, to assess if your activation proposal is a good fit for this grant program.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS

We use Submittable to accept and review our submissions.

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