About Take Note Colorado:
The goal of Take Note is to provide all K-12 students in Colorado access to musical instruments and instruction. Many students lack access to music instruction because of financial barriers or racial and social inequities in music instruction. By providing resources that advance innovative and equitable approaches to music instruction, Take Note seeks to ensure that all students in Colorado experience the power of music making. We privilege efforts that are highly inclusive, student-centered and culturally responsive.
Grant Program Overview:
The Take Note Colorado grant program is a responsive, competitive opportunity for individuals and organizations statewide to offer highly inclusive, culturally relevant and student-centered music instruction. Individuals and organizations can apply for up to $10,000 to develop programming that meets Take Note’s goal.
Strong applications will:
- Demonstrate a clear and valid understanding of a population that lacks access to music and the economic, social, racial, geographic or other reasons for this lack of access;
- Demonstrate a clear understanding of the needs and perspectives of the students served;
- Identify a specific challenge and opportunity to advance equity in music education;
- Propose to fill a specific gap with highly innovative, inclusive and culturally relevant programming that can be shown in the application to be responsive to student interest;
- Demonstrate staff and organizational experience in providing instruments and instruction to diverse communities in impactful and sustainable ways;
- Include an evaluation plan to understand whether or not the project succeeded in increasing access (Who was impacted by the program and how do you know?);
- Involve staff and partners who can connect with and relate to students served;
- Emphasize sustained music making and other experiential approaches to music instruction;
- Conduct programming impactfully online or by following current public health guidelines for in-person activities.
We also look for proposals that have strong community partnerships, plans for sustainability beyond Take Note funding, and responsible and realistic budgeting. See our Guidelines and FAQs for more information on eligible and ineligible requests.
Grant Guidelines:
The TNC grant program is designed to help achieve Take Note’s goal of providing access to musical instruments and/or instruction to all K-12 students in Colorado. We are looking for individuals and organizations statewide that can offer highly innovative and equitable music instruction to students in Colorado who currently and regularly lack access.
Basic Eligibility
- Individuals, nonprofits and music instruction businesses that serve or can serve students throughout Colorado, except Denver County. Denver is served by Take Note through the Denver Music Advancement Fund. See FAQ for more clarification.
Applications will not be considered for:
- General operating support for normal business activities.
- Professional development or training that does not result directly in instruction to students.
- Instruments without instruction.
- Activities that enhance music instruction for students who already receive it, unless the enhancements specifically expand participation to groups who lack access.
- Performance fees or tickets to music performances not tied to a program that expands access.
- Private lessons.
Applicant Eligibility
- Teaching artists, nonprofit music providers, library districts, municipalities or quasi-governmental entities, creative districts, and music businesses are eligible to apply.
- Schools (private and public) and school districts are ineligible. Representatives from schools and school districts with ideas on how to deliver equitable and innovative music instruction should contact Take Note directly. Please direct inquiries to info@takenotecolorado.org.
- Providers working with schools should include a letter of support from the appropriate representative of the school or district outlining the specific commitment of the school or district.
Timing of the Grant
- The 2020 grant round will open in September; we expect to open the first grant round will open in October.
- Funds may be requested for activities happening within 12 months of the grant opening date.
Support Types
- Funds should cover access to instruments and instruction to students, including music making technology and fees for providing instruction.
- Funds cannot be used for non-music equipment.
- Overhead, including transportation costs, to deliver the program must be essential to the program and not incidental operational costs.
FAQs:
1. What counties or regions in Colorado are eligible for grant funding?
We seek proposals that can serve communities throughout the state, especially in rural and otherwise underserved communities. However, because Take Note partners with Denver Arts and Venues through its Denver Music Advancement Fund to support our work in Denver county, applicants from Denver county are ineligible unless they are providing services outside of Denver county. Nonprofits, teaching artists and other providers statewide are eligible. If you're providing services in Denver county, apply for funds through the Denver Music Advancement Fund.
2. I want to apply on behalf of a school. Am I eligible for funding?
No. Take Note works directly with school districts statewide to advance our goals. This grant program is for non-school based providers, such as nonprofits, teaching artists, and other instrument and instruction providers.
3. Do I need to speak to the COVID-19 pandemic in my application?
Yes. Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, applicants must also address how programs will be executed to follow state and local public health guidelines. Virtual programs should explain the expertise, experience, and technology needed to teach online, as well as student access to internet and computer hardware. In-person activities must address public health guidelines and how activities will be adjusted if more restrictive public health orders are mandated during the funded program. Please reference your county’s health orders. Please address how students served and program impacts may change if a program transitions from in-person to online.
4. Are there other opportunities besides the grant program for funding through Take Note?
The Take Note Colorado Grant Program is the only funding mechanism we have currently. We partner with and fund school districts, community-based organizations, musicians, businesses, and other entities based on learnings from prior year partnerships and the unique needs of each district, county, and region. We consistently evolve our approach to ensure that Take Note is effective in increasing equitable access to musical instruments and instruction for Colorado students. Beyond the grant program, we do not accept unsolicited requests for funding.
Apply:
The application for the Take Note Colorado Grant Program opens in the fall of 2020. We will announce the official date shortly. Please review the Guidelines and FAQs above before applying. Log in below or create a new profile to access the application. For more information about Take Note Colorado, please visit our website.
This is a call to artists, institutions, musicians, organizations and community members to respond to this moment with what you have been working on, working through, thinking about, or wanting to offer.
As people, in this moment of physical separation, we are existing untethered to institutional space but rather exploring or confronting deeply personal space, unexamined space, a space of shelter and separation. Checking In seeks to offer a platform to present the work of our communities during these challenging times of economic collapse, social injustice, health crises and global uncertainties. Checking In connects ideas with resources, people with partners, performance with platforms. In form, it will follow the form of a progressive dinner where partners, programs and exhibitions will be added within the three-month timeframe.
And yet, our creative and cultural communities are never static and within this pandemic, as communities, we have been checking in; we are calling, texting, tweeting, posting, video conferencing, protesting, advocating or retreating. In this moment of spatial collapse, we are building virtual communities that bypass or dismiss walls, boundaries, or geographic limitations. We are living beyond institutions and shaping civic and human-centered space. We have been both slowing down and speeding up, but always creating or making space for what can heal vs. harm, build vs. destroy, accommodate vs. require.
This is a call for action, and call for art, a call for content, a call to communities to check-in and share what we have not been able to share but would like a way to share, express, offer or exchange.
Partners & Partner Spaces List:
Access Gallery
Alto Gallery (offering an exhibition)
Armory
Art Students League of Denver (Courtyard, Exterior Spaces)
Black Cube (tbd)
Bonfils-Stanton Foundation (offering a installation window)
Boulder Creative Collective
Boulder Museum Of Contemporary Art
Center for Visual Arts
Cleo Parker Robinson Dance (Offer a wall for a mural)
Colorado Photographic Art Center
Denver Theatre District (Night Lights equipment on the D&F Tower & potentially LEDs)
Museo De Las Americas
Metropolitan State University - Department of Philosophy
New Genres Collective x Koko Bayer
Odessa Nomadic
Old Market Street Station: 16th -18th & Blake Street
Parking Lot: 4890 Zuni; Zuni 49 LLC
Privately owned/Public Studio: 6th & Gilpin Street
Privately owned Garden: Curtis Street (for sculpture)
Privately owned Garden: York Street (for sculpture / installation / or performance)
Rafferty Gardens Porch
RedLine (group exhibition in main exhibition hall)
Rocky Mountain Land Library
Salon Rosalee (offering a window installation)
Slam Nuba
Suchitra Mattai Studio
S*Park Sustainable Living: Exhibition Space & Outdoor Sculpture & Indoor Mural
Tilt West (virtual platform)
The Temple
Understudy
York 38 LLC
Submissions will be paired will be recommended to partner spaces based on space resource, please allocate your space preference in your submission and a community-led process will do our best to pair artist with space preference and logistics.
The Colorado Artist Relief Fund is a collaboration between multiple arts organizations and funders working at state, regional, and local levels. The fund will pool private and public funding to be administered through RedLine. Current partners in this developing initiative include Arts & Venues through the IMAGINE 2020 Artist Assistance Fund, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Colorado Creative Industries, and RedLine. Individuals, foundations or organizations will be able to contribute to the Colorado Artist Relief Fund at: https://www.redlineart.org/colorado-artist-relief-fund.
Foundations or corporations interested in partnering on this initiative should contact louise.martorano@redlineart.org.
The fund will continue to provide grants of up to $1,000 to individual artists who live in Colorado who are experiencing immediate unforeseen emergency needs due to COVID-19, and whose incomes are being adversely affected due to cancellation of events, classes, performances, and other creative work. Grants will be made on a rolling basis.
Funding will be made available for artists that have ongoing creative endeavors through multiple disciplines including visual, digital, film, music, performing, teaching, etc. This program will prioritize lower-income artists and artists who have no other source of income.
Grants are open to artists who need assistance with basic expenses such as food, rent, medical costs, childcare; or who need additional funding to develop skills, applications, or equipment that will allow them to transition their income-generating practices to online or virtual platforms and practices. These grants can be used for, but are not limited to:
1. Recouping financial losses due to cancelled events:
- Performances in all performing arts disciplines
- Work in creative disciplines
- Readings, panels, and speaking opportunities
2. Reimbursement for travel expenses related to creative work that was paid for by the artist including:
- Attending conferences and convenings that have been cancelled
- Artist Residencies
- Touring
3. Offsetting loss of income for teaching artists who could not teach during this time because of cancelled classes and school closures
4. Offsetting the cost of transitioning in-person income-generating artistic endeavors to virtual or online platforms (eg. the purchase of equipment or software that would allow teaching artists to provide lessons online).
Requirements:
- Supporting documentation will be required on the application
Timeline:
- Denver Arts & Venues in partnership with the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs, RedLine and Colorado Creative Industries will review applications on a rolling basis, each week
- Once an application is received, you will receive notification once your application has been reviewed and processed.
- A personal W-9 from the grantee will be required to process payment
For questions, please contact Louise Martorano, Executive Director, RedLine, louise.martorano@redlineart.org
The Colorado Music Relief Fund was launched on May 21, 2020 and is accepting applications.
If you have already applied for the fund but have not yet heard back regarding a funding decision, please bear with us. We are still reviewing applications and are going through them in the order that they are received.
ABOUT THE FUND:
The Colorado Music Relief Fund is a collaborative effort across sectors, with steering committee members from 7S Management, The Bee Vradenburg Foundation, The Bohemian Foundation, Colorado Creative Industries - Division of OEDIT, Colorado Music Hall of Fame, Colorado State University, Energize Colorado, KBCO, KSUT, The Marigold Project, RedLine, and more. On Saturday, May 30, 2020, at 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM MT, The Colorado Music Relief Fund (CMRF) will launch with a virtual event ‘Banding Together: A Concert for the Colorado Music Relief Fund,’ presented by Breckenridge Brewery, to generate much-needed relief funds to help all those in the Colorado music industry affected by COVID-19.
Additional Resources
Musicians and music industry workers residing in El Paso and Teller Counties can also apply through the Bee Vradenburg Foundation
The Colorado Music Relief Fund provides grants of up to $1,000 to musicians and music industry workers (lighting, recording, security, transportation, management, etc.) who live in Colorado, who are experiencing immediate unforeseen emergency needs due to COVID-19, and whose incomes have been adversely affected due to cancellation of concerts, events, classes, performances, and other creative work.
Grants are made on a rolling basis.
The Colorado Music Relief Fund prioritizes lower-income musicians and music industry workers who have no other source of income.
Eligibility:
Grants are open to musicians and music industry workers who have lost more than 25% of their weekly income due to COVID-19 closures, and who need assistance with basic expenses such as food, rent, medical costs, childcare.
These grants can be used for, but are not limited to:
1. Offsetting loss of income due to cancelled concerts, events, and performances
2. Offsetting loss of income for teaching musicians who could not teach during this time because of cancelled classes and school closures
Requirements:
- Documentation of lost income (cancellation notices, or email documentation of cancellations or lost work) will be required on the application
- W9 for individual/applicant will be required to disburse grant funds.
Timeline:
- Due to high volume of applications, notifications will include our best estimate of the current payment disbursement schedule. We are focused on disbursing funds as fast as possible to respond to the urgent needs.
For questions, please contact Louise Martorano, Executive Director, RedLine, louise.martorano@redlineart.org