Rural Arts Initiative Grant Program

The Rural Arts Initiative Grant Program, established by the Laura Jane Musser Fund, aims to support nonprofit arts organizations in rural communities. The program encourages access to the arts through scholarships, community engagement, and innovative activities. Priority is given to organizations located in areas with populations under 20,000, ensuring that artistic opportunities are available to both adults and children. Applications are accepted for one year of funding, with potential for up to three consecutive years.

Laura Jane Musser  was born June 4, 1916, the child of Drew Musser and Sarah "Sally" Walker Musser. She lived in Little Falls, MN all of her life at the family home, Linden Hill. Upon her death in 1989 at the age of 73, The Laura Jane Musser came into being to continue on with some of her interests in life, including the arts and helping children, as expressed in the guidelines.
General Operating Support Program
In recognition of Laura Jane Musser's life-long commitment to excellence in the arts, and with awareness that pivotal and life-changing experience can occur for individuals through introduction to and participation in the arts, the Laura Jane Musser Fund hopes to encourage and excite a wider population to appreciate, learn, and participate in the arts.
The Musser Fund hopes to assist nonprofit arts organizations in rural communities to develop, implement or sustain exceptional artistic opportunities for adults and children in the areas of literary, visual, music, and performing arts.
Priority is placed on organizations that:
Increase access to the arts through scholarships, hands-on activities, community venues, workshops, discounts and other innovations;Demonstrate capacity to engage their community in the creation of art;Demonstrate support from their community (through volunteerism, membership, in-kind, or other types of support).
Grantees that request second and third years of support will be asked to report on their progress toward the goals they articulated in their previous year's application, especially in the following areas:

• Increasing access to their services;Increasing their organizational sustainability;Increasing support from their community.

Eligibility

Organizations that meet all of the following criteria are eligible for support:

• Arts organizations that are physically located in rural communities with populations of less than 20,000; Nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations;

Organizations that have been in existence for at least one year at the time of application.Arts organizations with organizational budgets less than $350,000ARTS organizations must be physically located in rural communities (population 15,000 or less) in the following geographic areas:Colorado (All counties)Hawaii (All counties)Wyoming (All counties)New York (Delaware, Greene, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan, and Ulster counties)North Carolina Mountains Region (Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Clay, Cherokee, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, and Yancey counties)Texas  Rio Grande River Valley (Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, and Willacy counties), Deep East Texas (Angelina, Houston, Jasper, Nacogdoches, Newton, Polk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Shelby, Trinity, and Tyler counties), and the Brazos Valley (Brazos, Burleson, Grimes, Leon, Madison, Robertson, and Washington counties)Applications are accepted for one year of funding at a time.It is possible for organizations to apply for and receive funding for up to three consecutive years.

Ineligibility

Grantees may not reapply for funding for at least one year after three consecutive years of funding.What Will Not Be Funded:
Capital Campaigns; Arts Festivals and Conferences.The Laura Jane Musser Fund does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations.