WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue student organizations and campus offices are eligible to apply for grants in order to sponsor substance-free events and activities during this year’s Grand Alternative, which will take place April 19-26, 2009.

The Drug-Free Coalition of Tippecanoe County has awarded $5,483.50 to the Office of the Dean of Students for mini-grants to help offset the costs for organizations hosting substance-free events during the annual event, said Carol E. Ben-Davies, assistant dean of students.

The Grand Alternative was conceived in 1998 when Steve Cain, a campus minister at the Wesley Foundation, initiated a communitywide coalition of student groups with the goal of celebrating the Grand Prix safely and without alcohol. Grand Alternative got its official start in 1999 with a grant from the Coalition for a Safe and Drug-Free Tippecanoe County.

The Grand Alternative is a collaboration between the Office of the Dean of Students, Student Wellness Office, Division of Recreational Sports and the Wesley Foundation.

All recognized student organizations in good standing are invited to apply for the mini-grants.

There will be two informational meetings to explain the application process. A representative of any interested organization must attend one of the sessions. The first will be offered at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday (Jan. 21) in Stewart Center, Room 314, and the second will be offered at 5:30 p.m. Thursday (Jan. 22) in Stewart Center, Room 320.

Grant applications are available at http://www.getinvolved.purdue.edu/Community?action=viewOrgNewsItem&orgID=877&itemID=332 and need to be submitted by Feb. 13.

For information about the grants, the events or to include your Grand Alternative event in the official listing, contact Ben-Davies at (765) 494-4321 or sao@purdue.edu

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Tippecanoe Arts Federation (TAF) announces the awarding of nearly $187,000 in capital projects grants to six arts and cultural organizations in Tippecanoe and Montgomery counties. The grants were made possible through the generous gift from North Central Health Services, Inc. (NCHS), a medical services organization committed to addressing a wide range of health issues and to enhancing the quality of life for individuals, families and communities.

A grants award ceremony will be held at 2:30 PM on September 18, 2008, at the Wells Community Cultural Center, 638 North Street, Lafayette, and is free and open to the public.

This year’s recipients include the Lafayette Flute Choir, the Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, the Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette, Indiana Fiddlers’ Gathering, the Long Center for Performing Arts, and the Montgomery County Cultural Foundation.

TAF Executive Director Tetia Lee commented, “TAF is proud to be able to once again distribute these grants on behalf of NCHS. It’s significant to note that this year’s funding represents the millionth dollar made available to local arts by NCHS. The capital projects funded this year will enable these organizations to increase their capacity and to deliver enhanced programming and services to our local communities.”

For more information, contact TAF at 765-423-2787 or visit www.tippecanoearts.org.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The Indiana Arts Commission (IAC) announced today the implementation of a new regional funding formula designed to more equitably distribute public arts funding throughout the state.

“This new funding formula was developed with the input of all 12 of our Regional Arts Partners, and represents their joint recommendations,” explained Lewis C. Ricci, IAC executive director. “The purpose was to adjust our regional block grant distributions in such a way to more fairly reflect the geographic size and population of each region, as well as its unique cultural needs.”

Early this year the Regional Arts Partners formed a taskforce to tackle the problem of under-funding in some of the more rural IAC regions. The primary challenge was to redistribute the available funds – regardless of any future changes in the IAC’s budget allocations.

“The Regional Arts Partners all agreed some regions were severely under-funded,” said Jeff Kuehl, chair of the Regional Arts Partner Consortium and Regional Coordinator for the Columbus Area Arts Council. “With the limited funds available the Partners knew some regions could experience a modest reduction in their block grant, but they also recognized that for the future health of the partnership initiative and the cultural interests of all 92 counties, something needed to be done to level the arts funding in Indiana.”

Recommended jointly by the 12 Regional Arts Partners and ratified by the Indiana Arts Commission at its June meeting in Fort Wayne, the new funding formula is almost totally based on region population as documented by the U.S. Census.

“The Regional Arts Partners really took the initiative in trying to resolve this issue knowing that in some cases it could mean a slight funding reduction to some regions,” Ricci said. “The Partners agreed that a more equitable funding formula was not only needed, but should be maintained regardless of what may happen with state budget allocations.”

The resulting formula will be applied each year based on available state funding for the Regional Block Grant. The new regional funding formula will be introduced in stages to allow for a period of budget adjustment. Fifty percent of the funding change will occur in Fiscal Year 2010 (July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010) with 100 percent of the change taking place in Fiscal Year 2011.

For more information on the Regional Block Grant revisions, please visit: www.IN.gov/arts/3047.htm.
For more information about the Regional Arts Partnership, please visit www.IN.gov/arts.

The Tippecanoe Arts Federation is the Region IV Arts Partner. Region IV serves 14 surrounding counties. Activities of the Tippecanoe Arts Federation are provided, in part, with support from the Indiana Arts Commission, a state agency, with funds from the Indiana General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Grant proposals that address needs in the areas of children’s music education, children’s needs, and community beautification are being accepted at The Community Foundation of Greater Lafayette from now until noon on Tuesday September 2, 2008. Not-for-profits serving the Tippecanoe County area are encouraged to apply. For information, go to www.cfglaf.org or call (765) 742-9078.

For projects benefiting “Music Education for Disadvantaged Youth”, $8,500 is available for grants in 2008. In 2007, grant awards from the Louisa Lee France Endowment funded $1,400 in music lesson scholarships (Children’s Music Foundation, Inc.) and $2,000 for piano tuning and repair (also at Children’s Music Foundation, Inc.)

For projects benefiting or addressing “Children’s Needs” a total of $7,500 is available for grants in 2008. 2007 grant awards from the Fund for Children’s Needs were awarded to:

• $350, spring break theatre classes, Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette.
• $2,100, membership fees, uniform pieces, and troop start-up money for 100 Hispanic girls as well as funds for participation in a Piñata Party and Fiesta Camp, Girl Scouts of Central Indiana.
• $5,000, Systems of Care flex fund for small, one-time expenses impacting seriously emotionally disturbed children, Wabash Valley Hospital Department of Child & Adolescent Services.

A total of $2,300 is available for the 2008 grant cycle for “Community Beautification”.

This is the first year for grant awards from the Virginia B. Huth Fund and the George and Betty DeVault Fund.

The Community Foundation of Greater Lafayette is a nonprofit public charity established in 1970 to inspire, nurture, and practice philanthropy, stewardship, and leadership in the communities we serve. Additional grant opportunities are also available through The Community Foundation. For further information or to access a grant proposal application, visit www.cfglaf.org, call (765) 742-9078 or e-mail to info@cfglaf.org.